Motion of Small Objects in Curved Spacetimes: An Introduction to Gravitational Self-Force

DOI10.1007/978-3-319-18335-0_13zbMATH Open1338.83012arXiv1506.06245OpenAlexW2950161106MaRDI QIDQ2804115FDOQ2804115

Adam Pound

Publication date: 27 April 2016

Published in: Fundamental Theories of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In recent years, asymptotic approximation schemes have been developed to describe the motion of a small compact object through a vacuum background to any order in perturbation theory. The schemes are based on rigorous methods of matched asymptotic expansions, which account for the object's finite size, require no "regularization" of divergent quantities, and are valid for strong fields and relativistic speeds. Up to couplings of the object's multipole moments to the external background curvature, these schemes have established that at least through second order in perturbation theory, the object's motion satisfies a generalized equivalence principle: it moves on a geodesic of a certain smooth metric satisfying the vacuum Einstein equation. I describe the foundations of this result, particularly focusing on the fundamental notion of how a small object's motion is represented in perturbation theory. The three common representations of perturbed motion are (i) the "Gralla-Wald" description in terms of small deviations from a reference geodesic, (ii) the "self-consistent" description in terms of a worldline that obeys a self-accelerated equation of motion, and (iii) the "osculating geodesics" description, which utilizes both (i) and (ii). Because of the coordinate freedom in general relativity, any coordinate description of motion in perturbation theory is intimately related to the theory's gauge freedom. In this review I describe asymptotic solutions of the Einstein equations adapted to each of the three representations of motion, and I discuss the gauge freedom associated with each. I conclude with a discussion of how gauge freedom must be refined in the context of long-term dynamics.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1506.06245

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Equations of motion in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C10) Applications of differential geometry to physics (53Z05) Approximation procedures, weak fields in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C25) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to relativity and gravitational theory (83-02)

Cited In (10)

• The motion of small bodies in space-time
• Conservative scattering of Reissner-Nordström black holes at third post-Minkowskian order
• Scattering of two spinning black holes in post-Minkowskian gravity, to all orders in spin, and effective-one-body mappings
• Spin and quadrupole couplings for high spin equatorial intermediate mass-ratio coalescences
• Hyperboloidal framework for the Kerr spacetime
• Gravitational scattering and beyond from extreme mass ratio effective field theory
• Particle-without-particle: a practical pseudospectral collocation method for linear partial differential equations with distributional sources
• Hamiltonian formulation of the conservative self-force dynamics in the Kerr geometry
• Multipolar particles in helically symmetric spacetimes
• Gravitational waves from plunges into Gargantua

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