2004/07/31 by V. Boucher, J. -M. Gerard, P. Vandergheynst +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.70.103528
published as Phys.Rev. D70 (2004) 103528 · Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D, 8 pages, Revtex 4; discussion of "Experimental constraints" extended, references added, typos corrected
arxiv created 2004/10/26 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We study the effect of a violation of the strong equivalence principle (SEP) on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Such a violation would modify the weight of baryons in the primordial gravitational potentials and hence their impact in the establishment of the photon-baryon plasma acoustic oscillations before recombination. This cosmological Nordtvedt effect alters the odd peaks height of the CMB temperature anisotropy power spectrum. A gravitational baryonic mass density of the universe may already be inferred at the first peak scale from the analysis of WMAP data. Experimental constraints on a primordial SEP violation are derived from a comparison with the universe's inertial baryonic mass density measured either in a full analysis of the CMB, or in the framework of the standard big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN).