Precessions in Relativity

Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) provides the best available description of gravity. The recent detection of gravitational waves and the first picture of a black hole have provided spectacular confirmations of GR, as well as arousing substantial interest in topics related to gravitation. However, to understand present and future discoveries, it is convenient to look to the past, to the classical tests of GR, namely, the deflection of light by the Sun, the periheli...

In a geocentric kinematically rotating ecliptical coordinate system in geodesic motion through the deformed spacetime of the Sun, both the longitude of the ascending node $\Omega$ and the inclination $I$ of an artificial satellite of the spinning Earth are affected by the post-Newtonian gravitoelectric De Sitter and gravitomagnetic Lense-Thirring effects. By choosing a circular orbit with $I = \Omega = 90\deg$ for a potential new spacecraft, which we propose to name ELXIS, it...

We investigate qualitatively and quantitatively the impact of the general relativistic gravito-electromagnetic forces on hyperbolic orbits around a massive spinning body. The gravito-magnetic field, which is the cause of the well known Lense-Thirring precessions of elliptic orbits, is generated by the spin S of the central body. It deflects and displaces the trajectories differently according to the mutual orientation of S and the orbital angular momentum L of the test partic...

Rotation of a body, according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, generates a "force" on other matter; in Newton's gravitational theory only the mass of a body produces a force. This phenomenon, due to currents of mass, is known as gravitomagnetism owing to its formal analogies with magnetism due to currents of electric charge. Therefore, according to general relativity, Earth's rotation should influence the motion of its orbiting satellites. Indeed, we analysed the l...

The two gravitomagnetic effects which influence bodies orbiting around a gravitational source are the geodetic effect and the Lense-Thirring effect. The former describes the precession angle of the axis of a spinning gyroscope while in orbit around a nonrotating gravitational source whereas the latter provides a correction for this angle in the case of a spinning source. In this paper we derive the relevant equations in quadratic gravity and relate them to their equivalents i...

We numerically and analytically work out the first-order post-Newtonian (1pN) orbital effects induced on the semimajor axis $a$, the eccentricity $e$, the inclination $I$, the longitude of the ascending node $\Omega$, the longitude of perihelion $\varpi$, and the mean longitude at epoch $\epsilon$ of a test particle orbiting its primary, assumed static and spherically symmetric, by a distant massive third body X. For Mercury, the rates of change of the linear trends found are...

Kepler's orbits with corrections due to Special Relativity are explored using the Lagrangian formalism. A very simple model includes only relativistic kinetic energy by defining a Lagrangian that is consistent with both the relativistic momentum of Special Relativity and Newtonian gravity. The corresponding equations of motion are solved in a Keplerian limit, resulting in an approximate relativistic orbit equation that has the same form as that derived from General Relativity...

On November 23, 2021, the Einstein-Besso manuscript on the perihelion motion of Mercury will be auctioned at Christie's. Expected to fetch around $3M, it promises to be the most expensive scientific manuscript ever sold at auction. In this preprint, we present the parts of our forthcoming book, How Einstein Found His Field Equations. Sources and Interpretation (Springer, 2021) dealing with Einstein's attempts, in 1913 and in 1915, to account for the anomalous advance of Mercu...

We present a novel solution of the Mercury perihelion advance shift in the new gravity model. It is found that the non-relativistic reduction of the Dirac equation with the gravitational potential produces the new gravitational potential of $\displaystyle{V(r)=-{GMm\over r}+{G^2M^2m^2\over 2mc^2r^2}}$. This potential can explain the Mercury perihelion advance shift without any free parameters. Also, it can give rise to the $\omega-$shift of the GPS satellite where the advance...

C. M. Will in a recent Letter [arXiv:1802.05304] predicts a new Mercury's precession rate which is $100$ times larger than the second-post-Newtonian contribution, our calculation is about $30$ times larger. Thus the new Mercury's precession rate is about $6.4\ast 10^{-8}$, instead of $6.2\ast 10^{-8}$, degrees per century.