AUTOPARALLEL ORBITS IN KERR BRANS–DICKE SPACETIMES

Abstract

The bounded orbital motion of a massive spinless test particle in the background of a Kerr Brans–Dicke geometry is analysed in terms of worldlines that are auto-parallels of different metric compatible spacetime connections. In one case the connection is that of Levi–Civita with zero-torsion. In the second case the connection has torsion determined by the gradient of the Brans–Dicke background scalar field. The calculations permit one in principle to discriminate between these possibilities.