Does rotation always slow down in general relativity?
Answers
Suppose I have a rotating object in empty space. Will it lose angular momentum due to interactions with spacetime? The most obvious case if if the object has a quadrupole moment. Then the quadrupole formula simply tells us that it will lose energy and the angular momentum ends up in the form of gravitational waves. Normally the dipole moment is ignored as a source of gravitational waves since it is to lowest order the total momentum of the system, which is constant. At least in the linearized case conservation laws make a quadrapole-free object non-radiating.
Suppose I have a rotating object in empty space. Will it lose angular momentum due to interactions with spacetime? The most obvious case if if the object has a quadrupole moment. Then the quadrupole formula simply tells us that it will lose energy and the angular momentum ends up in the form of gravitational waves. Normally the dipole moment is ignored as a source of gravitational waves since it is to lowest order the total momentum of the system, which is constant. At least in the linearized case conservation laws make a quadrapole-free object non-radiating.
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