Gravity seminar - Kinwah Wu Seminar

Strongly interacting gravitational systems often show interesting dynamical phenomena. Finite-size spinning objects in gravity do not follow geodesics in the space-time manifold. A fast spinning neutron star or an orbiting neutron-star pair near a massive black hole would therefore exhibit complex spin and orbital behaviours. For the bound systems, spin-curvature coupling would lead to non-planar neutron-star orbits, in addition to de-Sitter and Lense-Thirring precessions of the neutron star's spin. The spin-orbit and orbit-orbit coupling would also induce gravito-magnetism, which manifests in the complex nutation and precession of the spinning stars and/or the orbital vector. Radio pulsar timing could reveal these complex relativistic dynamics. In this talk I will present my recent work on these subjects and show how we could use neutron star-black hole systems to study the fundamental aspects of general relativity and gravity theories.