McGill.CA / Science / Department of Physics
Informal Pizza Seminar

Radiation reaction in gravitating systems

Eric Poisson

University of Guelph

A radiating system loses energy and angular momemtum to the radiation, and the system experiences a radiation-reaction force. For a system of electric charges, the situation is well understood, and I will begin the talk with a description of this simple case. When an electric charge moves around a massive body, the description becomes more complicated, because the interaction between the gravitating body and the charge must be described within the framework of general relativity. I will explain this in the second part of the talk. When the electric charge is replaced by another massive body, the system no longer radiates electromagnetic waves; it radiates gravitational waves, and it is still subjected to a radiation-reaction force. I will describe this in the final part of the talk.

Monday, June 17th 2002, 12:15
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, room 326