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Abstract

We use the canonical Hamiltonian formalism to generalize to spinning point particles the first law of mechanics established for binary systems of non-spinning point masses moving on circular orbits [Le Tiec, Blanchet, and Whiting, Phys. Rev. D 85, 064039 (2012)]. We find that the redshift observable of each particle is related in a very simple manner to the canonical Hamiltonian and, more generally, to a class of Fokker-type Hamiltonians. Our results are valid through linear order in the spin of each particle, but hold also for quadratic couplings between the spins of different particles. The knowledge of spin effects in the Hamiltonian allows us to compute spin-orbit terms in the redshift variable through 2.5PN order, for circular orbits and spins aligned or anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum. To describe extended bodies such as black holes, we supplement the first law for spinning point-particle binaries with some "constitutive relations" that can be used for diagnosis of spin measurements in quasi-equilibrium initial data.