Dr Michael Kramer (University of Manchester, UK)

Strong-field tests of gravity with the double pulsar and the SKA - Dr Michael Kramer Colloquium

ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

Our discovery of the first ever double pulsar system has lived up to
its promise to provide a truly unique laboratory for relativistic
gravitational physics. The results reviewed in this talk represent the
most stringent tests of general relativity in the strong-field regime
ever performed. In the near and far future, the system will provide
further measurements such as a relativistic deformation of the orbit,
aberration effects and also effects that require treatment at a level
of second Post-Newtonian order, including the first measurement of the
moment-of-inertia of a neutron star using relativistic spin-orbit
coupling. At the end of the decade, we expect strong-field tests to
be performed using pulsar orbiting black holes which will be discovered
with the Square-Kilometre-Array. The science case is briefly reviewed
at the end of this presentation.