Abstract
For a test body orbiting an axisymmetric body in Newtonian gravitational theory with mass and multiple moments (and for a charge in orbit about a charge distribution with the same multipole moments) we show that there exists, in addition to the energy and angular momentum component along the symmetry axis, a conserved quantity analogous to the Carter constant of Kerr spacetimes for rotating black holes in general relativity, if the odd- moments vanish, and the even- moments satisfy . Strangely, this is precisely the relation among mass moments enforced by the no-hair theorems of rotating black holes. By contrast, if Newtonian gravity is supplemented by a multipolar gravitomagnetic field, whose leading term represents frame dragging, we are unable to find an analogous Carter-like constant. This further highlights the special nature of the Kerr geometry.
- Received 29 November 2008
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.061101
©2009 American Physical Society