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Shant Khlghatyan

Publications and source records attributed to Shant Khlghatyan.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

PPN--spin degeneracies in mock S62-like stellar-orbit inference

We investigate the degeneracies between black hole (BH) spin effects and parametrized post-Newtonian (PPN) parameters in the relativistic orbital dynamics of S2-like and S62-like stars orbiting Sagittarius A$^{\ast}$. Using a 1PN+SO Hamiltonian framework and synthetic astrometric and radial velocity datasets, we perform Bayesian parameter inference. For current baseline observational precisions, the dominant relativistic observable--the Schwarzschild periapsis advance--allows the recovery of the effective precession parameter $Υ$, while leaving the individual PPN parameters $γ$ and $β$ degenerate. Assuming microarcsecond-level astrometric precision, the spin-induced Lense-Thirring signal becomes partially detectable; fixing the PPN sector to General Relativity allows the BH spin magnitude to be constrained to an uncertainty of $\sim10^{-2}$. However, simultaneously varying PPN and spin parameters reveals a strong, approximately linear covariance between $Υ$ and the dimensionless spin parameter $χ$. To overcome this limitation, we demonstrate that joint multi-star inference can disentangle the degeneracy by combining a wider-orbit star, which constrains the dominant 1PN sector, with a compact relativistic orbit that is sensitive to Lense-Thirring frame dragging.

astro-ph.GA

The Orbital Lense-Thirring Precession in a Strong Field

We study the exact evolution of the orbital angular momentum of a massive particle in the gravitational field of a Kerr black hole. We show analytically that, for a wide class of orbits, the angular momentum's hodograph is always close to a circle. This applies to both bounded and unbounded orbits that do not end up in the black hole. Deviations from the circular shape do not exceed $\approx10\%$ and $\approx7\%$ for bounded and unbounded orbits, respectively. We also find that nutation provides an accurate approximation for those deviations, which fits the exact curve within $\sim 0.01\%$ for the orbits of maximal deviation. Remarkably, the more the deviation, the better the nutation approximates it. Thus, we demonstrate that the orbital Lense-Thirring precession, originally obtained in the weak-field limit, is also a valid description in the general case of (almost) arbitrary exact orbits. As a by-product, we also derive the parameters of unstable spherical timelike orbits as a function of their radii and arbitrary rotation parameter $a$ and Carter's constant $Q$. We verify our results numerically for all the kinds of orbits studied.

gr-qc