Testing Theories of Gravitation Using 21-Year Timing of Pulsar Binary J1713+0747

Abstract

We report 21-yr timing of one of the most precise pulsars: PSR J1713+0747. Its pulse times of arrival are well modeled by a comprehensive pulsar binary model including its three-dimensional orbit and a noise model that incorporates correlated noise such as jitter and red noise. Its timing residuals have weighted root mean square $\sim 92$ ns. The new dataset allows us to update and improve previous measurements of the system properties, including the masses of the neutron star ($1.31\pm 0.11$ $M_{\odot }$) and the companion white dwarf ($0.286\pm 0.012$ $M_{\odot }$) and the parallax distance $1.15\pm 0.03$ kpc. We measured the intrinsic change in orbital period, ${\dot{P}}_{\mathrm{b}}^{\mathrm{Int}}$, is $-0.20\pm 0.17$ ps s${}^{-1}$, which is not distinguishable from zero. This result, combined with the measured ${\dot{P}}_{\mathrm{b}}^{\mathrm{Int}}$ of other pulsars, can place a generic limit on potential changes in the gravitational constant $G$. We found that $\dot{G}/G$ is consistent with zero [$(-0.6\pm 1.1)\times 10^{-12}$ yr${}^{-1}$, 95\% confidence] and changes at least a factor of $31$ (99.7\% confidence) more slowly than the average expansion rate of the Universe. This is the best $\dot{G}/G$ limit from pulsar binary systems. The ${\dot{P}}_{\mathrm{b}}^{\mathrm{Int}}$ of pulsar binaries can also place limits on the putative coupling constant for dipole gravitational radiation ${\kappa }_D=(-0.9\pm 3.3)\times 10^{-4}$ (95\% confidence). Finally, the nearly circular orbit of this pulsar binary allows us to constrain statistically the strong-field post-Newtonian parameters $\Delta$, which describes the violation of strong equivalence principle, and ${\hat{\alpha }}_3$, which describes a breaking of both Lorentz invariance in gravitation and conservation of momentum. We found, at 95\% confidence, $\Delta <0.01$ and ${\hat{\alpha }}_3<2\times 10^{-20}$ based on PSR J1713+0747.

arXiv comment14 pages, 6 figures. Published on ApJ, 809, 41 (2015)

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