Modeling most of the tests of general relativity requires to know the function relating light travel time to the coordinate time of reception and to the spatial coordinates of the emitter and the receiver. We call such a function the reception time transfer function. Of course, an emission time transfer function may as well be considered. We present here a recursive procedure enabling to expand each time transfer function into a perturbative series of ascending powers of the Newtonian gravitational constant $G$ (general post-Minkowskian expansion). Our method is self-sufficient, in the sense that neither the integration of null geodesic equations nor the determination of Synge's world function are necessary. To illustrate the method, the time transfer function of a three-parameter family of static, spherically symmetric metrics is derived within the post-linear approximation.
In 2002, Poujade and Blanchet succeeded in matching the post-Newtonian solution to the Einstein field equation to the post-Minkowskian field up to any arbitrary order as well as reproducing, in a different way, the results of the 1998 paper by Blanchet in which he showed how to match the post-Minkowskian series to the post-Newtonian expansion. Comparing these two papers, it might be asked whether it is possible to match the post-Newtonian field to the post-Minkowskian one by means of a method similar to the one used in the 1998 paper. The answer is affirmative, and in the present paper we prov…
We compute the variation of the Fokker-Wheeler-Feynman total linear and angular momentum of a gravitationally interacting binary system under the second post-Minkowskian retarded dynamics. The resulting $O(G^2)$ equations-of-motion-based, total change in the system's angular momentum is found to agree with existing computations that assumed balance with angular momentum fluxes in the radiation zone.
The harmonic metric for a moving Kerr black hole is presented in the second post-Minkowskian approximation. It is further demonstrated that the obtained metric is consistent with the Liénard-Wiechert gravitational potential for a moving and spinning source with an arbitrary constant velocity. Based on the metric, we also give the post-Newtonian equations of motion for photon and massive test particle in the time-dependent gravitational field.
The energy of a compact binary system at the fifth post-Newtonian order is explicitly computed in the post-Minkowskian approximation by means of the Effective Field Theory approach. This result allows to determine, for the first time beyond the test particle limit, one coefficient of the energy expression for binary point masses on circular orbit as a function of the orbital angular frequency.
We derive the second-order post-Minkowskian solution for the small-deflection motion of test particles in the external field of the Kerr-Newman black hole via an iterative method. The analytical results are exhibited in the coordinate system constituted by the particles' initial velocity unit vector, impact vector, and their cross-product. The achieved formulas explicitly give the dependences of the particles' trajectory and velocity on the time once their initial position and velocity are specified, and can be applied not only to a massive particle, but also to a photon as well.
New structural properties of post-Minkowskian (PM) gravity are derived, notably within its effective one body (EOB) formulation. Our results concern both the mass dependence, and the high-energy behavior, of the classical scattering angle. We generalize our previous work by deriving, up to the fourth post-Minkowskian (4PM) level included, the explicit links between the scattering angle and the two types of potentials entering the Hamiltonian description of PM dynamics within EOB theory. We compute the scattering amplitude derived from quantizing the third post-Minkowskian (3PM) EOB radial pote…
The Hamiltonian for a system of relativistic bodies interacting by their gravitational field is found in the post-Minkowskian approximation, including all terms linear in the gravitational constant. It is given in a surprisingly simple closed form as a function of canonical variables describing the bodies only. The field is eliminated by solving inhomogeneous wave equations, applying transverse-traceless projections, and using the Routh functional. By including all special relativistic effects our Hamiltonian extends the results described in classical textbooks of theoretical physics. As an ap…
We introduce a new methodology for deriving the conservative dynamics of gravitationally interacting binary systems. Our approach combines, in a novel way, several theoretical formalisms: post-Newtonian, post-Minkowskian, multipolar-post-Minkowskian, gravitational self-force, and effective one-body. We apply our method to the derivation of the fifth post-Newtonian dynamics. By restricting our results to the third post-Minkowskian level, we give the first independent confirmation of the recent result of Bern {\it et al.} [Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.\ {\bf 122}, 201603 (2019)]. We also offer checks for f…
