A Comparison between Second-Order Post-Newtonian Hamiltonian and Coherent Post-Newtonian Lagrangian in Spinning Compact Binaries

In relativistic celestial mechanics, post-Newtonian (PN) Lagrangian and PN Hamiltonian formulations are not equivalent to the same PN order as our previous work in PRD (2015). Usually, an approximate Lagrangian is used to discuss the difference between a PN Hamiltonian and a PN Lagrangian. In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of compact binary systems for Hamiltonians and Lagrangians, including Newtonian, post-Newtonian (1PN and 2PN), and spin–orbit coupling and spin–spin coupling parts. Additionally, coherent equations of motion for 2PN Lagrangian are adopted here to make the comparison with Hamiltonian approaches and approximate Lagrangian approaches at the same condition and same PN order. The completely opposite nature of the dynamics shows that using an approximate PN Lagrangian is not convincing. Hence, using the coherent PN Lagrangian is necessary for obtaining an exact result in the research of dynamics of compact binary at certain PN order. Meanwhile, numerical investigations from the spinning compact binaries show that the 2PN term plays an important role in causing chaos in the PN Hamiltonian system.