Perturbations of Keplerian Orbits in Stationary Spherically Symmetric Spacetimes

Abstract

We study spherically symmetric perturbations determined by alternative theories of gravity to the gravitational field of a central mass in General Relativity. In particular, we focus on perturbations in the form of power laws and calculate their effect on the secular variations of the orbital elements of a Keplerian orbit. We show that, to lowest approximation order, only the argument of pericentre and mean anomaly undergo secular variations; furthermore, we calculate the variation of the orbital period. We give analytic expressions for these variations which can be used to constrain the impact of alternative theories of gravity.