11,383 research outputs found
Classical String in Curved Backgrounds
The Mathisson-Papapetrou method is originally used for derivation of the
particle world line equation from the covariant conservation of its
stress-energy tensor. We generalize this method to extended objects, such as a
string. Without specifying the type of matter the string is made of, we obtain
both the equations of motion and boundary conditions of the string. The world
sheet equations turn out to be more general than the familiar minimal surface
equations. In particular, they depend on the internal structure of the string.
The relevant cases are classified by examining canonical forms of the effective
2-dimensional stress-energy tensor. The case of homogeneously distributed
matter with the tension that equals its mass density is shown to define the
familiar Nambu-Goto dynamics. The other three cases include physically relevant
massive and massless strings, and unphysical tahyonic strings.Comment: 12 pages, REVTeX 4. Added a note and one referenc
Swimming in curved space or The Baron and the cat
We study the swimming of non-relativistic deformable bodies in (empty) static
curved spaces. We focus on the case where the ambient geometry allows for rigid
body motions. In this case the swimming equations turn out to be geometric. For
a small swimmer, the swimming distance in one stroke is determined by the
Riemann curvature times certain moments of the swimmer.Comment: 19 pages 6 figure
Spinning branes in Riemann-Cartan spacetime
We use the conservation law of the stress-energy and spin tensors to study
the motion of massive brane-like objects in Riemann-Cartan geometry. The
world-sheet equations and boundary conditions are obtained in a manifestly
covariant form. In the particle case, the resultant world-line equations turn
out to exhibit a novel spin-curvature coupling. In particular, the spin of a
zero-size particle does not couple to the background curvature. In the string
case, the world-sheet dynamics is studied for some special choices of spin and
torsion. As a result, the known coupling to the Kalb-Ramond antisymmetric
external field is obtained. Geometrically, the Kalb-Ramond field has been
recognized as a part of the torsion itself, rather than the torsion potential
Spinning test particles and clock effect in Schwarzschild spacetime
We study the behaviour of spinning test particles in the Schwarzschild
spacetime. Using Mathisson-Papapetrou equations of motion we confine our
attention to spatially circular orbits and search for observable effects which
could eventually discriminate among the standard supplementary conditions
namely the Corinaldesi-Papapetrou, Pirani and Tulczyjew. We find that if the
world line chosen for the multipole reduction and whose unit tangent we denote
as is a circular orbit then also the generalized momentum of the
spinning test particle is tangent to a circular orbit even though and
are not parallel four-vectors. These orbits are shown to exist because the spin
induced tidal forces provide the required acceleration no matter what
supplementary condition we select. Of course, in the limit of a small spin the
particle's orbit is close of being a circular geodesic and the (small)
deviation of the angular velocities from the geodesic values can be of an
arbitrary sign, corresponding to the possible spin-up and spin-down alignment
to the z-axis. When two spinning particles orbit around a gravitating source in
opposite directions, they make one loop with respect to a given static observer
with different arrival times. This difference is termed clock effect. We find
that a nonzero gravitomagnetic clock effect appears for oppositely orbiting
both spin-up or spin-down particles even in the Schwarzschild spacetime. This
allows us to establish a formal analogy with the case of (spin-less) geodesics
on the equatorial plane of the Kerr spacetime. This result can be verified
experimentally.Comment: IOP macros, eps figures n. 2, to appear on Classical and Quantum
gravity, 200
Self-forces on extended bodies in electrodynamics
In this paper, we study the bulk motion of a classical extended charge in
flat spacetime. A formalism developed by W. G. Dixon is used to determine how
the details of such a particle's internal structure influence its equations of
motion. We place essentially no restrictions (other than boundedness) on the
shape of the charge, and allow for inhomogeneity, internal currents,
elasticity, and spin. Even if the angular momentum remains small, many such
systems are found to be affected by large self-interaction effects beyond the
standard Lorentz-Dirac force. These are particularly significant if the
particle's charge density fails to be much greater than its 3-current density
(or vice versa) in the center-of-mass frame. Additional terms also arise in the
equations of motion if the dipole moment is too large, and when the
`center-of-electromagnetic mass' is far from the `center-of-bare mass' (roughly
speaking). These conditions are often quite restrictive. General equations of
motion were also derived under the assumption that the particle can only
interact with the radiative component of its self-field. These are much simpler
than the equations derived using the full retarded self-field; as are the
conditions required to recover the Lorentz-Dirac equation.Comment: 30 pages; significantly improved presentation; accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev.
Multipole structure of current vectors in curved spacetime
A method is presented which allows the exact construction of conserved (i.e.
divergence-free) current vectors from appropriate sets of multipole moments.
Physically, such objects may be taken to represent the flux of particles or
electric charge inside some classical extended body. Several applications are
discussed. In particular, it is shown how to easily write down the class of all
smooth and spatially-bounded currents with a given total charge. This
implicitly provides restrictions on the moments arising from the smoothness of
physically reasonable vector fields. We also show that requiring all of the
moments to be constant in an appropriate sense is often impossible; likely
limiting the applicability of the Ehlers-Rudolph-Dixon notion of quasirigid
motion. A simple condition is also derived that allows currents to exist in two
different spacetimes with identical sets of multipole moments (in a natural
sense).Comment: 13 pages, minor changes, accepted to J. Math. Phy
Innermost Stable Circular Orbit of a Spinning Particle in Kerr Spacetime
We study stability of a circular orbit of a spinning test particle in a Kerr
spacetime. We find that some of the circular orbits become unstable in the
direction perpendicular to the equatorial plane, although the orbits are still
stable in the radial direction. Then for the large spin case ($S < \sim O(1)),
the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) appears before the minimum of the
effective potential in the equatorial plane disappears. This changes the radius
of ISCO and then the frequency of the last circular orbit.Comment: 25 pages including 8 figure
Spin-squared Hamiltonian of next-to-leading order gravitational interaction
The static, i.e., linear momentum independent, part of the next-to-leading
order (NLO) gravitational spin(1)-spin(1) interaction Hamiltonian within the
post-Newtonian (PN) approximation is calculated from a 3-dim. covariant ansatz
for the Hamilton constraint. All coefficients in this ansatz can be uniquely
fixed for black holes. The resulting Hamiltonian fits into the canonical
formalism of Arnowitt, Deser, and Misner (ADM) and is given in their
transverse-traceless (ADMTT) gauge. This completes the recent result for the
momentum dependent part of the NLO spin(1)-spin(1) ADM Hamiltonian for binary
black holes (BBH). Thus, all PN NLO effects up to quadratic order in spin for
BBH are now given in Hamiltonian form in the ADMTT gauge. The equations of
motion resulting from this Hamiltonian are an important step toward more
accurate calculations of templates for gravitational waves.Comment: REVTeX4, 10 pages, v2: minor improvements in the presentation, v3:
added omission in Eq. (4) and corrected coefficients in the result, Eq. (9);
version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Dynamics of test bodies with spin in de Sitter spacetime
We study the motion of spinning test bodies in the de Sitter spacetime of
constant positive curvature. With the help of the 10 Killing vectors, we derive
the 4-momentum and the tensor of spin explicitly in terms of the spacetime
coordinates. However, in order to find the actual trajectories, one needs to
impose the so-called supplementary condition. We discuss the dynamics of
spinning test bodies for the cases of the Frenkel and Tulczyjew conditions.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex forma
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