$f(T)$ gravity: effects on astronomical observation and Solar System experiments and upper-bounds

Abstract

As an extension of a previous work in which perihelion advances are considered only and as an attempt to find more stringent constraints on its parameters, we investigate effects on astronomical observation and experiments conducted in the Solar System due to the $f(T)$ gravity which contains a quadratic correction of $\alpha T^2$ ($\alpha$ is a model parameter) and the cosmological constant $\Lambda$. Using a spherical solution describing the Sun's gravitational field, the resulting secular evolution of planetary orbital motions, light deflection, gravitational time delay and frequency shift are calculated up to the leading contribution. Among them, we find qualitatively that the light deflection holds a unique bound on $\alpha$, without dependence on $\Lambda$, and the time delay experiments during inferior conjunction impose a clean constraint on $\Lambda$, regardless of $\alpha$. Based on observation and experiments, especially the supplementary advances in the perihelia provided by the INPOP10a ephemeris, we obtain the upper-bounds quantitatively: $|\alpha| \le 1.2 \times 10^{2}$ m${}^2$ and $ |\Lambda| \le 1.8 \times 10^{-43}$ m${}^{-2}$, at least 10 times tighter than the previous result.