arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Donato Bini.
We study the vacuum C-metric and its physical interpretation in terms of the exterior spacetime of a uniformly accelerating spherically - symmetric gravitational source. Wave phenomena on the linearized C-metric background are investigated. It is shown that the scalar perturbations of the linearized C-metric correspond to the gravitational Stark effect. This effect is studied in connection with the Pioneer anomaly.
In this paper we consider vacuum Kasner spacetimes, focusing on those that can be parametrized as linear perturbations of the special Petrov type D case. For these quasi-D Kasner models we first investigate the modification to the principal null directions, then a Teukolsky Master Equation for fields of any spin, considering in particular the quasi-D models as curvature perturbations of the type D background. Considering the speciality index and the principal null directions and comparing the results for the exact solutions and those for the perturbative ones, this simple Kasner example allows us to clarify that perturbed spacetime do not retain in general the speciality character of the background. There are four distinct principal null directions, although they are not necessarily first order perturbations of the background principal null directions, as our example of the quasi-D Kasner models shows. For the quasi-D Kasner models the use of a Teukolsky Master Equation, a classical tool for studying black hole perturbations, allows us to show, from a completely new point of view, the well known absence of gravitational waves in Kasner spacetimes. This result, used together with an explicit expression of the electric Weyl tensor in terms of Weyl scalars, provides an example of the fact that the presence of transverse curvature terms does not necessarily imply the presence of gravitational waves.
Modulo conventional scale factors, the Simon and Simon-Mars tensors are defined for stationary vacuum spacetimes so that their equality follows from the Bianchi identities of the second kind. In the nonvacuum case one can absorb additional source terms into a redefinition of the Simon tensor so that this equality is maintained. Among the electrovacuum class of solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell equations, the expression for the Simon tensor in the Kerr-Newman-Taub-NUT spacetime in terms of the Ernst potential is formally the same as in the vacuum case (modulo a scale factor), and its vanishing guarantees the simultaneous alignment of the principal null directions of the Weyl tensor, the Papapetrou field associated with the timelike Killing vector field, the electromagnetic field of the spacetime and even the Killing-Yano tensor.
The behaviour of a massless Dirac field on a general spacetime background representing two colliding gravitational plane waves is discussed in the Newman-Penrose formalism. The geometrical properties of the neutrino current are analysed and explicit results are given for the special Ferrari-Ibanez solution.
Recent simulations of force-free, degenerate (ffde) black hole magnetospheres indicate that the fast mode radiated from (or near) the event horizon can modify the global potential difference in the poloidal direction orthogonal to the magnetic field, V, in a black hole magnetosphere. There is a fundamental contradiction in a wave that alters V coming from near the horizon. The background fields in ffde satisfy the ``ingoing wave condition'' near the horizon (that arises from the requirement that all matter is ingoing at the event horizon), yet outgoing waves are radiated from this region in the simulation. Studying the properties of the waves in the simulations are useful tools to this end. It is shown that regularity of the stress-energy tensor in a freely falling frame requires that the outgoing (as viewed globally) waves near the event horizon are redshifted away and are ineffectual at changing V. It is also concluded that waves in massless MHD (ffde) are extremely inaccurate depictions of waves in a tenuous MHD plasma, near the event horizon, as a consequence black hole gravity. Any analysis based on ffde near the event horizon is seriously flawed.
A single master equation is given describing spin $s\le2$ test fields that are gauge- and tetrad-invariant perturbations of the Kerr-Taub-NUT spacetime representing a source with mass $M$, gravitomagnetic monopole moment $-\ell$ and gravitomagnetic dipole moment (angular momentum) per unit mass $a$. This equation can be separated into its radial and angular parts. The behavior of the radial functions at infinity and near the horizon is studied and used to examine the influence of $\ell$ on the phenomenon of superradiance, while the angular equation leads to spin-weighted spheroidal harmonic solutions generalizing those of the Kerr spacetime. Finally the coupling between the spin of the perturbing field and the gravitomagnetic monopole moment is discussed.
We study the motion of test particles and electromagnetic waves in the Kerr-Newman-Taub-NUT spacetime in order to elucidate some of the effects associated with the gravitomagnetic monopole moment of the source. In particular, we determine in the linear approximation the contribution of this monopole to the gravitational time delay and the rotation of the plane of the polarization of electromagnetic waves. Moreover, we consider "spherical" orbits of uncharged test particles in the Kerr-Taub-NUT spacetime and discuss the modification of the Wilkins orbits due to the presence of the gravitomagnetic monopole.
The historical origins of Fermi-Walker transport and Fermi coordinates and the construction of Fermi-Walker transported frames in black hole spacetimes are reviewed. For geodesics this transport reduces to parallel transport and these frames can be explicitly constructed using a Killing-Yano tensor as shown by Marck. For accelerated or geodesic circular orbits in such spacetimes, both parallel and Fermi-Walker transported frames can be given, and allow one to study circular holonomy and related clock and spin transport effects. In particular the total angle of rotation that a spin vector undergoes around a closed loop can be expressed in a factored form, where each factor is due to a different relativistic effect, in contrast with the usual sum of terms decomposition. Finally the Thomas precession frequency is shown to be a special case of the simple relationship between the parallel transport and Fermi-Walker transport frequencies for stationary circular orbits.
