On the Speed of Gravity and the Jupiter/Quasar Measurement

Abstract

I present the theory and analysis behind the experiment by Fomalont and Kopeikin involving Jupiter and quasar J0842+1845 that purported to measure the speed of gravity. The computation of the v_J/c correction to the gravitational time delay difference relevant to the experiment is derived, where v_J is the speed of Jupiter as measured from Earth. Since the v_J/c corrections are too small to have been measured in the Jupiter/quasar experiment, it is impossible that the speed of gravity was extracted from the data, and I explain what when wrong with the data analysis. Finally, mistakes are shown in papers by Fomalont and Kopeikin intended to rebut my work and the work of others.

LaTeX (or Latex, etc), two figures, which are also available at http://www-theory.lbl.gov/~samuel/figure1.pdf and http://www-theory.lbl.gov/~samuel/figure2.pdf

References in corpus (6)

• The Measurement of the Light Deflection from Jupiter: Experimental Results
• Propagation Speed of Gravity and the Relativistic Time Delay
• Testing Relativistic Effect of Propagation of Gravity by Very-Long Baseline Interferometry
• The Light-cone Effect on the Shapiro Time Delay
• The Post-Newtonian Treatment of the VLBI Experiment on September 8, 2002
• On the Speed of Gravity and the $v/c$ Corrections to the Shapiro Time Delay

Cited by in corpus (11)

• The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment
• The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment
• Micro-arcsecond light bending by Jupiter
• The emergence of a universal limiting speed
• Aberration and the Fundamental Speed of Gravity in the Jovian Deflection Experiment
• Gravitomagnetism and the Speed of Gravity
• On gravito-magnetic time delay by extended lenses
• On gravitational lensing by deflectors in motion
• Light propagation in 2PN approximation in the field of one moving monopole II. Boundary value problem
• Comments on the paper by S. Samuel "On the speed of gravity and the Jupiter/Quasar measurement"
• On the Speed of Gravity and Relativistic v/c Corrections to the Shapiro Time Delay