Local tests of Schwarzschild-Bertotti-Robinson spacetime

Abstract

We study weak field local tests of Schwarzschild-Bertotti-Robinson spacetime, which describes a static black hole embedded in an external magnetic field. Perihelion precession, deflection of light rays and time delay of radar echoes are the phenomena considered in this work to understand the possible effects of this external magnetic field on these observationally important tests. We not only derive weak field analytical results by employing appropriate methods, but also consider an exact approach to directly integrate the relevant geodesic equations, to both confirm those weak field analytical results and to obtain results beyond the weak field approximation.