A novel approach to the Effective One-Body description of gravitationally interacting two-body systems is introduced. This approach is based on the post-Minkowskian approximation scheme (perturbation theory in G, without assuming small velocities), and employs a new dictionary focussing on the functional dependence of the scattering angle on the total energy and the total angular momentum of the system. Using this approach, we prove to all orders in v/c two results that were previously known to hold only to a limited post-Newtonian accuracy: (i) the relativistic gravitational dynamics of a two…
A novel approach for extracting gauge-invariant information about spin-orbit coupling in gravitationally interacting binary systems is introduced. This approach is based on the "scattering holonomy", i.e. the integration (from the infinite past to the infinite future) of the differential spin evolution along the two worldlines of a binary system in hyperboliclike motion. We apply this approach to the computation, at the first post-Minkowskian approximation (i.e. first order in $G$ and all orders in $v/c$), of the values of the two gyrogravitomagnetic ratios describing spin-orbit coupling in th…
In this paper, we introduce PoMiN, a lightweight $N$-body code based on the post-Minkowskian $N$-body Hamiltonian of Ledvinka et. al., which includes general relativistic effects up to first order in Newton's constant $G$, and all orders in the speed of light $c$. PoMiN is written in C and uses a fourth-order Runge-Kutta integration scheme. PoMiN has also been written to handle an arbitrary number of particles (both massive and massless), with a computational complexity that scales as $O(N^2)$. We describe the methods we used to simplify and organize the Hamiltonian, and the tests we performed…
We revisit the problem of the equations of motion of a system of $N$ self-interacting massive particles (without spins) in the first post-Minkowskian (1PM) approximation of general relativity. We write the equations of motion, gravitational field and associated conserved integrals of the motion in a form suitable for comparison with recently published post-Newtonian (PN) results at the 4PN order. We show that the Lagrangian associated with the equations of motion in harmonic coordinates is a generalized one, and compute all the terms linear in $G$ up to 5PN order. We discuss the Hamiltonian in…
We consider gravitational massive scalar-scalar scattering from unitarity and demonstrate how intermediate soft graviton behavior and the concept of extracting classical physics from localization of integrands on velocity cuts devise an efficient extraction scheme for computing the classical post-Minkowskian radial action perturbatively. We demonstrate the computational efficiency by deriving the scattering amplitudes in the probe regime to the fifth post-Minkowskian order in arbitrary dimensions.
Conservative binary dynamics to third post-Minkowskian order beyond General Relativity
School of Physics & Shing-Tung Yau Center, Southeast University（东南大学物理学院及施雅天中心）；Niels Bohr International Academy & Center of Gravity, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学尼尔斯·玻尔研究所尼尔斯·玻尔国际学院及引力中心）
The post-Minkowskian approach to gravitationally interacting binary systems ({\it i.e.}, perturbation theory in $G$, without assuming small velocities) is extended to the computation of the dynamical effects induced by the tidal deformations of two extended bodies, such as neutron stars. Our derivation applies general properties of perturbed actions to the effective field theory description of tidally interacting bodies. We compute several tidal invariants (notably the integrated quadrupolar and octupolar actions) at the first post-Minkowskian order. The corresponding contributions to the scat…
We compute the metric fluctuations induced by a turbulent energy-matter tensor within the first order Post-Minkowskian approximation. It is found that the turbulent energy cascade can in principle interfere with the process of black hole formation, leading to a potentially strong coupling between these two highly nonlinear phenomena. It is further found that a power-law turbulent energy spectrum $E(k) \sim k^{-n}$ generates metric fluctuations scaling like $x^{n-2}$, where $x$ is a four-dimensional distance from an arbitrary origin in spacetime. This highlights the onset of metric singularitie…
The post-Newtonian and post-Minkowskian solutions for the motion of binary mass systems in gravity can be derived in terms of momentum expansions within effective field theory approaches. In the post-Minkowskian approach the expansion is performed in the ratio $G_N/r$, retaining all velocity terms completely, while in the post-Newtonian approach only those velocity terms are accounted for which are of the same order as the potential terms due to the virial theorem. We show that it is possible to obtain the complete post-Minkowskian expressions completely algorithmically, under most general pur…
