Limits on Long-Range Fields Derived from Binary Radio Pulsars

Details Limits on Long-Range Fields Derived from Binary Radio Pulsars Limits on Long-Range Fields Derived from Binary Radio Pulsars

Mar 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996apj...460..390g&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal v.460, p.390

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Gravitation, Stars: Pulsars: General, Stars: Neutron, Stars: Pulsars: Individual Alphanumeric: Psr 0655+64, Stars: Pulsars: Individual Alphanumeric: Psr 1913+16, Relativity

Scientific paper

Neutron stars, notably binary radio pulsars, are used to set limits on long-range scalar and vector fields. Such fields suggested by various particle physics models give rise to long-range forces in addition to gravity: a scalar attractive force and a vector repulsive force. It has been argued that if the coupling strengths of the two forces are equal, they would cancel each other and would pass undetected in terrestrial and solar system experiments. Furthermore, it has been suggested that a vector with range comparable to a galactic scale combined with a scalar, of an equal strength but a much longer range, could explain flat galactic rotation curves without dark matter.
In this paper we show that the cancellation of the scalar and vector forces would not occur for gravitationally compact objects. The net force is larger, the larger the specific binding energy. Thus, the mere existence of stably bound neutron stars provides a significant limit on the coupling strength of the fields to baryons. Stronger constraints are obtained from timing data of binary radio pulsars. The orbital motion of the binary members results in an emission of radiation of the scalar and vector fields, which leads to a shortening of the orbital period. The dominant radiation terms are dipole, with the dipole moments larger, the larger the difference between the specific binding energies of the binary members. This makes close binary radio pulsars with white dwarf companions ideal systems for testing such fields.
We derive the rate of change of the orbital period resulting from this radiation and compare it to the timing data of two such pulsars: PSR 0665+64 and PSR 1855+09. We obtain that the coupling to baryon number is at most ˜0.13 of the gravitational coupling, and the coupling to lepton number is less than ˜0.02 of the gravitational coupling. The derived bounds rule out the possibility that these fields could provide an alternative to dark matter.
When the companion is a neutron star, as in PSR 1913+ 16, the dipole moments are much smaller and are very sensitive to the values of the masses of the binary members. In the presence of the additional fields, the mass values inferred from the measurements will depend on the coupling strength to baryon number. Allowing for the possibility that such a dependence will slightly decrease the difference between the two masses yields an upper limit on the strength of the coupling to baryon number of ˜0.45 of the gravitational coupling.

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