Tests of local Lorentz invariance violation of gravity in the standard model extension with pulsars

Abstract

Standard-model extension (SME) is an effective field theory introducing all possible Lorentz-violating (LV) operators to the standard model (SM) and general relativity (GR). In the pure-gravity sector of minimal SME (mSME), nine coefficients describe dominant observable deviations from GR. We systematically implemented twenty-seven tests from thirteen pulsar systems to tightly constrain eight linear combinations of these coefficients with extensive Monte Carlo simulations. It constitutes the first detailed and systematic test of the pure-gravity sector of mSME with the state-of-the-art pulsar observations. No deviation from GR was detected. The limits of LV coefficients are expressed in the canonical Sun-centered celestial-equatorial frame for convenience of further studies. They are all improved by significant factors of tens to hundreds with existing ones. As a consequence, Einstein's equivalence principle is verified substantially further by pulsar experiments in terms of local Lorentz invariance in gravity.