Magnetic field effects on spherical orbit in Kerr-Bertotti-Robinson spacetime: constraints from jet precession of M87*

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Authors: Chao-Hui Wang, Xiang-Cheng Meng, Shao-Wen Wei
Cited by: 1

Abstract

The recently reported precession period of about $11.24$ years of the M87* jet provides a sensitive probe of strong field gravity and the electromagnetic environment in the immediate vicinity of supermassive black holes. In this work, we study the precession of the spherical orbit in the Kerr-Bertotti-Robinson geometry describing a rotating black hole immersed in a uniform electromagnetic field. Although the timelike geodesics is non-separable, we develop a Hamiltonian approach to investigate the spherical orbits. For sufficiently strong magnetic fields, the study shows that the spherical orbits can only exist within a finite radial range for given orbital inclination. Requiring the existence of the spherical orbits, we obtain an upper bound of the magnetic field, i.e., $B

Fields of Study & Subjects

Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
3 February 2026
Document type
Preprint