Conditions for sustained orbital resonances in extreme mass ratio inspirals

We investigate the possibility of sustained orbital resonances in extreme mass ratio inspirals. Using a near-identity averaging transformation, we reduce the equations of motion for a particle moving in Kerr spacetime with self-force corrections in the neighborhood of a resonant geodesic to a one-dimensional equation for a particle moving in an effective potential. From this effective equation we obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions that the self-force needs to satisfy to allow inspiralling orbits to be captured in sustained resonance. Along the way we also obtain the full nonlinear expression for the jump in the adiabatic constants of motion incurred as an inspiral transiently evolves through a strong resonance to first-order in the mass ratio. Finally, we find that if the resonance is strong enough to allow capture in sustained resonance, only a small fraction (order of the square root of mass-ratio) of all inspirals will indeed be captured. This makes observation of sustained resonances in extreme mass ratio inspirals---if they exist---very unlikely for space-based observatories like eLisa.