Abstract

In this paper, the influence of the gravitational radiation damping on the evolution of the orbital elements of massive binary system is examined. The solutions are obtained by using the method of average values upon Gaussian perturbation equations. The theoretical results show that semi-major axis and eccentricity exhibit secular variation, but another orbital  elements do not exhibit secular variation. The influence of the secular variation of the orbit would leads to collapse the system of binary stars. The theoretical results are applied to the calculation for the secular variation of the orbital elements of some known massive binary systems We concluded in this work that the gravitational radiation damping may results in that the orbital semi major axis of binary stars shrinks with time and the eccentricity decrease with time.

Keywords

gravitational radiation damping, massive binary systems, Gaussian perturbation equations, secular variation, orbital elements, eccentricity