Living Reviews in Relativity· 2014Q1
The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment
- 3,890citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2014year
Short summary
Experiments have confirmed Einstein's equivalence principle and tested general relativity at the post-Newtonian level with high precision, with gravitational wave damping agreeing with predictions to better than 0.5%.
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Key points
- Einstein's equivalence principle is robustly supported by experiments like the Eötvös experiment and gravitational redshift tests.
- Post-Newtonian tests of general relativity, including light deflection and Shapiro time delay, have achieved high precision.
- Gravitational wave damping in binary pulsars, such as the Hulse-Taylor system, agrees with general relativity to better than 0.5%.
- Ongoing experiments search for new physics, such as unification or quantum gravity effects, by testing the equivalence principle and inverse square law.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
The status of experimental tests of general relativity and of theoretical frameworks for analyzing them is reviewed. Einstein's equivalence principle (EEP) is well supported by experiments such as the Eötvös experiment, tests of special relativity, and the gravitational redshift experiment. Ongoing tests of EEP and of the inverse square law are searching for new interactions arising from unification or quantum gravity. Tests of general relativity at the post-Newtonian level have reached high precision, including the light deflection, the Shapiro time delay, the perihelion advance of Mercury, and the Nordtvedt effect in lunar motion. Gravitational wave damping has been detected in an amount that agrees with general relativity to better than half a percent using the Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar, and other binary pulsar systems have yielded other tests, especially of strong-field effects. When direct observation of gravitational radiation from astrophysical sources begins, new tests of general relativity will be possible.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Living Reviews in Relativity, 2014 · DOI ↗
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Field: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy and AstrophysicsPhysics and Astronomy