Self-consistent orbital evolution of a particle around a Schwarzschild black hole

TL;DR

This paper presents the first fully self-consistent computation of the orbital evolution and waveforms of a scalar charged particle around a Schwarzschild black hole, overcoming previous limitations of fixed-trajectory assumptions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to compute self-consistent orbits and waveforms for a charged particle in curved spacetime, advancing beyond prior fixed-trajectory approaches.

Findings

First self-consistent orbital evolution around a Schwarzschild black hole

Generation of waveforms accounting for self-force effects

Demonstration of a new computational approach for self-force problems

Abstract

The motion of a charged particle is influenced by the self-force arising from the particle's interaction with its own field. In a curved spacetime, this self-force depends on the entire past history of the particle and is difficult to evaluate. As a result, all existing self-force evaluations in curved spacetime are for particles moving along a fixed trajectory. Here, for the first time, we overcome this long-standing limitation and present fully self-consistent orbits and waveforms of a scalar charged particle around a Schwarzschild black hole.