General relativistic three-body problem

Abstract

We examine analytically the restricted 3-body problem in general relativity for a set of extremally charged black holes. We apply the method of Ferrell and Eardley, which consists in perturbing the Majumdar-Papapetrou solution that describes a static set of such black holes. We extend the method from a pair of black holes to a triplet. We compare the motion of a test particle and a small black hole in the field of a rotating black-hole binary and discover a repulsive self-force acting upon the third black hole.

9 pages; 6 figures; Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 19 August, 2026; \c{opyright}2026 American Physical Society