A SPINNING TEST BODY IN THE STRONG-FIELD OF A SCHWARZSCHILD BLACK-HOLE

Binary pulsars could help us probe into strong gravitational field sit uations. One of the relativistic effects that could manifest itself in observations of such pulsars is the precession of the pulsars' spin a xis due to spin-orbit coupling. This paper derives an analytical formu la for the precessional frequency of the spin of a test particle in a circular orbit around a nonrotating massive black hole, that is not re stricted to weak field regions only. Approximate analytical and numeri cal solutions of the spin precession in case of other, noncircular, bo und orbits have also been investigated. Finally the observational impl ications of such a precession are discussed.