Related papers: ASTROD and ASTROD I -- Overview and Progress
Astrometric Science and Technology Roadmap for Astrophysics (ASTRA) is a bilateral cooperation between China and Italy with the goal of consolidating astrometric measurement concepts and technologies. In particular, the objectives include…
The microhertz frequency band of gravitational waves probes the merger of supermassive black holes as well as many other gravitational wave phenomena. However, space-interferometry methods that use test masses would require further…
Phobos Laser Ranging (PLR) is a concept for a space mission designed to advance tests of relativistic gravity in the solar system. PLR's primary objective is to measure the curvature of space around the Sun, represented by the Eddington…
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 Astrometric Gravitation Probe mission is a modern version of the 1919 Dyson-Eddington-Davidson experiment, based on a space-borne telescope with a permanent built-in eclipse, provided by a coronagraphic system. The expected improvement…
The four observables associated with gravitational lensing of distant quasars by intervening galaxies: image splittings, relative amplifications, time delays, and optical depths, provide separate measures of the strength of the…
The best motivated alternatives to general relativity are scalar-tensor theories, in which the gravitational interaction is mediated by one or several scalar fields together with the usual graviton. The analysis of their various…
Planetary radar observations offer the potential for probing the properties of characteristics of solid bodies throughout the inner solar system and at least as far as the orbit of Saturn. In addition to the direct scientific value, precise…
We present analytic estimates of the fractional uncertainties on the mass, radius, surface gravity, and density of a transiting planet, using only empirical or semi-empirical measurements. We first express these parameters in terms of…
Building upon earlier work, we explore the limits of using a configuration of satellites to measure the trace of the gravitational gradient tensor using intersatellite laser ranging and timing observables without relying on high-precision…
At present the Radioastron (RA) Earth's satellite having very elliptic orbit is used for probing of the gravitational red shift effect [1, 2]. Objective of this test consists in the enhancing accuracy of measurement to check the…
Pulsars are spinning neutron stars typically observed as pulses emitted at radio wavelengths. These pulsations exhibit a rotational stability that rival the best atomic clocks, making pulsars one of the most important tools for resolving…
All powered spacecraft experience residual systematic acceleration due to anisotropy of the thermal radiation pressure and fuel leakage. The residual acceleration limits the accuracy of any test of gravity that relies on the precise…
In this paper, we focus on the possibility to test General Relativity in the Solar System with radioscience measurements. To this aim, we present a new software that simulates Range and Doppler signals directly from the space-time metric.…
The disciplines of asteroseismology and extrasolar planet science overlap methodically in the branch of high-precision photometric time series observations. Light curves are, amongst others, useful to measure intrinsic stellar variability…
Recent results of the LARASE research program in terms of models improvements and relativistic measurements are presented. In particular, the results regarding the development of new models for the non-gravitational perturbations that…
We perform a principal component analysis to assess ability of future observations to measure departures from General Relativity in predictions of the Poisson and anisotropy equations on linear scales. In particular, we focus on how the…
We discuss the motivation for high accuracy relativistic gravitational experiments in the Solar System and complementary cosmological tests. We focus our attention on the issue of distinguishing a generic scalar-theory of gravity as the…
Modified gravity theories may provide an alternative to dark energy to explain cosmic acceleration. We argue that the observational program developed to test dark energy needs to be augmented to capture new tests of gravity on astrophysical…
With the advanced gravitational wave detectors coming on line in the next 5 years, we expect to make the first detections of gravitational waves from astrophysical sources, and study the properties of the waves themselves as tests of…