We have developed a method to study the effects of a perturbation to the motion of a test point--like object in a Schwarzschild spacetime. Such a method is the extension of the Lagrangian planetary equations of classical celestial mechanics into the framework of the full theory of general relativity. The method provides a natural approach to account for relativistic effects in the unperturbed problem in an exact way.
We present an analysis of the behaviour at late-times of linear field perturbations of a Schwarzschild black hole space-time. In particular, we give explicit analytic expressions for the field perturbations (for a specific multipole) of general spin up to the first four orders at late times. These expressions are valid at arbitrary radius and include, apart from the well-known power-law tail decay at leading order ($sim t^{-2ell-3}$), a new logarithmic behaviour at third leading order ($sim t^{-2ell-5}ln t$). We obtain these late-time results by developing the so-called MST formalism and by expanding the various MST Fourier-mode quantities for small frequency. While we give explicit expansions up to the first four leading orders (for small-frequency for the Fourier modes, for late-time for the field perturbation), we give a prescription for obtaining expressions to arbitrary order within a `perturbative regime.
We describe a special class of ballistic geodesics in Schwarzschild space-time, extending to the horizon in the infinite past and future of observer time, which are characterized by the property that they are in 1-1 correspondence, and completely degenerate in energy and angular momentum, with stable circular orbits. We derive analytic expressions for the source terms in the Regge-Wheeler and Zerilli-Moncrief equations for a point-particle moving on such a ballistic orbit, and compute the gravitational waves emitted during the infall in an Extreme Mass Ratio black-hole binary coalescence. In this way a geodesic description for the plunge phase of compact binaries is obtained.
We analytically investigate the spin-1 quasinormal mode frequencies of Schwarzschild black hole space-time. We formally determine these frequencies to arbitrary order as an expansion for large imaginary part (i.e., large-n, where n is the overtone number). As an example of the practicality of this formal procedure, we explicitly calculate the asymptotic behaviour of the frequencies up to order $n^{-5/2}$.
We revisit a little known theorem due to Beltrami, through which the integration of the geodesic equations of a curved manifold is accomplished by a method which, even if inspired by the Hamilton-Jacobi method, is purely geometric. The application of this theorem to the Schwarzschild and Kerr metrics leads straightforwardly to the general solution of their geodesic equations. This way of dealing with the problem is, in our opinion, very much in keeping with the geometric spirit of general relativity. In fact, thanks to this theorem we can integrate the geodesic equations by a geometrical method and then verify that the classical conservation laws follow from these equations.
In previous works we have studied spin-3/2 fields near 4-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes. The techniques we developed in that case have now been extended here to show that it is possible to determine the potential of spin-3/2 fields near $D$-dimensional black holes by exploiting the radial symmetry of the system. This removes the need to use the Newman-Penrose formalism, which is difficult to extend to $D$-dimensional space-times. In this paper we will derive a general $D$-dimensional gauge invariant effective potential for spin-3/2 fields near black hole systems. We then use this potential to determine the quasi-normal modes and absorption probabilities of spin-3/2 fields near a $D$-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole.