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A test of general relativity from the three-dimensional orbital geometry of a binary pulsar

Nature volume 412, pages 158–160 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

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 rate of orbital decay of two pulsars have been shown1,2 to be consistent with the emission of gravitational waves as predicted by general relativity, but independent verification was not possible. Such verification can in principle be obtained by determining the orbital inclination in a binary pulsar system using only classical geometrical constraints. This would permit a measurement of the expected retardation of the pulse signal arising from the general relativistic curvature of space-time in the vicinity of the companion object (the ‘Shapiro delay’). Here we report high-precision radio observations of the binary millisecond pulsar PSR J0437-4715, which establish the three-dimensional structure of its orbit. We see the Shapiro delay predicted by general relativity, and we determine the mass of the neutron star and its white dwarf companion. The determination of such masses is necessary in order to understand the origin and evolution of neutron stars3.

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Figure 1: The three-dimensional orientation of the pulsar orbit is determined using a classical geometric model.
Figure 2: Arrival time residuals confirm the predicted space-time distortion induced by the pulsar companion.

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Acknowledgements

The Parkes Observatory is part of the Australia Telescope which is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO. We thank the staff at Parkes Observatory for technical assistance and performance of regular observations. S.R.K. and S.B.A. thank NSF and NASA for supporting their work at Parkes. We also thank R. Edwards and M. Toscano for comments on the text. We received support from Compaq and the Space Geodynamics Laboratory of the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology. M. Bailes is an ARC Senior Research Fellow.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, Australia

    W. van Straten, M. Bailes & M. Britton

  2. Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Mail Code 220-47, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    S. R, Kulkarni & S. B. Anderson

  3. Australia Telescope National Facility—CSIRO, PO Box 76, Epping, 1710, New South Wales, Australia

    R. N. Manchester & J. Sarkissian

Authors
  1. W. van Straten
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  2. M. Bailes
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  3. M. Britton
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  4. S. R, Kulkarni
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  5. S. B. Anderson
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  6. R. N. Manchester
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  7. J. Sarkissian
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Correspondence to W. van Straten.

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van Straten, W., Bailes, M., Britton, M. et al. A test of general relativity from the three-dimensional orbital geometry of a binary pulsar. Nature 412, 158–160 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35084015

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