2011/12/31 by Justin Alsing, Emanuele Berti, Clifford M. Will +1 · 234 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Coupling (piping) #Geometry #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Gravitational wave #Mathematical physics #Neutron star #Omega #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Scalar (mathematics) #astro-ph.HE #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.85.064041
published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 85(6) (American Physical Society) · 19 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables. Added new Appendix and slightly rephrased section on Shapiro time delay. Matches version in press in PRD
arxiv created 2012/03/20 · arxiv updated 2013/05/29
We derive the equations of motion, the periastron shift, and the gravitational radiation damping for quasicircular compact binaries in a massive variant of the Brans-Dicke theory of gravity. We also study the Shapiro time delay and the Nordtvedt effect in this theory. By comparing with recent observational data, we put bounds on the two parameters of the theory: the Brans-Dicke coupling parameter \ensuremathωBD and the scalar mass ms. We find that the most stringent bounds come from Cassini measurements of the Shapiro time delay in the Solar System that yield a lower bound \ensuremathωBD>40 000 for scalar masses ms<2.5\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10^\ensuremath-20 eV [or Compton wavelengths \ensuremathλs=h/(msc)>5\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1010 km], to 95% confidence. In comparison, observations of the Nordtvedt effect using lunar laser ranging experiments yield \ensuremathωBD>1000 for ms<2.5\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10^\ensuremath-20 eV. Observations of the orbital period derivative of the quasicircular white dwarf-neutron star binary PSR J1012+5307 yield \ensuremathωBD>1250 for ms<10^\ensuremath-20 eV (\ensuremathλs>1.2\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1011 km). A first estimate suggests that bounds comparable to the Shapiro time delay may come from observations of radiation damping in the eccentric white dwarf-neutron star binary PSR J1141\ensuremath-6545, but a quantitative prediction requires the extension of our work to eccentric orbits.