  The multipolar-post-Minkowskian approach to gravitational radiation is
applied to the problem of the generation of waves by the compact binary
inspiral. We investigate specifically the third post-Newtonian (3PN)
approximation in the total energy flux. The new results are the computation of
the mass quadrupole moment of the binary to the 3PN order, and the current
quadrupole and mass octupole to the 2PN order. Wave tails and tails of tails in
the far zone are included up to the 3.5PN order. The recently derived 3PN
equations of binary motion are used to compute the time-derivatives of the
moments. We find perfect agreement to the 3.5PN order with perturbation
calculations of black holes in the test-mass limit for one body. Technical
inputs in our computation include a model of point particles for describing the
compact objects, and the Hadamard self-field regularization. Because of a
physical incompleteness of the Hadamard regularization at the 3PN order, the
energy flux depends on one unknown physical parameter, which is a combination
of a parameter \lambda in the equations of motion, and a new parameter \theta
coming from the quadrupole moment.
