Influence of gravitational waves on circular moving particles

Abstract

We investigate the influence of a gravitational wave background on particles in circular motion. We are especially interested in waves leading to stationary orbits. This consideration is limited to circular orbits perpendicular to the incidence direction. As a main result of our calculation we obtain in addition to the well-known alteration of the radial distance a time dependent correction term for the phase modifying the circular motion of the particle. A background of gravitational waves creates some kind of uncertainty.