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Prospects for probing strong gravity with a pulsar-black hole system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2013

N. Wex ,
K. Liu ,
R. P. Eatough ,
M. Kramer ,
J. M. Cordes  and
T. J. W. Lazio
N. Wex
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany email: wex@mpifr.de
K. Liu
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement, LPCE UMR 6115 CNRS, F-45071 Orleans Cedex 02, France Station de radioastronomie de Nancay, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS/INSU, F-18330 Nancay, France
R. P. Eatough
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany email: wex@mpifr.de
M. Kramer
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany email: wex@mpifr.de University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan-Turing Building, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
J. M. Cordes
Affiliation:
Astronomy Dept., Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
T. J. W. Lazio
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, M/S 138-308, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
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Abstract

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The discovery of a pulsar (PSR) in orbit around a black hole (BH) is expected to provide a superb new probe of relativistic gravity and BH properties. Apart from a precise mass measurement for the BH, one could expect a clean verification of the dragging of space-time caused by the BH spin. In order to measure the quadrupole moment of the BH for testing the no-hair theorem of general relativity (GR), one has to hope for a sufficiently massive BH. In this respect, a PSR orbiting the super-massive BH in the center of our Galaxy would be the ultimate laboratory for gravity tests with PSRs. But even for gravity theories that predict the same properties for BHs as GR, a PSR-BH system would constitute an excellent test system, due to the high grade of asymmetry in the strong field properties of these two components. Here we highlight some of the potential gravity tests that one could expect from different PSR-BH systems, utilizing present and future radio telescopes, like FAST and SKA.

Keywords

pulsars: generalblack hole physicsrelativity
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 8 , Symposium S291: Neutron Stars and Pulsars: Challenges and Opportunities after 80 years , August 2012 , pp. 171 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013

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