Pulsar timing and relativistic gravity
Pulsar timing and relativistic gravity
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DOI：
10.1098/rsta.1992.0088
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发表时间：
1992-10
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Joseph H. Taylor
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Joseph H. Taylor
除了本身是令人着迷的研究对象之外，光子晶体还是探索基础物理学中各种问题的精致工具。被认为是在以前的轨道伴星的质量吸积事件中旋转起来的带壳类星体，特别适合这种应用。它们是非常稳定的时钟，接近甚至可能超过最好的地球时间标准的长期稳定性。它们大多数存在于双星系统中，轨道速度大至10- 3c。它们为测量中子星星质量提供了独特的机会，从而产生了难以通过任何其他手段获得的基本天体物理数据。它们为在比太阳系内任何地方都更“相对论”的条件下对引力性质进行高精度测试开辟了道路。在其他结果中，脉冲星计时观测令人信服地建立了以光速传播的四极引力波的存在。他们还对引力的强场性质可能偏离广义相对论、牛顿常数G的变化率以及宇宙中低频引力波的能量密度进行了有趣的限制。
In addition to being fascinating objects to study in their own right, pulsars are exquisite tools for probing a variety of issues in basic physics. Recycled pulsars, thought to have been spun up in previous episodes of mass accretion from orbiting companion stars, are especially well suited for such applications. They are extraordinarily stable clocks, approaching and perhaps exceeding the long-term stabilities of the best terrestrial time standards. Most of them are found in binary systems, with orbital velocities as large as 10-3 c. They provide unique opportunities for measuring neutron star masses, thereby yielding fundamental astrophysical data difficult to acquire by any other means. And they open the way for high precision tests of the nature of gravity under conditions much more ‘relativistic ’ than found anywhere within the Solar System. Among other results, pulsar timing observations have convincingly established the existence of quadrupolar gravitational waves propagating at the speed of light. They have also placed interesting limits on possible departures of the strong-field nature of gravity from general relativity, on the rate of change of Newton’s constant, G, and on the energy density of low-frequency gravitational waves in the universe.