Related papers: Freeman Dyson and Gravitational Spin Precession
The 1974 discovery, by Russell A. Hulse and Joseph H. Taylor, of the first binary pulsar PSR B1913+16, opened up new possibilities for the study of relativistic gravity. PSR B1913+16, as well as several other binary pulsars, provided {\it…
After the first prediction to expect geodetic precession in binary pulsars in 1974, made immediately after the discovery of a pulsar with a companion, the effects of relativistic spin precession have now been detected in all binary systems…
The discovery of the first pulsar in a binary star system, the Hulse--Taylor pulsar, 50 years ago opened up an entirely new field of experimental gravity. For the first time it was possible to investigate strong-field and radiative aspects…
Binary radio pulsars, first discovered by Hulse and Taylor in 1974 [1], are a unique tool for experimentally testing general relativity (GR), whose validity has been confirmed with a precision unavailable in laboratory experiments. In…
A new era in fundamental physics began when pulsars were discovered in 1967. Soon it became clear that pulsars were useful tools for a wide variety of physical and astrophysical problems. Further applications became possible with the…
In relativistic gravity, a spinning pulsar will precess as it orbits a compact companion star. We have measured the effect of such precession on the average shape and polarization of the radiation from PSR B1534+12. We have also detected,…
Ever since the first pulsar was discovered by Bell and Hewish over 40 years ago, we've known that not only are pulsars fascinating and truly exotic objects, but that we can use them as powerful tools for basic physics and astrophysics as…
Before the 1970s, precision tests for gravity theories were constrained to the weak gravitational fields of the Solar system. Hence, only the weak-field slow-motion aspects of relativistic celestial mechanics could be investigated. Testing…
Pulsars, the cosmic lighthouses, are strongly self-gravitating objects with core densities significantly exceeding nuclear density. Since the discovery of the Hulse--Taylor pulsar 50 years ago, binary pulsar studies have delivered numerous…
The recent discovery of a double-pulsar PSR J0737-3039A/B provides an opportunity of unequivocally observing, for the first time, spin effects in general relativity. Existing efforts involve detection of the precession of the spinning body…
Binary pulsars are a powerful tool for probing strong gravity that still outperforms direct gravitational wave observations in a number of directions due to the remarkable accuracy of the pulsar timing. They can constrain very precisely the…
Binary pulsars provide an excellent system for testing general relativity because of their intrinsic rotational stability and the precision with which radio observations can be used to determine their orbital dynamics. Measurements of the…
PSR J1141$-$6545 is a precessing binary pulsar that has the rare potential to reveal the two-dimensional structure of a non-recycled pulsar emission cone. It has undergone $\sim 25 \deg$ of relativistic spin precession in the $\sim18$ years…
It has now been just over four decades since the first discovery of a millisecond spin period pulsar (MSP), B1937+21, by Don Backer and collaborators in late 1982. This finding of an entirely new class of astronomical object revolutionized…
More and more binary pulsars show significant secular variations, in which the measured projected semi-major axis, $\dot{x}^{obs}$, and the first derivative of orbital period, $\dot{P}_{b}^{obs}$, are several order of magnitude larger than…
We propose to use pulsar-black hole binaries as a probe of gravitational collider physics. Induced by the gravitation of the pulsar, the atomic transitions of the boson cloud around the black hole back-react on the orbital motion. This…
In Einstein's general relativity, gravity is mediated by a massless spin-2 metric field, and its extension to include a mass for the graviton has profound implication for gravitation and cosmology. In 2002, Finn and Sutton used the…
Searches for empirical clues beyond Einstein's general relativity (GR) are crucial to understand gravitation and spacetime. Radio pulsars have been playing an important role in testing gravity theories since 1970s. Because radio timing of…
This talk is based on my work in collaboration with Thibault Damour since 1991. Unified theories, like superstrings, predict the existence of scalar partners to the graviton. Such theories of gravity can be very close to general relativity…
We present results of more than three decades of timing measurements of the first known binary pulsar, PSR B1913+16. Like most other pulsars, its rotational behavior over such long time scales is significantly affected by small-scale…