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A new test of conservation laws and Lorentz invariance in relativistic gravity

J F Bell, T Damour

gr-qcarXiv:gr-qc/9606062

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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