Relativistic scattering of a fast spinning neutron star by a massive black hole

Understand

The orbital dynamics of fast spinning neutron stars encountering a massive Black Hole (BH) with unbounded orbits are investigated using the quadratic-in-spin Mathisson-Papapetrou- Dixon (MPD) formulation.

• We consider the motion of the spinning neutron stars with astrophysically relevant speed in the gravity field of the BH.
• For such slow-speed scattering, the hyperbolic orbits followed by these neutron stars all have near the e = 1 eccentricity, and have distinct properties compared with those of e >> 1.
• We have found that compared with geodesic motion, the spin-orbit and spin-spin coupling will lead to a variation of scattering angles at spatial infinity, and this variation is more prominent for slow-speed scattering than fast-speed scattering.