The importance of conservative self forces for binaries undergoing radiation damping

We consider the radial, conservative self force for simple systems undergoi ng gravitational-radiation damping in the extreme mass ratio limit. We argu e that the conservative force acting on a pointlike mass in orbit around a black hole may have a measurable effect on the wave forms, via an induced ( retrograde) cumulative precession of the periastron. This effect is stronge st for high values of the orbital eccentricity. We also show that the nonra diative modes of the field contribute to the total conservative force.