Testing General Relativity Using a Pulsar in a Triple System

Open Access
Authors
  • D. Kaplan
  • D. Lorimer
  • R.S. Lynch
  • S.M. Ransom
  • I. Stairs
Publication date 01-2019
Journal American Astronomical Society Meeting
Event 233rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society
Article number 228.03
Volume | Issue number 233
Pages (from-to) 282
Organisations
  • Faculty of Science (FNWI) - Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy (API)
Abstract
The millisecond pulsar PSR J0337+1715 is in a 1.6-day orbit with an inner white dwarf companion, and the pair is in a 327-day orbit with an outer white dwarf companion. This hierarchical triple provides an excellent laboratory to test a key idea of Einstein's theory of gravity, the strong equivalence principle (SEP): do all objects, even those with strong gravity like neutron stars, fall the same way in the same gravitational field? Almost all alternative theories of gravity predict violations of the SEP at some level. We have carried out an intensive program of timing this pulsar, and we are able to perform a very sensitive test of the SEP. I will discuss our methods, our result, and its theoretical implications.
Document type Meeting Abstract
Language English
Published at https://assets.pubpub.org/qmxqtups/61582749069276.pdf
Other links https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019AAS...23322803A/abstract
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