The Lagrange Equilibrium Points L_4 and L_5 in a Black Hole Binary System
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
2015-05-19 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Abstract
We calculate the location and stability of the L_4 and L_5 Lagrange equilibrium points in the circular restricted three-body problem as the binary system evolves via gravitational radiation losses. Relative to the purely Newtonian case, we find that the L_4 equilibrium point moves towards the secondary mass and becomes slightly less stable, while the L_5 point moves away from the secondary and gains in stability. We discuss a number of astrophysical applications of these results, in particular as a mechanism for producing electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave signals.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1006.0182,
title = {The Lagrange Equilibrium Points L_4 and L_5 in a Black Hole Binary System},
author = {Jeremy D. Schnittman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1006.0182},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJ; comments welcome