Recently, the gravitational scattering of two black holes (BHs) treated at the leading order in the weak-field, or post-Minkowskian (PM), approximation to General Relativity has been shown to map bijectively onto a simpler effectively one-body process: the scattering of a test BH in a stationary BH spacetime. Here, for BH spins aligned with the orbital angular momentum, we propose a simple extension of that mapping to 2PM order. We provide evidence for the validity and utility of this 2PM mapping by demonstrating its compatibility with all known analytical results for the conservative local-in…
The post-Minkowskian limit and gravitational wave solutions for general fourth-order gravity theories are discussed. Specifically, we consider a Lagrangian with a generic function of curvature invariants $f(R, R_{αβ}R^{αβ}, R_{αβγδ}R^{αβγδ})$. It is well known that when dealing with General Relativity such an approach provides massless spin-two waves as propagating degree of freedom of the gravitational field while this theory implies other additional propagating modes in the gravity spectra. We show that, in general, fourth order gravity, besides the standard massless graviton is characterize…
We address the problem of deriving the post-Minkowskian approximation, widely used in current gravitational wave literature by investigating a possible deduction out of the recursive Nöther coupling approach, from the Pauli-Fierz spin-2 theory in flat spacetime. We find that this approach yields the post-Minkowskian approximation correctly to the first three orders, without invoking any weak-field limit of general relativity. This connection thus establishes that the post-Minkowskian approximation has a connotation independent of a weak-field expansion of general relativity, which is the manne…
We describe the computation of post-Minkowskian Hamiltonians in General Relativity from scattering amplitudes. Using a relativistic Lippmann-Schwinger equation, we relate perturbative amplitudes of massive scalars coupled to gravity to the post-Minkowskian Hamiltonians of classical General Relativity to any order in Newton's constant. We illustrate this by deriving an Hamiltonian for binary black holes without spin up to 2nd order in the post-Minkowskian expansion and demonstrate explicitly the equivalence with the recently proposed method based on an effective field theory matching.
We obtain the total impulse in the scattering of non-spinning binaries in general relativity at fourth Post-Minkowskian order, i.e. ${\cal O}(G^4)$, including linear, nonlinear, and hereditary radiation-reaction effects. We derive the total radiated spacetime momentum as well as the associated energy flux. The latter can be used to compute gravitational-wave observables for generic (un)bound orbits. We employ the ("in-in") Schwinger-Keldysh worldline effective field theory framework in combination with modern "multi-loop" integration techniques from collider physics. The complete results are i…
Analytical Time-Domain Waveforms for Black-Hole Scattering in the Post-Minkowskian Expansion
Institut de Physique Théorique, CNRS, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay（理论物理研究所，法国国家科学研究中心，法国原子能与替代能源委员会，巴黎萨克雷大学）；Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques（高等科学研究所）
We present the amplitude for classical scattering of gravitationally interacting massive scalars at third post-Minkowskian order. Our approach harnesses powerful tools from the modern amplitudes program such as generalized unitarity and the double-copy construction, which relates gravity integrands to simpler gauge-theory expressions. Adapting methods for integration and matching from effective field theory, we extract the conservative Hamiltonian for compact spinless binaries at third post-Minkowskian order. The resulting Hamiltonian is in complete agreement with corresponding terms in state-…
The aim of this note is to describe the computation of post-Minkwoskian Hamiltonians in modified theories of gravity. Exploiting a recent relation between amplitudes of massive scalars and Hamiltonians for relativistic point-particles, we define a post-Minkowskian potential at second order in Newton's constant arising from $\mathcal{R}^3$ modifications in General Relativity. Using this result we calculate the associated contribution to the scattering angle for binary black holes at second post-Minkowskian order, showing agreement in the non relativistic limit with previous results for the bend…
Tools from scattering amplitudes and effective field theory have recently been repurposed to derive state-of-the-art results for the black hole binary inspiral in the post-Minkowskian expansion. In the present work we extend this approach to include the tidal effects of mass and current quadrupoles on the conservative dynamics of non-spinning neutron star mergers. We compute the leading and, for the first time, next-to-leading order post-Minkowskian finite size corrections to the conservative Hamiltonian, together with their associated scattering amplitudes and scattering angles. Our expressio…
Gravitational Compton scattering at the fourth post-Minkowskian order
