Celestial mechanics in Kerr spacetime

The dynamical parameters conventionally used to specify the orbit of a test particle in Kerr spacetime are the energy $E$, the axial component of the angular momentum, $L_{z}$, and Carter's constant $Q$. These parameters are obtained by solving the Hamilton-Jacobi equation for the dynamical problem of geodesic motion. Employing the action-angle variable formalism, on the other hand, yields a different set of constants of motion, namely, the fundamental frequencies $\omega_{r}$, $\omega_{\theta}$ and $\omega_{\phi}$ associated with the radial, polar and azimuthal components of orbital motion. These frequencies, naturally, determine the time scales of orbital motion and, furthermore, the instantaneous gravitational wave spectrum in the adiabatic approximation. In this article, it is shown that the fundamental frequencies are geometric invariants and explicit formulas in terms of quadratures are derived. The numerical evaluation of these formulas in the case of a rapidly rotating black hole illustrates the behaviour of the fundamental frequencies as orbital parameters such as the semi-latus rectum $p$, the eccentricity $e$ or the inclination parameter $\theta_{-}$ are varied. The limiting cases of circular, equatorial and Keplerian motion are investigated as well and it is shown that known results are recovered from the general formulas.Comment: 25 pages (LaTeX), 5 figures, submitted to Class. Quantum Gra

Intermediate and extreme mass-ratio inspirals — astrophysics, science applications and detection using LISA

Black hole binaries with extreme (gtrsim104:1) or intermediate (~102–104:1) mass ratios are among the most interesting gravitational wave sources that are expected to be detected by the proposed laser interferometer space antenna (LISA). These sources have the potential to tell us much about astrophysics, but are also of unique importance for testing aspects of the general theory of relativity in the strong field regime. Here we discuss these sources from the perspectives of astrophysics, data analysis and applications to testing general relativity, providing both a description of the current state of knowledge and an outline of some of the outstanding questions that still need to be addressed. This review grew out of discussions at a workshop in September 2006 hosted by the Albert Einstein Institute in Golm, Germany

A Note on Celestial Mechanics in Kerr Spacetime

The Hamilton-Jacobi equation for test particles in the Kerr geometry is separable. Using action-angle variables, we establish several relations between various physical quantities that characterize bound timelike geodesic orbits around a spinning black hole, including the particle's rest mass, energy, angular momentum, mean redshift and fundamental frequencies. These relations are explicitly checked to hold true in the particular case of equatorial circular orbits. An application to the gravitational wave-driven, adiabatic inspiral of extreme-mass-ratio compact binaries is briefly discussed.Comment: 7 pages; matches version to appear in Class. Quant. Gra

Slowly Rotating Black Holes in Dynamical Chern-Simons Gravity: Deformation Quadratic in the Spin

We derive a stationary and axisymmetric black hole solution to quadratic order in the spin angular momentum. The previously found, linear-in-spin terms modify the odd-parity sector of the metric, while the new corrections appear in the even-parity sector. These corrections modify the quadrupole moment, as well as the (coordinate-dependent) location of the event horizon and the ergoregion. Although the linear-in-spin metric is of Petrov type D, the quadratic order terms render it of type I. The metric does not possess a second-order Killing tensor or a Carter-like constant. The new metric does not possess closed timelike curves or spacetime regions that violate causality outside of the event horizon. The new, even-parity modifications to the Kerr metric decay less rapidly at spatial infinity than the leading-order in spin, odd-parity ones, and thus, the former are more important when considering black holes that are rotating moderately fast. We calculate the modifications to the Hamiltonian, binding energy and Kepler's third law. These modifications are crucial for the construction of gravitational wave templates for black hole binaries, which will enter at second post-Newtonian order, just like dissipative modifications found previously.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures; Typos correcte

The ergoregion in the Kerr spacetime: properties of the equatorial circular motion

We investigate in detail the circular motion of test particles on the equatorial plane of the ergoregion in the Kerr spacetime. We consider all the regions where circular motion is allowed, and we analyze the stability properties and the energy and angular momentum of the test particles. We show that the structure of the stability regions has definite features that make it possible to distinguish between black holes and naked singularities. The naked singularity case presents a very structured non-connected set of regions of orbital stability, where the presence of counterrotating particles and zero angular momentum particles for a specific class of naked singularities is interpreted as due to the presence of a repulsive field generated by the central source of gravity. In particular, we analyze the effects of the dynamical structure of the ergoregion (the union of the orbital regions for different attractor spins) on the behavior of accretion disks around the central source. The properties of the circular motion turn out to be so distinctive that they allow the introduction of a complete classification of Kerr spacetimes, each class of which is characterized by different physical effects that could be of especial relevance in observational Astrophysics. We also identify some special black hole spacetimes where these effects could be relevant.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figure multi-panels; 3 Tables. This and a slightly modified version with the addition of new references and some new discussion. To appear in EPJ