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Radio Pulsars as a Laboratory for Strong-Field Gravity Tests

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Modified and Quantum Gravity

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Physics ((LNP,volume 1017))

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Abstract

General relativity offers a classical description to gravitation and spacetime, and is a cornerstone for modern physics. It has passed a number of empirical tests with flying colours, mostly in the weak-gravity regimes, but nowadays also in the strong-gravity regimes. Radio pulsars provide one of the earliest extrasolar laboratories for gravity tests. They, in possession of strongly self-gravitating bodies, i.e. neutron stars, are playing a unique role in the studies of strong-field gravity. Radio timing of binary pulsars enables very precise measurements of system parameters, and the pulsar timing technology is extremely sensitive to various types of changes in the orbital dynamics. If an alternative gravity theory causes modifications to binary orbital evolution with respect to general relativity, the theory prediction can be confronted with timing results. In this chapter, we review the basic concepts in using radio pulsars for strong-field gravity tests, with the aid of some recent examples in this regard, including tests of gravitational dipolar radiation, massive gravity theories, and the strong equivalence principle. With more sensitive radio telescopes coming online, pulsars are to provide even more dedicated tests of strong gravity in the near future.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Currently, PSR J0737\(-\)3039A/B is the only discovered double neutron star system whose two neutron stars were both detected as pulsars [14, 41, 49], known as Pulsar A and Pulsar B.

  2. 2.

    https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/pulsar/psrcat/.

  3. 3.

    In one case, a pulsar in a triple system, PSR J0337+1715, provides the best limit on the strong equivalence principle [9, 47, 59].

  4. 4.

    Unfortunately, we have not detected yet suitable neutron-star black-hole binaries for this test, which are also potentially very good testbeds [38].

  5. 5.

    Recall that there are numerous different models of Lorentz invariance violation or doubly special relativity, see Chaps. 1 or 2.

  6. 6.

    The conditions are that (i) the wave equation takes a standard form for the trace-reversed metric perturbation \(\bar {h}_{\mu \nu }\)

    $$\displaystyle \begin{aligned} \left( \Box -m_{\mathrm{g}}^{2}\right) \bar{h}_{\mu \nu}+16 \pi T_{\mu \nu}=0 \,, \end{aligned} $$
    (12.15)

    and the theory recovers the general relativity in the limit when \(m_{\mathrm {g}} \to 0\), namely, there is no van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity [26].

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the 740\({\mathrm {th}}\) WE-Heraeus-Seminar “Experimental Tests and Signatures of Modified and Quantum Gravity”, organized by Christian Pfeifer and Claus Lämmerzahl. LS was supported by the National SKA Program of China (2020SKA0120300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11975027, 11991053, 11721303), and the Max Planck Partner Group Program funded by the Max Planck Society.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Lijing Shao

  2. National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Lijing Shao

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Correspondence to Lijing Shao .

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  1. ZARM, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Christian Pfeifer

  2. ZARM, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Claus Lämmerzahl

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Shao, L. (2023). Radio Pulsars as a Laboratory for Strong-Field Gravity Tests. In: Pfeifer, C., Lämmerzahl, C. (eds) Modified and Quantum Gravity. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 1017. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31520-6_12

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