Constructing the Self-Force

DOI10.1007/978-90-481-3015-3_11zbMATH Open1213.83042arXiv0909.2994OpenAlexW1618291587MaRDI QIDQ2999504FDOQ2999504

Authors: Eric Poisson 

Publication date: 13 May 2011

Published in: Mass and Motion in General Relativity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: I present an overview of the methods involved in the computation of the scalar, electromagnetic, and gravitational self-forces acting on a point particle moving in a curved spacetime. For simplicity, the focus here will be on the scalar self-force. The lecture follows closely my review article on this subject published in Living Reviews in Relativity. I begin with a review of geometrical elements (Synge's world function, the parallel propagator). Next I introduce useful coordinate systems (Fermi normal coordinates and retarded light-cone coordinates) in a neighborhood of the particle's world line. I then present the wave equation for a scalar field in curved spacetime and the equations of motion for a particle endowed with a scalar charge. The wave equation is solved by means of a Green's function, and the self-force is constructed from the field gradient. Because the retarded field is singular on the world line, the self-force must involve a regularized version of the field gradient, and I describe how the regular piece of the self-field can be identified. In the penultimate section of the lecture I put the construction of the self-force on a sophisticated axiomatic basis, and in the concluding section I explain how one can do better by abandoning the dangerous fiction of a point particle

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0909.2994

Recommendations

• The gravitational self-force
• Self-force as probe of internal structure
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4209955
• The state of current self-force research
• Self-force: Computational Strategies
• Calculation of the self force using the extended-object approach
• Self-force in 2+1 electrodynamics
• On the Self-force in Electrodynamics and Implications for Gravity
• Derivation of gravitational self-force
• A rigorous derivation of gravitational self-force

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Equations of motion in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C10) Gravitational energy and conservation laws; groups of motions (83C40)

Cites Work

• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Radiation damping in a gravitational field
• A rigorous derivation of gravitational self-force
• Perspective on gravitational self-force analyses

Cited In (11)

• Radiation reaction of point particles in curved spacetime
• Self-force: Computational Strategies
• Quasilocal contribution to the scalar self-force: nongeodesic motion
• Mass change and motion of a scalar charge in cosmological spacetimes
• Effective source approach to self-force calculations
• The motion of point particles in curved spacetime
• Analytic reductions of self-force calculations in curved spacetimes
• Gauge dependence and self-force from Galilean to Einsteinian free fall, compact stars falling into black holes, Hawking radiation and the Pisa tower at the general relativity centennial
• Non-relativistic geodesic behaviors for a massive charged particle falling in de Sitter spacetime
• Scattering amplitudes for self-force
• Transition of EMRIs through resonance: Corrections to higher order in the on-resonance flux modification

This page was built for publication: Constructing the Self-Force

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2999504)