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Chaos In General Relativity: Spinning Particle Orbits

Student Name: Verhaaren, Christopher
Advisor Name: Hirschmann, Eric
Approval Date: 4/1/2009
Report Type: Senior Thesis
Title: Chaos In General Relativity: Spinning Particle Orbits
Abstract: We examine the question of chaotic particle orbits in general relativity. In particular we consider the dynamics of a spinning test particle in a black hole spacetime. We describe the model of a spinning test particle in general relativity and determine whether or not an orbit is chaotic. For chaotic orbits we calculate the Lyapunov exponent and give an improved method of comparing the exponents of di erent orbits. We nd a class of orbits that are chaotic for physical spin values. We also nd new lower bounds on the spin required for more general orbits to be chaotic.
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