Motion of Test Bodies in General Relativity

Abstract

Two distributions in the sense of Schwartz are introduced to describe a test body. Papapetrou's equations for a pole‐dipole test body are derived in a coordinate‐independent manner. The supplementary condition S σμ U μ = 0 arises in a natural fashion in the course of the derivation. The method for treating test bodies with higher‐order poles is indicated.