Orbital effects of a monochromatic plane gravitational wave with ultra-low frequency incident on a gravitationally bound two-body system

摘要: We analytically compute the long-term orbital variations of a test particle orbiting central body acted upon by an incident monochromatic plane gravitational wave. assume that characteristic size perturbed two-body system is much smaller than wavelength Moreover, we also suppose wave's frequency particle's one. make neither priori assumptions about direction wavevector nor on geometry planet. find that, while semi-major axis left unaffected, eccentricity, inclination, longitude ascending node, pericenter and mean anomaly undergo non-vanishing changes. They are not secular trends because slow modulation introduced tidal matrix coefficients elements themselves. could be useful to indepenedently constrain ultra-low waves which may have been indirectly detected in BICEP2 experiment. Our calculation holds, general, for any gravitationally bound whose larger external It valid generic perturbation type with constant over timescales order period particle.