Effect of a second compact object on stable circular orbits

Abstract

We investigate how stable circular orbits around a main compact object appear depending on the presence of a second one by using the Majumudar--Papapetrou dihole spacetime, which consists of the two extremal Reissner--Nordstr\" om black holes with different masses. While the parameter range of the separation of the two objects is divided due to the appearance of stable circular orbits, this division depends on its mass ratio. We show that the mass ratio range separates into four parts, and we find three critical values as the boundaries.