Abstract: I will present a novel approach to study the dynamics of binary systems in a regime of strong gravity, going beyond the point-particle description typically used in the literature. Among other things, I will show how the inclusion of strong-gravity effects can significantly reduce the merger time of a binary system, affecting also the emitted gravitational wave signal.
I will apply our approach to study the von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai mechanism and the so-called precession resonances, revealing that, including strong gravitational effects, one obtains a richer physics for the system under investigation.