CIRCULAR ORBITS AND RELATIVE STRAINS IN SCHWARZSCHILD SPACE-TIME

The equation of the relative strain is analyzed in tetrad form with respect to a family of observers moving on spatially circular orbits, in the Schwarzschild space-time. We select a field of tetrads, which we term phase locking frames, and explicitly calculate how, in the equatorial plane, the orbital acceleration, its gradient and the Fermi drag add together to compensate the curvature and assure equilibrium among a set of comoving neighbouring particles. While equilibrium is achieved in the radial and azimuthal directions, in the direction orthogonal to the equatorial plane there is a residue of acceleration which pulls a particle towards that plane leading to a harmonic oscillation with a frequency equal to the proper frequency of the orbital revolution. This measurement, combined with those of the frequency shift of an incoming photon and the frequency of precession of the local compass of inertia, enables one to determine the relativistic ratio 2M/r, where M is the gravitational mass of the source and r the coordinate radius of the circular orbits.