Effective Potential - Example: Gravitational Potential

Example: Gravitational Potential

For example, consider a particle of mass m orbiting a much heavier object of mass M. Assuming Newtonian mechanics can be used, and the motion of the larger mass is negligible, then the conservation of energy and angular momentum give two constants E and L, with values

where

is the derivative of r with respect to time,

is the angular velocity of mass m,

G is the gravitational constant,

E is the total energy, and

Only two variables are needed, since the motion occurs in a plane. Substituting the second expression into the first and rearranging gives

where

is the effective potential. As is evident from the above equation, the original two variable problem has been reduced to a one variable problem. For many applications the effective potential can be treated exactly like the potential energy of a one-dimensional system: for instance, an energy diagram using the effective potential determines turning points and locations of stable and unstable equilibria. A similar method may be used in other applications, for instance determining orbits in a general relativistic Schwarzschild metric.

Effective potentials are widely used in various fields of condensed matter, like e.g. the Gauss-core potential (Likos 2002, Baeurle 2004) and the screened Coulomb potential (Likos 2001).