Perturbations of black holes in Einstein-Cartan theory

Torsion is a property of space-time which is not incorporated into the standard formulation of general relativity but which appears as a consequence of unification schemes for fundamental forces. It is, therefore, important to understand its physical consequence. This thesis begins with an introduction to a non-propagating version of torsion theory as an extension to general relativity. The theory can be described in terms of a pair coupled field equations with torsion algebraically linked to elementary particle spin. In order to develop the theory it is necessary to postulate a form for the energy-momentum tensor of spinning matter which is not prescribed in the classical domain. The two main candidates that have been proposed for a spinning fluid are considered. Chapter two contains an independent reworking of Zerilli's [1] perturbation calculation of a particle falling into a Schwarzschild black hole. The perturbation equations are found and the resulting wave equations are derived. The special case of a particle falling radially is considered in detail. Chapter three contains new work which employs the method of Zerilli in torsion theory to consider a particle with spin falling radially into a black hole. The changes to the black hole are found for each of the two energy-momentum tensors of Chapter one. This enables us to discount one of these as unphysical. The differential equations describing the gravitational radiation released by this system are derived. Finally in Chapter four these equations are solved to find the gravitational radiation from a spinning particle falling radially. These may be significant for observational assessments of torsion theory.