Scuola Normale Superiore（比萨高等师范学院）；INFN Sezione di Pisa（意大利国家核物理研究所比萨分部）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Padova（帕多瓦大学物理与天文学系）；INFN, Sezione di Padova（意大利国家核物理研究所帕多瓦分部）；Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学希格斯理论物理中心）
High precision astrometry, space missions and certain tests of General Relativity, require the knowledge of the metric tensor of the solar system, or more generally, of a gravitational system of N extended bodies. Presently, the metric of arbitrarily shaped, rotating, oscillating and arbitrarily moving N bodies of finite extension is only known for the case of slowly moving bodies in the post-Newtonian approximation, while the post-Minkowskian metric for arbitrarily moving celestial objects is known only for pointlike bodies with mass-monopoles and spin-dipoles. As one more step towards the ai…
Post-Minkowskian expansion of the Prompt Response in a Schwarzschild background
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（Perimeter理论物理研究所）；CENTRA, Departamento de Fisica, Instituto Superior Técnico – IST, Universidade de Lisboa – UL（里斯本大学高等技术学院物理系CENTRA）
Self-consistent Effective-one-body theory for spinless binaries based on post-Minkowskian approximation I: Hamiltonian and decoupled equation for $ψ^B_{4}$
We compute to high post-Newtonian accuracy the 4-momentum (linear momentum, and energy), radiated as gravitational waves in a two-body system undergoing gravitational scattering. We include, for the first time, all the relevant {\it time-asymmetric} effects that arise when consistently going three post Newtonian orders beyond the leading post Newtonian order. We find that the inclusion of time-asymmetric radiative effects (both in tails and in the radiation-reacted hyperbolic motion) is crucial to ensure the mass-polynomiality of the post-Minkowskian expansion ($G$ expansion) of the radiated 4…
We compute the rotations, during a scattering encounter, of the spins of two gravitationally interacting particles at second-order in the gravitational constant (second post-Minkowskian order). Following a strategy introduced in Phys. Rev. D {\bf 96}, 104038 (2017), we transcribe our result into a correspondingly improved knowledge of the spin-orbit sector of the Effective One-Body (EOB) Hamiltonian description of the dynamics of spinning binary systems. We indicate ways of resumming our results for defining improved versions of spinning EOB codes which might help in providing a better analyti…
We compute the conservative dynamics of non-spinning binaries at fourth Post-Minkowskian order in the large-eccentricity limit, including both potential and radiation-reaction tail effects. This is achieved by obtaining the scattering angle in the worldline effective field theory approach and deriving the bound radial action via analytic continuation. The associated integrals are bootstrapped to all orders in velocities through differential equations, with boundary conditions in the potential and radiation regions. The large angular momentum expansion captures all the local-in-time effects as …
We demonstrate equivalences, under simple mappings, between the dynamics of three distinct systems---(i) an arbitrary-mass-ratio two-spinning-black-hole system, (ii) a spinning test black hole in a background Kerr spacetime, and (iii) geodesic motion in Kerr---when each is considered in the first post-Minkowskian (1PM) approximation to general relativity, i.e. to linear order $G$ but to all orders in $1/c$, and to all orders in the black holes' spins, with all orders in the multipole expansions of their linearized gravitational fields. This is accomplished via computations of the net results o…
We compute the scattering amplitude for classical black-hole scattering to third order in the Post-Minkowskian expansion, keeping all terms needed to derive the scattering angle to that order from the eikonal formalism. Our results confirm a conjectured relation between the real and imaginary parts of the amplitude by Di Vecchia, Heissenberg, Russo, and Veneziano, and are in agreement with a recent computation by Damour based on radiation reaction in general relativity.
Using the spinning worldline quantum field theory formalism we calculate the quadratic-in-spin momentum impulse $Δp_i^μ$ and spin kick $Δa_i^μ$ from a scattering of two arbitrarily oriented spinning massive bodies (black holes or neutron stars) in a weak gravitational background up to third post-Minkowskian (PM) order ($G^3$). Two-loop Feynman integrals are performed in the potential region, yielding conservative results. For spins aligned to the orbital angular momentum we find a conservative scattering angle that is fully consistent with state-of-the-art post-Newtonian results. Using the 2PM…
Nonlocal-in-time tail effects in gravitational scattering to fifth Post-Minkowskian and tenth self-force orders
II. Institute for Theoretical Physics, Hamburg University（汉堡大学第二理论物理研究所）；Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zürich（苏黎世联邦理工学院理论物理研究所）；School of Physics and Shing-Tung Yau Center, Southeast University（东南大学物理学院暨陈省身数学中心）；Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY（德国电子同步加速器）
