The propagation delay in the timing of a pulsar orbiting a supermassive black hole

DOI10.1007/S10714-019-2517-2zbMATH Open1414.83032arXiv1806.02547OpenAlexW3104403082MaRDI QIDQ1730007FDOQ1730007

Authors: Eva Hackmann, Arnab Dhani 

Publication date: 7 March 2019

Published in: General Relativity and Gravitation (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The observation of a pulsar closely orbiting the galactic center supermassive black hole would open the window for an accurate determination of the black hole parameters and for new tests of General Relativity. An important relativistic effect which has to be taken into account in the timing model is the propagation delay of the pulses in the gravitational field of the black hole. Due to the extreme mass ratio of the pulsar and the supermassive back hole we use the test particle limit to derive an exact analytical formula for the propagation delay in a Schwarzschild spacetime. We then compare this result to the propagation delays derived in the usually employed post-Newtonian approximation, in particular to the Shapiro delay up to the second post-Newtonian order. For edge-on orbits we also consider modifications of the Shapiro delay which take the lensing effects into account. Our results are then used to assess the accuracy of the different orders of the post-Newtonian approximation of the propagation delay. This comparison indicates that for (nearly) edge-on orbits the new exact delay formula should be used.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.02547

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zbMATH Keywords

black holesSchwarzschild spacetimelight propagationpulsar timingShapiro delay

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Equations of motion in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C10) Black holes (83C57) Radiative transfer in astronomy and astrophysics (85A25)

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Cited In (4)

• Probing the vector charge of Sagittarius A* with pulsar timing
• A third-order approximation for time delay of light propagation in the equatorial plane of Kerr black hole
• Times of arrival (TOA) of signals in the Kerr-MOG black hole
• Observables from spherically symmetric modified dispersion relations

Uses Software

• TEMPO2

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