Self-Force Corrections to the Periapsis Advance around a Spinning Black Hole

Abstract

The linear in mass ratio correction to the periapsis advance of equatorial nearly circular orbits around a spinning black hole is calculated for the first time and to a very high precision, providing a key benchmark for different approaches modeling spinning binaries. The high precision of the calculation is leveraged to discriminate between two recent incompatible derivations of the 4 post-Newtonian equations of motion. Finally, the limit of the periapsis advance near the innermost stable orbit (ISCO) allows the determination of the ISCO shift, validating previous calculations using the first law of binary mechanics. Calculation of the ISCO shift is further extended into the near-extremal regime (with spins up to 1-a=10^{-20}), revealing new unexpected phenomenology. In particular, we find that the shift of the ISCO does not have a well-defined extremal limit but instead continues to oscillate.