Constraining spacetime torsion with the Moon and Mercury

Abstract

We report a search for new gravitational physics phenomena based on Einstein-Cartan theory of General Relativity including spacetime torsion. Starting from the parametrized torsion framework of Mao, Tegmark, Guth and Cabi, we analyze the motion of test bodies in the presence of torsion, and in particular we compute the corrections to the perihelion advance and to the orbital geodetic precession of a satellite. We describe the torsion field by means of three parameters, and we make use of the autoparallel trajectories, which in general may differ from geodesics when torsion is present. We derive the equations of motion of a test body in a spherically symmetric field, and the equations of motion of a satellite in the gravitational field of the Sun and the Earth. We calculate the secular variations of the longitudes of the node and of the pericenter of the satellite. The computed secular variations show how the corrections to the perihelion advance and to the orbital de Sitter effect depend on the torsion parameters. All computations are performed under the assumptions of weak field and slow motion. To test our predictions, we use the measurements of the Moon geodetic precession from lunar laser ranging data, and the measurements of Mercury's perihelion advance from planetary radar ranging data. These measurements are then used to constrain suitable linear combinations of the torsion parameters.

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Cited by in corpus (18)

• Weak-Field Spherically Symmetric Solutions in $f(T)$ gravity
• Friedmann-like universes with torsion
• On Poincaré gauge theory of gravity, its equations of motion, and Gravity Probe B
• Equations of motion in gravity theories with nonminimal coupling: a loophole to detect torsion macroscopically?
• Constraining spacetime torsion with LAGEOS
• Prospects of detecting spacetime torsion
• Quantum effects on Lagrangian points and displaced periodic orbits in the Earth-Moon system
• Earth-Moon Lagrangian points as a testbed for general relativity and effective field theories of gravity
• Acceleration in Friedmann cosmology with torsion
• Cosmological inflation driven by a scalar torsion function
• Stability in quadratic torsion theories
• Effect of TTC on Satellite Orbital Mechanics
• Orbit determination methods for interplanetary missions: development and use of the Orbit14 software
• Revisiting Friedmann-like cosmology with torsion: newest constraints from high-redshift observations
• Black holes in torsion bigravity
• Solar system dynamics in general relativity
• Black holes in the long-range limit of torsion bigravity
• The Role of Torsion in Trans-Planckian Physics