Test particle

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 graviational field.

Test particles in general relativity

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.

See also

• Papapetrou-Dixon equations
• Magnetogravitic tensor and the Bel decomposition of the Riemann tensor