Test Particle - Test Particles in General Relativity

Test Particles in General Relativity

In metric theories of gravitation, particularly general relativity, a test particle is an idealized model of a small object whose mass is so small that it does not appreciably disturb the ambient gravitational field.

According to the Einstein field equation, the gravitational field is locally coupled not only to the distribution of non-gravitational mass-energy, but also to the distribution of momentum and stress (e.g. pressure, viscous stresses in a perfect fluid).

In the case of test particles in a vacuum solution or electrovacuum solution, this turns out to imply that in addition to the tidal acceleration experienced by small clouds of test particles (spinning or not), spinning test particles may experience additional accelerations due to spin-spin forces.

Read more about this topic:  Test Particle

Famous quotes containing the words test, particles, general and/or relativity:

    The test of an adventure is that when you’re in the middle of it, you say to yourself, “Oh, now I’ve got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home.” And the sign that something’s wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure.
    Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)

    When was it that the particles became
    The whole man, that tempers and beliefs became
    Temper and belief and that differences lost
    Difference and were one? It had to be
    In the presence of a solitude of the self....
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    Women born at the turn of the century have been conditioned not to speak openly of their wedding nights. Of other nights in bed with other men they speak not at all. Today a woman having bedded with a great general feels free to tell us that in bed the general could not present arms. Women of my generation would have spared the great general the revelation of this failure.
    Jessamyn West (1907–1984)

    By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, to-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bĂȘte noire the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!
    Albert Einstein (1879–1955)