Pulsar timing and relativistic gravity

Measurements of the times of arrival of pulsar signals at Earth provide uniquely powerful tools for experiments in relativistic gravity. The results of such experiments improve rapidly as the span of repeated observations lengthens, and in one instance the relevant data span is now approaching 20 years. The author briefly summarizes and updates two of the most important results of pulsar timing experiments pertinent to relativity and gravitation. The rate of orbital period decay of binary pulsar PSR B1913+16 has been measured with accuracy 0.35%, and is found to be in excellent accord with the prediction for gravitational radiation damping in general relativity. A more recently discovered binary pulsar system, PSR B1534+12 has provided a unique test of strong-field gravitational effects-and these results, too, are fully consistent with relativity.

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