Einstein’s General relativity (GR) is the basis of modern astronomy and astrophysics. Testing the validity of basic assumptions of GR is important. In this work, we test a possible violation of the weak equivalence principle (WEP), i.e. there might be a time lag between photons of different frequencies caused by the effect of gravitational fields if the speeds of photons are slightly different at different frequencies. We use Fast radio bursts (FRBs), which are astronomical transients with millisecond time-scales detected in the radio frequency range. Being at cosmological distances, accumulated time delay of FRBs can be caused by the plasma in between an FRB source and an observer, and by gravitational fields in the path of the signal. We segregate the delay due to dispersion and gravitational field using the post-Newtonian formalism (PPN) parameter Δγ, which defines the space curvature due to gravity by a unit test mass. We did not detect any time delay from FRBs but obtained tight constraints on the upper limit of Δγ. For FRB20181117C with z = 1.83 ± 0.28 and νobs = $676.5\, {\rm MHz}$, the best possible constraint is obtained at log(Δγ) = $-21.58 ^{+0.10}_{-0.12}$ and log(Δγ/rE) = $-21.75 ^{+0.10}_{-0.14}$, respectively, where rE is the energy ratio of two photons of the same FRB signal. This constraint is about one order of magnitude better than the previous constraint obtained with FRBs, and five orders tighter than any constraint obtained using other cosmological sources.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.