5,798 research outputs found
The relativistic precession of the orbits
The relativistic precession can be quickly inferred from the nonlinear polar
orbit equation without actually solving it.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc
Mars and frame-dragging: study for a dedicated mission
In this paper we preliminarily explore the possibility of designing a
dedicated satellite-based mission to measure the general relativistic
gravitomagnetic Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitational field of Mars. The
focus is on the systematic error induced by the multipolar expansion of the
areopotential and on possible strategies to reduce it. It turns out that the
major sources of bias are the Mars'equatorial radius R and the even zonal
harmonics J_L, L = 2,4,6... of the areopotential. An optimal solution, in
principle, consists of using two probes at high-altitudes (a\approx 9500-9600
km) and different inclinations, and suitably combining their nodes in order to
entirely cancel out the bias due to \delta R. The remaining uncancelled
mismodelled terms due to \delta J_L, L = 2,4,6,... would induce a bias \lesssim
1%, according to the present-day MGS95J gravity model, over a wide range of
admissible values of the inclinations. The Lense-Thirring out-of-plane shifts
of the two probes would amount to about 10 cm yr^-1.Comment: LaTex2e, 16 pages, 5 figures, no tables. To appear in General
Relativity and Gravitatio
Phenomenology of the Lense-Thirring effect in the Solar System
Recent years have seen increasing efforts to directly measure some aspects of
the general relativistic gravitomagnetic interaction in several astronomical
scenarios in the solar system. After briefly overviewing the concept of
gravitomagnetism from a theoretical point of view, we review the performed or
proposed attempts to detect the Lense-Thirring effect affecting the orbital
motions of natural and artificial bodies in the gravitational fields of the
Sun, Earth, Mars and Jupiter. In particular, we will focus on the evaluation of
the impact of several sources of systematic uncertainties of dynamical origin
to realistically elucidate the present and future perspectives in directly
measuring such an elusive relativistic effect.Comment: LaTex, 51 pages, 14 figures, 22 tables. Invited review, to appear in
Astrophysics and Space Science (ApSS). Some uncited references in the text
now correctly quoted. One reference added. A footnote adde
On the Lense-Thirring test with the Mars Global Surveyor in the gravitational field of Mars
I discuss some aspects of the recent test of frame-dragging performed by me
by exploiting the Root-Mean-Square (RMS) orbit overlap differences of the
out-of-plane component N of the orbit of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)
spacecraft in the gravitational field of Mars. A linear fit of the full time
series of the entire MGS data (4 February 1999-14 January 2005) yields a
normalized slope 1.03 +/- 0.41 (with 95% confidence bounds). Other linear fits
to different data sets confirm the agreement with general relativity. The huge
systematic effects induced by the mismodeling in the martian gravitational
field claimed by some authors are absent in the MGS out-of-plane record. The
non-gravitational forces affect at the same level of the gravitomagnetic one
the in-plane orbital components of MGS, not the out-of-plane one. Moreover,
they experience high-frequency variations which does not matter in the present
case in which secular effects are relevant.Comment: LaTex2e, 8 pages, no figures, no tables, 17 references. It refers to
K. Krogh, Class. Quantum Grav., 24, 5709-5715, 2007 based on
astro-ph/0701653. Final version to appear in CEJP (Central European Journal
of Physics
Gravitomagnetism and Relative Observer Clock Effects
The gravitomagnetic clock effect and the Sagnac effect for circularly
rotating orbits in stationary axisymmetric spacetimes are studied from a
relative observer point of view, clarifying their relationships and the roles
played by special observer families. In particular Semer\'ak's recent
characterization of extremely accelerated observers in terms of the two-clock
clock effect is shown to be complemented by a similarly special property of the
single-clock clock effect.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, IOP macros with package epsf and 1 eps figure, to
appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity, slight revisio
Solar system constraints on f(T) gravity
We use recent observations from solar system orbital motions in order to
constrain f(T) gravity. In particular, imposing a quadratic f(T) correction to
the linear-in-T form, which is a good approximation for every realistic case,
we extract the spherical solutions of the theory. Using these spherical
solutions to describe the Sun's gravitational field, we use recently determined
supplementary advances of planetary perihelia, to infer upper bounds on the
allowed f(T) corrections. We find that the maximal allowed divergence of the
gravitational potential in f(T) gravity from that in the teleparallel
equivalent of General Relativity is of the order of 6.2 \times 10^{-10}, in the
applicability region of our analysis. This is much smaller than the
corresponding (significantly small too) divergence that is predicted from
cosmological observations, as expected. Such a tiny allowed divergence from the
linear form should be taken into account in f(T) model building.Comment: 7 pages, no figures, version published in Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.So
Spiral galaxies rotation curves in the Horava - Lifshitz gravity theory
We focus on a modified version of Horava - Lifschitz theory and, in
particular, we consider the impact of its weak - field static spherically
symmetric limit on the galaxy dynamics. In a previous paper, we used the
modified gravitational potential obtained in this theory to evaluate the Milky
Way rotation curve using a spheroidal truncated power - law bulge and a double
exponential disc as the only sources of the gravitational field and showed that
the modified rotation curved is not in agreement with the data. Making a step
forward, we here include also the contribution from a dark matter halo in order
to see whether this helps fitting the rotation curve data. As a test case, we
consider a sample of spiral galaxies with smooth baryon matter distribution and
well measured circular velocity profiles. It turns out that, although a
marginal agreement with the data can be found, this can only be obtained if the
dark matter halo has an unrealistically small virial mass and incredibly large
concentration. Such results can be interpreted as a strong evidence against the
reliability of the gravitational potential obtained in the modified version of
Horava -Lifschitz theory that we consider.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, accepted for publication on MNRA
On the orbital and physical parameters of the HDE 226868/Cygnus X-1 binary system
In this paper we explore the consequences of the recent determination of the
mass m=(8.7 +/- 0.8)M_Sun of Cygnus X-1, obtained from the Quasi-Periodic
Oscillation (QPO)-photon index correlation scaling, on the orbital and physical
properties of the binary system HDE 226868/Cygnus X-1. By using such a result
and the latest spectroscopic optical data of the HDE 226868 supergiant star we
get M=(24 +/- 5)M_Sun for its mass. It turns out that deviations from the third
Kepler law significant at more than 1-sigma level would occur if the
inclination i of the system's orbital plane to the plane of the sky falls
outside the range 41-56 deg: such deviations cannot be due to the first
post-Newtonian (1PN) correction to the orbital period because of its smallness;
interpreted in the framework of the Newtonian theory of gravitation as due to
the stellar quadrupole mass moment Q, they are unphysical because Q would take
unreasonably large values. By conservatively assuming that the third Kepler law
is an adequate model for the orbital period we obtain i=(48 +/- 7) deg which
yields for the relative semimajor axis a=(42 +/- 9)R_Sun. Our estimate for the
Roche's lobe of HDE 226868 is r_M = (21 +/- 6)R_Sun.Comment: Latex2e, 7 pages, 1 table, 4 figures. To appear in ApSS (Astrophysics
and Space Science
On the energy-momentum tensor in non-commutative gauge theories
We study the properties of the energy-momentum tensor in non-commutative
gauge theories by coupling them to a weak external gravitational field. In
particular, we show that the stress tensor of such a theory coincides exactly
with that derived from a theory where a Seiberg-Witten map has been implemented
(namely, the procedure is commutative). Various other interesting features are
also discussed.Comment: 3 page
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