Related papers: Tests of Classical Gravity with Radio Pulsars
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…
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…
Pulsars of very different types - isolated objects, and binaries with short- and long-period orbits, white-dwarf and neutron-star companions - provide the means to test both the predictions of general relativity and the viability of…
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 systems containing at least one radiopulsar are excellent laboratories to test several aspects of fundamental physics like matter properties in conditions of extreme density and theories of gravitation like the Einstein's General…
This talk reviews the constraints imposed by binary-pulsar data on gravity theories, focusing on ``tensor-scalar'' ones which are the best motivated alternatives to general relativity. We recall that binary-pulsar tests are qualitatively…
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…
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…
Radio-loud neutron stars known as pulsars allow a wide range of experimental tests for fundamental physics, ranging from the study of super-dense matter to tests of general relativity and its alternatives. As a result, pulsars provide…
Binary systems comprising at least one neutron star contain strong gravitational field regions and thereby provide a testing ground for strong-field gravity. Two types of data can be used to test the law of gravity in compact binaries:…
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…
In Einstein's general relativity (GR), gravity is described by a massless spin-2 metric field, and the extension of GR to include a mass term for the graviton has profound implication for gravitation and cosmology. Besides the gravity…
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…
This talk reviews the constraints imposed by binary-pulsar data on gravity theories, and notably on "scalar-tensor" theories which are the most natural alternatives to general relativity. Because neutron stars have a strong gravitational…
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…
The initial results from timing observations of PSR J1141-6545, a relativistic pulsar white-dwarf binary system, are presented. Predictions from the timing baseline hint at the most stringent test of gravity by an asymmetric binary yet. The…
Continued observations of the Double Pulsar, PSR J0737-3039A/B, consisting of two radio pulsars (A and B) that orbit each other with a period of 2.45hr in a mildly eccentric (e=0.088) binary system, have led to large improvements in the…
The double pulsar system, PSR J0737-3039A/B, is unique in that both neutron stars are detectable as radio pulsars. This, combined with significantly higher mean orbital velocities and accelerations when compared to other binary pulsars,…
Pulsars are the most stable macroscopic clocks found in nature. Spinning with periods as short as a few milliseconds, their stability can supersede that of the best atomic clocks on Earth over timescales of a few years. Stable clocks are…
We review the general relativistic theory of the motion, and of the timing, of binary systems containing compact objects (neutron stars or black holes). Then we indicate the various ways one can use binary pulsar data to test the…