Marginally stable circular orbits in stationary axisymmetric spacetimes

Abstract

We derive a necessary condition for the existence of marginally stable circular orbits of test particles in stationary axisymmetric spacetimes which possess a refection symmetry with respect to the equatorial plane; photon orbits are also addressed. Energy and angular momentum are shown to decouple from metric quantities, rendering a purely geometric characterization of circular orbits for this general class of metrics. The subsequent system is analyzed using resultants, providing an algorithmic approach for finding MSCO conditions. MSCOs are explicitly calculated for concrete examples of physical interest.