Two Body Dynamics in General Relativity

相对论性两体问题的动力学将在其中一个物体的质量比另一个大得多的极限下进行研究。这种极端质量比可以用解析法来处理，并且可以用来描述中子星星或类似物体与超大质量星系黑洞的相互作用。主要的问题是轨道的动力学稳定性和从螺旋到倾伏的转变。这应该有助于我们从轨道演化的最后阶段发出的引力波中提取信息。各种新的和现有的技术将得到发展和应用。两个质量在相互引力吸引下的演化是经典广义相对论中一个主要的悬而未决的问题。它直接关系到激光干涉引力波天文台（LIGO）的观测计划。轨道演化实际上是混沌的可能性有许多有趣的理论和观测结果。

The dynamics of the relativistic two-body problem will be studied inthe limit where one of the bodies is very much more massive than theother. The extreme mass ratio is amenable to analytic treatment, andcan be used to describe a neutron star or similar object interactingwith a super-massive galactic black hole. The primary questions to beaddressed concern the dynamical stability of the orbits and thetransition from inspiral to plunge. This should shed light on ourability to extract information from the gravitational waves emittedduring the final stages of the orbital evolution. A variety of newand existing techniques will be developed and applied.The evolution of two masses under their mutual gravitational attractionis a major outstanding problem in classical general relativity. It hasa direct bearing on the observational program of the Laser InterferometerGravitational wave Observatory (LIGO). The possibly that the orbitalevolution is effectively chaotic has a number of interesting theoreticaland observational consequences.