Pulsar Timing Observations and Tests of General Relativity in Double-Neutron-Star Binaries

Abstract

We describe the techniques used in pulsar timing observations, and show how these observations may be applied to tests of strong-field general relativity for double-neutron-star binary systems. We describe the tests of GR resulting from the PSRs B1913+16 and B1534+12 systems. For the latter pulsar, 5 "Post-Keplerian" timing parameters are measurable, including the orbital period derivative and the two Shapiro delay parameters.