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Higher-order relativistic periastron advances and binary pulsars

1988; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 101; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/bf02828697

2037-4895

Thibault Damour, G. Schäeer,

High-pressure geophysics and materials

The contributions to the periastron advance of a system of two condensed bodies coming from relativistic dynamical effects of order higher than the usual first post-Newtonian (1PN) equations of motion are investigated. The structure of the solution of the orbital second post-Newtonian (2PN) equations of motion is given in a simple parametrized form. The contributions to the secular periastron advance, and to the period, of orbital 2PN effects are then explicitly worked out by using the Hamilton-Jacobi method. The spin-orbit contribution to the secular precession of the orbit in space is rederived in a streamlined way by making full use of Hamiltonian methods. These results are then applied to the theoretical interpretation of the observational data of pulsars in close eccentric binary systems. It is shown that the higher-order relativistic contributions are already of theoretical and astrophysical significance for interpreting the high-precision measurement of the secular periastron advance of PSR 1913+16 achieved by Taylor and coworkers. The case of extremely fast spinning (millisecond) binary pulsars is also discussed, and shown to offer an easier ground for getting new tests of general relativity, and/or, a direct measurement of the moment of inertia of a neutron star.