The principle that all objects accelerate identically, regardless of their own gravity, when falling in an external gravitational field has passed the most stringent test to date. Scientists observed the motions of a binary star system containing a neutron star closely orbited by a white dwarf, which are, in turn, both orbited by another, distant white dwarf. This triple-star system allowed investigation of how the pull of the outer white dwarf influences both the inner dwarf and its companion neutron star, which has strong self-gravity. The findings improve on previous tests of the equivalence principle of Einstein’s general theory of relativity by a factor of a thousand.
Nature
Published July 04, 2018 (News release from Nature Research Press)
URL after publication
Canadian co-author: Ingrid Stairs, University of British Columbia – stairs@astro.ubc.ca
