Constraining the Mass of the Graviton with the Planetary Ephemeris INPOP
Abstract
We use the planetary ephemeris INPOP17b to constrain the existence of a Yukawa suppression to the Newtonian potential, generically associated with the graviton's mass. We also give an interpretation of this result for a specific case of fifth force framework. We find that the residuals for the Cassini spacecraft significantly (90% C.L.) degrade for Compton wavelengths of the graviton smaller than 1.83 ×1013 km , which correspond to a graviton mass bigger than 6.76 ×10-23 eV /c2. This limit is comparable in magnitude to the one obtained by the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration in the radiative regime. We also use this specific example to defend that constraints on alternative theories of gravity obtained from postfit residuals may be generically overestimated.
- Publication:
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Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- October 2019
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1901.04307
- Bibcode:
- 2019PhRvL.123p1103B
- Keywords:
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- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- New version. Technical details moved into Supplemental Materials. Author Pierre Deram added. Interpretation in terms of fifth force added. Minor corrections. 8 pages. 4 figures. 2 tables