Relativistic orbits with gravitomagnetic corrections

TL;DR

This paper investigates higher-order gravitomagnetic effects on relativistic orbits, revealing new nutation phenomena and conditions for chaotic behavior, extending classical orbital theories with numerical analyses.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of gravitomagnetic corrections to relativistic orbits, including a novel nutation effect and stability conditions in the weak field approximation.

Findings

Identification of a new nutation effect due to gravitomagnetic corrections

Chaotic orbital behavior depends on initial conditions

Numerical examples illustrating orbital stability and chaos

Abstract

Corrections to the relativistic orbits are studied considering higher order approximations induced by gravitomagnetic effects. We discuss in details how such corrections come out taking into account magnetic components in the weak field limit of gravitational field and then the theory of orbits is developed starting from the Newtonian one, the lowest order in the approximation. Finally, the orbital structure and the stability conditions are discussed giving numerical examples. Beside the standard periastron corrections of General Relativity, a new nutation effect is due to the c^{-3} corrections. The transition to a chaotic behavior strictly depends on the initial conditions. The orbital phase space portrait is discussed.