Back to Search
Start Over
Measurement of gravitational spin-orbit coupling in a binary pulsar system
- Publication Year :
- 2004
-
Abstract
- In relativistic gravity, a spinning pulsar will precess as it orbits a compact companion star. We have measured the effect of such precession on the average shape and polarization of the radiation from PSR B1534+12. We have also detected, with limited precision, special-relativistic aberration of the revolving pulsar beam due to orbital motion. Our observations fix the system geometry, including the misalignment between the spin and orbital angular momenta, and yield a measurement of the precession timescale consistent with the predictions of General Relativity.<br />4 pages, accepted to PRL. Version with high-resolution figure 2 available at http://www.astro.ubc.ca/people/stairs/papers/sta04b.ps.gz
- Subjects :
- Physics
010308 nuclear & particles physics
General relativity
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics (astro-ph)
FOS: Physical sciences
General Physics and Astronomy
Astrophysics
01 natural sciences
Binary pulsar
Gravitation
Theory of relativity
Pulsar
Millisecond pulsar
0103 physical sciences
Orbital motion
Binary star
Physics::Space Physics
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....9ca4e0be3d731193741a33ac00b6b8a2