Related papers: Astrometry and Relativity
Arbitrariness in the zero point of bolometric corrections is a nearly century-old paradigm leading to two more paradigms. "Bolometric corrections must always be negative," and "bolometric magnitude of a star ought to be brighter than its…
The Galactic center offers us a unique opportunity to test General Relativity (GR) with the orbits of stars around a supermassive black hole. Observations of these stars have been one of the great successes of adaptive optics on 8-10 m…
Abridged: The golden age of astrophysics is upon us with both grand discoveries (extra-solar planets, dark matter, dark energy) and precision cosmology. Fundamental understanding of the working of stars and galaxies is within reach, thanks…
This work analyzes in some detail the feasibility of testing with astrometric measurements the hypothesis that Quantum Vacuum can have gravitational effects, as suggested in a series of recent papers ([3, 6, 5]). In particular, the…
The laser-tracked geodetic satellites LAGEOS, LAGEOS II and LARES are currently employed, among other things, to measure the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitomagnetic field of the spinning Earth with the hope of…
After a brief introduction to the sixteenth and seventeenth century views of the Universe and the nineteenth century paradox of Olbers, we start the history of the cosmic expansion with Hubble's epochal discovery of the recession velocities…
Recent investigations (e.g. Han et al. 2001) have shown that fitting the Hipparcos observations with an orbital model when the astrometric wobble caused by the companion is below the noise level can have rather unexpected consequences. With…
IAU 2000 resolutions on the reference frames set up a solid theoretical foundation for implementing general relativity in astronomical data processing algorithms and for unambiguous interpretation of measured relativistic effects. We…
Most binaries are undetected. Astrometric reductions of a system using the assumption that the object moves like a single point mass can be biased by unresolved binary stars. The discrepancy between the centre of mass of the system (which…
This paper analyses the relativistic stellar aberration requirements for the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). We address the issue of general relativistic deflection of light by the massive self-gravitating bodies. Specifically, we…
Thanks to the availability of high-resolution high-sensitivity telescopes such as the Very Large Array, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, there is now a wealth of observational data on relativistic jets from…
Fermat's principle applied to a flat metric in the plane yields the phase of a Bessel function in the periodic domain for a constant index of refraction. Gravitational forces cause the index of refraction to vary and lead to a modified…
We consider a nearly free falling Earth satellite where atomic wave interferometers are tied to a telescope pointing towards a faraway star. They measure the acceleration and the rotation relatively to the local inertial frame. We calculate…
Gravitational waves affect the observed direction of light from distant sources. At telescopes, this change in direction appears as periodic variations in the apparent positions of these sources on the sky; that is, as proper motion. A wave…
A possible deviation from the precession of the Gravity Probe-B gyroscope predicted by general relativity is obtained in the nonsymmetric gravity theory. The time delay of radio signals emitted by spacecraft at planetary distances from the…
We develop a relativistic treatment of interference between light reflected from a falling cube retroreflector in the vertical arm of an interferometer, and light in a reference beam in the horizontal arm. Coordinates that are nearly…
The goal of this paper is to investigate the detection by GRAVITY of different relativistic effects affecting the astrometric and/or spectroscopic observations of S2 such as the transverse Doppler shift, the gravitational redshift, the…
Almost all of the studies devoted to relativistic astrometry are based on the integration of the null geodesic differential equations. However, the gravitational deflection of light rays can be calculated by a different method, based on the…
The theory of General Relativity predicts that, since massive bodies curve spacetime, light from a distant source would be deflected by a foreground massive object -- a phenomenon known as \emph{Gravitational Lensing}. Historically, the…
The recent asteroseismic data from the CoRoT and Kepler missions have provided an entirely new basis for investigating stellar properties. This has led to a rapid development in techniques for analysing such data, although it is probably…