English

Post-Newtonian N-Body Dynamics in Extended Theories of Gravity

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-07-12 v1

Abstract

We derive the complete first post-Newtonian (1PN) Lagrangian and corresponding equations of motion for the relativistic NN-body system in Scalar-Tensor-Fourth-Order Gravity (STFOG), including the Non-Commutative Spectral Geometry (NCSG) sector as a special case. In the regime ΦΨ\Phi \sim \Psi (γ1\gamma \sim 1), the linearized fourth-order field equations are solved in the Standard Post-Newtonian gauge, and the variational Lagrangian is built directly from the point-particle action. The resulting dynamics is governed by three Yukawa functions ζ\zeta, W\mathcal{W} and Ξ\Xi, which encode the scalar, gravitomagnetic and three-body sectors and depend on the effective masses (mR,mY,mϕ)(m_R,m_Y,m_\phi) of the additional propagating modes. In this context, we show that the nonlinear metric component (4) ⁣g00{}^{(4)}\!g_{00} plays no role at 1PN level. The 1PN orbital motion of the above extended theories is thus obtained in closed form, and the Einstein--Infeld--Hoffmann equations are recovered in the corresponding general-relativistic limit. The formalism provides a common framework for the relativistic celestial mechanics of the Solar System, binary pulsars such as PSR J0737-3039, Galactic-center stellar orbits and triple systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.10889,
  title  = {Post-Newtonian N-Body Dynamics in Extended Theories of Gravity},
  author = {Antonio Tedesco},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.10889},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

19 pages; accepted for publication in The European Physical Journal C