General Post-Newtonian Orbital Effects

Orbital motions have always been used to test gravitational theories which, from time to time, have challenged the then-dominant paradigms. This book provides a unified treatment for calculating a wide variety of orbital effects due to general relativity and modified models of gravity, to its first and second post-Newtonian orders, in full generality. It gives explicit results valid for arbitrary orbital configurations and spin axes of the sources, without a priori simplifying assumptions on either the orbital eccentricity or inclination. These general results apply to a range of phenomena, from Earth's artificial satellites to the S-stars orbiting the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Centre to binary and triple pulsars, exoplanets, and interplanetary probes. Readers will become acquainted with working out a variety of orbital effects other than the time-honoured perihelion precession, designing their own space-based tests, performing effective sensitivity analyses, and assessing realistic error budgets.

'This book provides a wonderful and very detailed guide for those interested in comparing observations with Einstein's theory and the many proposed alternatives. Written in a very readable and accessible manner, it is an indispensable guide to comparing theoretical gravitational predictions with the most recent data coming from celestial observations provided by satellites, space probes, and telescopes. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in a very practical handbook for comparing theory and observations.' Jim Isenberg, Professor Emeritus, University of Oregon

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