Radiation pressure vs. friction effects in the description of the Poynting-Robertson scattering process

¹ Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo “M. Picone,” CNR - I-00185 Roma, Italy, EU
² University of Rome I “La Sapienza” - I-00185 Roma, Italy, EU
³ ICRA, University of Rome I “La Sapienza,” - I-00185 Roma, Italy, EU

^a binid@icra.it

Received: 15 November 2011
Accepted: 23 January 2012

Abstract

The motion of a massive test particle inside a thermal (test) photon gas is studied near a Schwarzschild black hole, leading to a novel description of the effect of radiation scattering on the particle trajectory, responsible for half of the Poynting-Robertson effect: the azimuthal radiation drag. Lacking the outward directed radiation pressure of the latter effect, gravitationally bound orbits always decay, leading to capture by the black hole or the central object generating the exterior Schwarzschild field in which this discussion takes place.