Variational iteration method for studying perihelion precession and deflection of light in General Relativity

Abstract

A new approach in studying the planetary orbits and deflection of light in General Relativity (GR) by means of the Variational iteration method (VIM) is proposed in this paper. For this purpose, a brief review of the nonlinear geodesic equations in the spherical symmetry spacetime and the main ideas of VIM are given. The appropriate correct functionals are constructed for the geodesics in the spacetime of Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordström and Kiselev black holes. In these cases, the Lagrange multiplier is obtained from the stationary conditions for the correct functionals. Then, VIM leads to the simple problem of computation of the integrals in order to obtain the approximate solutions of the geodesic equations. On the basis of these approximate solutions, the perihelion shift and the light deflection have been obtained for the metrics mentioned above.