Post-Newtonian approximation in Maxwell-like form

Jeffrey D. Kaplan, David A. Nichols, and Kip S. Thorne
Phys. Rev. D 80, 124014 – Published 10 December 2009

Abstract

The equations of the linearized first post-Newtonian approximation to general relativity are often written in “gravitoelectromagnetic” Maxwell-like form, since that facilitates physical intuition. Damour, Soffel, and Xu (DSX) (as a side issue in their complex but elegant papers on relativistic celestial mechanics) have expressed the first post-Newtonian approximation, including all nonlinearities, in Maxwell-like form. This paper summarizes that DSX Maxwell-like formalism (which is not easily extracted from their celestial mechanics papers), and then extends it to include the post-Newtonian (Landau-Lifshitz-based) gravitational momentum density, momentum flux (i.e. gravitational stress tensor), and law of momentum conservation in Maxwell-like form. The authors and their colleagues have found these Maxwell-like momentum tools useful for developing physical intuition into numerical-relativity simulations of compact binaries with spin.

  • Received 18 August 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.124014

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Jeffrey D. Kaplan, David A. Nichols, and Kip S. Thorne

  • Theoretical Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

See Also

Momentum flow in black-hole binaries. I. Post-Newtonian analysis of the inspiral and spin-induced bobbing

Drew Keppel, David A. Nichols, Yanbei Chen, and Kip S. Thorne
Phys. Rev. D 80, 124015 (2009)

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Issue

Vol. 80, Iss. 12 — 15 December 2009

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