Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: We study the secular, hierarchical three-body problem to first-order in a post-Newtonian expansion of general relativity (GR).We expand the first-order post-Newtonian Hamiltonian to leading-order in the ratio of the semimajor axis of the two orbits.In addition to the well-known terms that correspond to the GR precession of the inner and outer orbits, we find a new secular post-Newtonian interaction term that can affect the long-term evolution of the triple.We explore the parameter space for highly inclined and eccentric systems, where the Kozai-Lidov mechanism can produce large-amplitude oscillations in the eccentricities.The standard lore, i.e., that GR effects suppress eccentricity, is only consistent with the parts of phase space where the GR timescales are several orders of magnitude shorter than the secular Newtonian one.In other parts of phase space, however, post-Newtonian corrections combined with the three-body ones can excite eccentricities.In particular, for systems where the GR timescale is comparable to the secular Newtonian timescales, the three-body interactions give rise to a resonant-like eccentricity excitation.Furthermore, for triples with a comparable-mass inner binary, where the eccentric Kozai-Lidov mechanism is suppressed, post-Newtonian corrections can further increase the eccentricity and lead to orbital flips even when the timescale of the former is much longer than the timescale of the secular Kozai-Lidov quadrupole perturbations.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
Authors: Smadar Naoz, Bence Kocsis, Abraham Loeb, Nicolás Yunes
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G1390571956, Probing Strong Gravity with Gravitational Waves, G2039531031, G3561758408, WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF A NEW ERA IN ASTROPHYSICS AS A WORLD-WIDE EFFORT TO OBSERVE THE UNIVERSE WITH GRAVITATIONAL WAVES TAKES HOLD---GROUND BASED LA, Testing Accretion Physics and Strong-Field Gravity by Imaging Accreting Black Holes, G5058766606, G546331916, RESEARCH TITLE: LUNAR UNIVERSITY NODE FOR ASTROPHYSICS RESEARCH (LUNAR): EXPLORING THE COSMOS FROM THE MOON LUNAR WILL ADDRESS THE QUESTION: HOW, MODELING THE POWER SPECTRUM OF GALAXIES IN HIGH-REDSHIFT SURVEYSOUR GOAL IN THIS STUDY IS TO DEVELOP THE THEORETICAL TOOLS THAT WILL ALLOW US TO OBT
OpenAlex ID: W2045666801