Gravitomagnetism: A novel explanation of the precession of planets and binary pulsars

Abstract

We have studied the consequences of applying gravitomagnetism to gravitating objects. Gravitomagnetism was the missing part of the Newton's law of gravitation. This phenomenon is manifest in the generalized Newton's law of gravitation that is published in A. I. Arbab, Astrophys. Space Sci. 325:37, 2010a. Owing to gravitomagnetism, we have shown, the precession of planetary and pulsars orbits is due to the interaction of these objects with the gravitomagnetic field. We have calculated the gravitomagnetic fields arising from the orbital motion of the planets and binary pulsars and we have shown that they are double the Larmor-like frequency. This effect coincides with the prediction of general relativity and places the general theory of relativity on new affirmative grounds. Consequently, a modified Newton law of gravitation of Lorentz-type is proposed, which explains this precession. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.