Leading-order gravitational time delay of massive particles by a moving Schwarzschild lens

TL;DR

This paper derives a new formula for the gravitational time delay of massive particles caused by a moving Schwarzschild black hole, revealing how lens motion affects particle travel times in weak gravitational fields.

Contribution

It provides the first analytical expression for the time delay of massive particles due to a moving Schwarzschild lens within the first post-Minkowskian approximation.

Findings

Radial motion towards the observer decreases particle travel time.

Radial motion away from the observer increases particle travel time.

The effect magnitude is evaluated for typical black holes.

Abstract

The leading-order gravitational time delay of relativistic neutral massive particles (e.g., neutrinos or high-energy cosmic-ray particles) caused by a moving Schwarzschild black hole with a constant radial velocity is investigated for the first time. On the basis of the equations of motion in the spacetime of the moving lens, we achieve a new unified formula for the travel times of relativistic massive and massless particles propagating from the source to the observer within the first post-Minkowskian approximation. The analytical form of the difference between the travel times of a relativistic massive particle and a light signal in this geometry, as well as that of two relativistic massive particles, is thus obtained in the weak-field and slow-motion limit. The influence of the radial lens motion on the leading-order Schwarzschild time delay of relativistic massive particles is then discussed. It is found that in the slow-motion limit, the radial lens motion towards the observer decreases the flight time of an ultrarelativistic massive particle, when compared with the case of no translational motion of the central body. Conversely, if the lens gets away from the detector radially under the same conditions, the propagation process of the particle will slow down and its flight time will thus increase in comparison with the Schwarzschild case. Finally, we analyze the magnitude of the full radial motion effect of the lens and evaluate the possibility of its astronomical detection by modeling three typical black holes as the lens respectively.