An analytic perturbation approach for classical spinning particle dynamics

Abstract

A perturbation method to analytically describe the dynamics of a classical spinning particle, based on the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon (MPD) equations of motion, is presented. By a power series expansion with respect to the particle's spin magnitude, it is shown how to obtain in general form an analytic representation of the particle's kinematic and dynamical degrees of freedom that is formally applicable to infinite order in the expansion. Within this formalism, it is possible to identify a classical analogue of radiative corrections to the particle's mass and spin due to spin-gravity interaction. The robustness of this approach is demonstrated by showing how to explicitly compute the first-order momentum and spin tensor components for arbitrary particle motion in a general space-time background. Potentially interesting applications based on this perturbation approach are outlined. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.