“Kepler Harmonies” and conformal symmetries

P.-M. Zhang 1,5, M. Cariglia 2, M. Elbistan 3,5, G.W. Gibbons 4, P.A. Horvathy 3,5

 

1 School of Physics and Astronomy, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, China

2 DEFIS, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, MG, Brazil

3 Institut Denis Poisson, Tours University – Orléans University, UMR 7013, France

4 D.A.M.T.P., University of Cambridge, UK

5 Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China

Abstract

Kepler's rescaling becomes, when “Eisenhart-Duval lifted” to 5-dimensional “Bargmann” gravitational wave spacetime, an ordinary spacetime symmetry for motion along null geodesics, which are the lifts of Keplerian trajectories. The lifted rescaling generates a well-behaved conserved Noether charge upstairs, which takes an unconventional form when expressed in conventional terms. This conserved quantity seems to have escaped attention so far. Applications include the Virial Theorem and also Kepler's Third Law. The lifted Kepler rescaling is a Chrono-Projective transformation. The results extend to celestial mechanics and Newtonian Cosmology.

Keywords

Trajectory
Virial theorem
Cosmological model
Gravitational radiation
Symmetry
Published by

Elsevier, Physics Letters B