Related papers: Is there still something left that Gravity Probe B…
The possibility of measuring the post-Newtonian gravitoelectric correction to the orbital period of a test particle freely orbiting a spherically symmetric mass in the Solar System is analyzed. It should be possible, in principle, to detect…
The successful miniaturisation of extremely accurate atomic clocks and atom interferometers invites prospects for satellite missions to perform precision experiments. We discuss the effects predicted by general relativity and alternative…
We present an improved subdominant-mode amplitude (SMA) test of general relativity (GR), which probes amplitude-level deviations in the higher-order modes of gravitational-wave (GW) signals from binary black hole mergers while keeping the…
A small body orbiting a black hole follows a trajectory that, at leading order, is a geodesic of the black hole spacetime. Much effort has gone into computing "self force" corrections to this motion, arising from the small body's own…
The precession of a test gyroscope along stable bound equatorial plane orbits around a Kerr black hole is analyzed and the precession angular velocity of the gyro's parallel transported spin vector and the increment in precession angle…
Pulsars in close binary orbit around another neutron star or a massive white dwarf make ideal laboratories for testing the predictions of gravitational radiation and self-gravitational effects. We report new timing measurements of the…
The {\it concordance} cosmological model has been successfully tested throughout the last decades. Despite its successes, the fundamental nature of dark matter and dark energy is still unknown. Modifications of the gravitational action have…
This work arose as an aftermath of Cassini's 2002 experiment \cite{bblipt03}, in which the PPN parameter $\gamma$ was measured with an accuracy $\sigma_\gamma = 2.3\times 10^{-5}$ and found consistent with the prediction $\gamma =1$ of…
We consider the problem of searching for gravitational waves emitted during the inspiral phase of binary systems when the orbital plane precesses due to relativistic spin-orbit coupling. Such effect takes place when the spins of the binary…
We investigate the linearized form of metric f(R)-gravity, assuming that f(R) is analytic about R = 0 so it may be expanded as f(R) = R + a_2 R^2/2 + ... . Gravitational radiation is modified, admitting an extra mode of oscillation, that of…
The expansion in multipoles of the gravitational potential of a rotating body affects the orbital motion of a test particle orbiting it with long-term perturbations both at a classical and at a relativistic level. In this preliminary…
PTFO 8-8695b represents the first transiting exoplanet candidate orbiting a pre-main-sequence star. We find that the unusual lightcurve shapes of PTFO 8-8695 can be explained by transits of a planet across an oblate, gravity-darkened…
Binary black-hole systems are expected to be important sources of gravitational waves for upcoming gravitational-wave detectors. If the spins are not colinear with each other or with the orbital angular momentum, these systems exhibit…
The orbital Lense-Thirring precession is considered in the context of constraints for weak-field General Relativity involving the cosmological constant $\Lambda$. It is shown that according to the current accuracy of satellite measurements…
A relativistic sub-picosecond model of gravitational time delay in radio astronomical observations is worked out and a new experimental test of general relativity is discussed in which the effect of retardation of gravity associated with…
Over half a century from the discovery of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the dominant radiation mechanism responsible for their bright and highly variable prompt emission remains poorly understood. Spectral information alone has proven…
The geodesics of bound spherical orbits i.e. of orbits performing Lense-Thirring precession, are obtained in the case of the $\Lambda$-term within gravito-electromagnetic formalism. It is shown that the presence of the $\Lambda$-term in the…
A number of weight anomalies have been reported in the past with respect to gyroscopes. Much attention was gained from a paper in Physical Review Letters, when Japanese scientists announced that a gyroscope loses weight up to $0.005\%$ when…
Motivated by recent accurate measurements of disk/jet coprecessions around some galactic supermassive black holes, the accelerations experienced by an uncharged, spinless object in the Kerr metric, written in harmonic coordinates, are…
A viable weak-field and slow-motion approximation method is constructed in $F(R,R_{\mu\nu}R^{\mu\nu}, R_{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}R^{\mu\nu\rho\sigma})$ gravity, a general class of fourth-order theories of gravity. By applying this method, the…