Electromagnetic Radiation and Motion of a Particle

We consider the motion of uncharged dust grains of arbitrary shape including the effects of electromagnetic radiation and thermal emission. The resulting relativistically covariant equation of motion is expressed in terms of standard optical parameters. Explicit expressions for secular changes of osculating orbital elements are derived in detail for the special case of the Poynting-Robertson effect. Two subcases are considered: (i) central acceleration due to gravity and the radial component of radiation pressure independent of the particle velocity, (ii) central acceleration given by gravity and the radiation force as the disturbing force. The latter case yields results which may be compared with secular orbital evolution in terms of orbital elements for an arbitrarily shaped dust particle. The effects of solar wind are also presented. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.