A new test of conservation laws and Lorentz invariance in relativistic gravity
Abstract
General relativity predicts that energy and momentum conservation laws hold and that preferred frames do not exist. The parametrised post-Newtonian formalism (PPN) phenomenologically quantifies possible deviations from general relativity. The PPN parameter alpha3 (which identically vanishes in general relativity) plays a dual role in that it is associated both with a violation of the momentum conservation law, and with the existence of a preferred frame. By considering the effects of alpha3 neq 0 in certain binary pulsar systems, it is shown that alpha3 < 2.2 x 10-20 (90% CL). This limit improves on previous results by several orders of magnitude, and shows that pulsar tests of alpha3 rank (together with Hughes-Drever-type tests of local Lorentz invariance) among the most precise null experiments of physics.
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