Test particle geodesic motion is analysed in detail for the background spacetimes of the degenerate Ferrari-Ibanez colliding gravitational wave solutions. Killing vectors have been used to reduce the equations of motion to a first order system of differential equations which have been integrated numerically. The associated constants of the motion have also been used to match the geodesics as they cross over the boundary between the single plane wave and interaction zones.
Parallel transport around closed circular orbits in the equatorial plane of the Taub-NUT spacetime is analyzed to reveal the effect of the gravitomagnetic monopole parameter on circular holonomy transformations. Investigating the boost/rotation decomposition of the connection 1-form matrix evaluated along these orbits, one finds a situation that reflects the behavior of the general orthogonally transitive stationary axisymmetric case and indeed along Killing trajectories in general.
A new version of the Teukolksy Master Equation, describing any massless field of different spin $s=1/2,1,3/2,2$ in the Kerr black hole, is presented here in the form of a wave equation containing additional curvature terms. These results suggest a relation between curvature perturbation theory in general relativity and the exact wave equations satisfied by the Weyl and the Maxwell tensors, known in the literature as the de Rham-Lichnerowicz Laplacian equations. We discuss these Laplacians both in the Newman-Penrose formalism and in the Geroch-Held-Penrose variant for an arbitrary vacuum spacetime. Perturbative expansion of these wave equations results in a recursive scheme valid for higher orders. This approach, apart from the obvious implications for the gravitational and electromagnetic wave propagation on a curved spacetime, explains and extends the results in the literature for perturbative analysis by clarifying their true origins in the exact theory.
Stationary axisymmetric spacetimes containing a pair of oppositely-rotating periodically-intersecting circular geodesics allow the study of various so-called `clock effects' by comparing either observer or geodesic proper time periods of orbital circuits defined by the observer or the geodesic crossing points. This can be extended from a comparison of clocks to a comparison of parallel transported vectors, leading to the study of special elements of the spacetime holonomy group. The band of holonomy invariance found for a dense subset of special geodesic orbits outside a certain radius in the static case does not exist in the nonstatic case. In the Kerr spacetime the dimensionless frequencies associated with parallel transport rotations can be expressed as ratios of the proper and average coordinate periods of the circular geodesics.
The Cotton-York and Simon-Mars tensors in stationary vacuum spacetimes are studied in the language of the congruence approach pioneered by Hawking and Ellis. Their relationships with the Papapetrou field defined by the stationary Killing congruence and with a recent characterization of the Kerr spacetime in terms of the alignment between of the principal null directions of the Weyl tensor with those of the Papapetrou field are also investigated in this more transparent language.
The numerous ways of introducing spatial gravitational forces are fit together in a single framework enabling their interrelationships to be clarified. This framework is then used to treat the ``acceleration equals force" equation and gyroscope precession, both of which are then discussed in the post-Newtonian approximation, followed by a brief examination of the Einstein equations themselves in that approximation.
Everyday experience with centrifugal forces has always guided thinking on the close relationship between gravitational forces and accelerated systems of reference. Once spatial gravitational forces and accelerations are introduced into general relativity through a splitting of spacetime into space-plus-time associated with a family of test observers, one may further split the local rest space of those observers with respect to the direction of relative motion of a test particle world line in order to define longitudinal and transverse accelerations as well. The intrinsic covariant derivative (induced connection) along such a world line is the appropriate mathematical tool to analyze this problem, and by modifying this operator to correspond to the observer measurements, one understands more clearly the work of Abramowicz et al who define an ``optical centrifugal force'' in static axisymmetric spacetimes and attempt to generalize it and other inertial forces to arbitrary spacetimes. In a companion article the application of this framework to some familiar stationary axisymmetric spacetimes helps give a more intuitive picture of their rotational features including spin precession effects, and puts related work of de Felice and others on circular orbits in black hole spacetimes into a more general context.
The tools developed in a preceding article for interpreting spacetime geometry in terms of all possible space-plus-time splitting approaches are applied to circular orbits in some familiar stationary axisymmetric spacetimes. This helps give a more intuitive picture of their rotational features including spin precession effects, and puts related work of Abramowicz, de Felice, and others on circular orbits in black hole spacetimes into a more general context.
Arguments are made in favor of broadening the scope of the various approaches to splitting spacetime into a single common framework in which measured quantities, derivative operations, and adapted coordinate systems are clearly understood in terms of associated test observer families. This ``relativity of splitting formalisms" for fully nonlinear gravitational theory has been tagged with the name "gravitoelectromagnetism" because of the well known analogy between its linearization and electromagnetism, and it allows relationships between the various approaches to be better understood and makes it easier to extrapolate familiarity with one approach to the others. This is important since particular problems or particular features of those problems in gravitational theory are better suited to different approaches, and the present barriers between the proponents of each individual approach sometimes prevent the best match from occurring.
The gravitomagnetic clock effect and the Sagnac effect for circularly rotating orbits in stationary axisymmetric spacetimes are studied from a relative observer point of view, clarifying their relationships and the roles played by special observer families. In particular Semerák's recent characterization of extremely accelerated observers in terms of the two-clock clock effect is shown to be complemented by a similarly special property of the single-clock clock effect.