Relativistic center of mass in general relativity

Abstract

The center of mass (c.m.) and spin for isolated sources of gravitational radiation that move at relativistic speeds are defined. As a first step we also present these definitions in flat space. This contradicts some general wisdom given in textbooks claiming that such definitions are not covariant and thus, have no physical meaning. We then generalize the definitions to asymptotically flat spacetimes giving their equations of motion when gravitational radiation is emitted by the isolated sources. The resulting construction has some similarities with the Mathisson-Papapetrou equations which describe the motion of the particle in an external field. We analyze the relationship between the c.m. velocity and the Bondi linear momentum and show they are not proportional to each other. A similar situation happens between the total and intrinsic angular momentum when the Bondi momentum vanishes. We claim that extra terms should be added in other approaches to adequately describe the time evolution of isolated sources of gravitational radiation.