Self-force and radiation reaction in general relativity
Abstract
[Abridged] This review surveys the theory of gravitational self-force in curved spacetime and its application to the gravitational two-body problem in the extreme-mass-ratio regime. We first lay the relevant formal foundation, describing the rigorous derivation of the equation of self-forced motion using matched asymptotic expansions and other ideas. We then review the progress that has been achieved in numerically calculating the self-force and its physical effects in the astrophysical scenario of a compact object inspiralling into a (rotating) massive black hole. We highlight the way in which, nowadays, self-force calculations make a fruitful contact with other approaches to the two-body problem and help inform an accurate universal model of binary black hole inspirals, valid across all mass ratios. We conclude with a summary of the state of the art, open problems and prospects. Our review is aimed at non-specialist readers and is for the most part self-contained and non-technical; only elementary-level acquaintance with General Relativity is assumed. Where useful, we draw on analogies with familiar concepts from Newtonian gravity or classical electrodynamics.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1805.10385,
title = {Self-force and radiation reaction in general relativity},
author = {Leor Barack and Adam Pound},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.10385},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
79 pages, 11 figures; invited by Reports on Progress in Physics. v2 contains minor corrections and it is the published version