Exact analytic expressions for planetary orbits and light trajectories in the Schwarzschild geometry are presented. A new parameter space is used to characterize all possible planetary orbits. Different regions in this parameter space can be associated with different characteristics of the orbits. The boundaries for these regions are clearly defined. Observational data can be directly associated with points in the regions. A possible extension of these considerations with an additional parameter for the case of Kerr geometry is briefly discussed. Characterizing planetary orbits and the trajectories of light in the Schwarzschild metric Exact analytic expressions for planetary orbits and light trajectories in the Schwarzschild geometry are presented. A new parameter space is used to characterize all possible planetary orbits. Different regions in this parameter space can be associated with different characteristics of the orbits. The boundaries for these regions are clearly defined. Observational data can be directly associated with points in the regions. A possible extension of these considerations with an additional parameter for the case of Kerr geometry is briefly discussed. Disciplines Physics

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The recently introduced concept of Stokes fluctuations generalizes both the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect and the notion of scintillation. Here we apply this new framework to the specific example of a Gaussian Schell-model (GSM) beam. We derive formulas for Stokes scintillations and Stokes fluctuation correlations which explicitly express the dependence of these quantities on the GSM source parameters. It is found that the normalized Stokes scintillations vary significantly with position. Also, they can be both positively or negatively correlated.