Scattering Gravitons off General Spinning Compact Objects to $\mathcal{O}(G^2 S^4)$

Abstract

We compute the classical one-loop gravitational Compton amplitude describing the scattering of a graviton off a massive spinning compact object at the second post-Minkowskian order, including terms through the quartic order in spin. Our analysis includes spin-induced finite-size effects up to the hexadecapolar order, and extends recent results obtained for minimal couplings at the quadratic order in spin. From the amplitude, we determine the scattering phase in momentum space, applicable in both the eikonal and wave regimes. In the eikonal limit, we then isolate the spin-independent contribution of the graviton field, explicitly linking it to the dynamics of a massless scalar probe in a Kerr background. This constitutes the first complete description of classical one-loop Compton scattering for generic spinning compact objects at the second post-Minkowskian and hexadecapolar orders.

Figures (1)

• Figure 1: The t-channel (left) and s-channel (right) cut configurations contributing to the classical one-loop Compton amplitude. The solid and wavy lines denote the heavy massive spinning particle and graviton, respectively. The red dashed lines are unitarity cuts.