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A study published in Nature this week saw Einstein's theory of general relativity proven correct even in a massive three-star system. Experience has shown that the scientist was right about gravity even at the most extreme scales.
"This research shows how a regular and careful observation of distant stars can give us a high-precision test of one of the fundamental theories of physics" said in a statement Ingrid Stairs, professor at Department of Physics and Astronomy at UBC and a co-author of the study.
Theory still applies
Einstein's theory of relativity indicates that all objects fall in the same way. However, some scientists have speculated that under certain conditions, such as cases of extreme gravity, the theory may no longer apply.
The researchers observed the gravitational behavior in a three-star system called PSR J0337 + 1715. The massive system located at 4,200 light-years consists of two white dwarfs and a neutron star, an example ideal of an extreme scale.
The neutron star system was discovered in 2014 and led to study in Nature who speculated that the system could be used to test the theory of Einstein. " The gravitational field of the outer white dwarf strongly accelerates the internal binary containing the neutron star, and the system will thus provide an ideal laboratory for testing the principle of strong equivalence of general relativity", reads in the study. ] Six years of study
Astronomers conducted detailed study of the massive system for six years using several telescopes. "We can explain every pulse of the neutron star since we started our observations, and we can say its location a few hundred meters away," said Anne Archibald, lead author of the paper and postdoctoral researcher at the University of New York. 39, University of Amsterdam and ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute of Radioastronomy.
The team followed the pair of inner stars over several orbits of the outer white dwarf. This allowed the scientists to determine how the pulsar and the inner white dwarf were affected by the gravity of the outer white dwarf.
Finally, the researchers found no detectable difference indicating that no other theory of gravity was moving. "There is a difference, it's not more than three parts in a million," said Nina Gusinskaia, Ph.D. student at the University of Amsterdam and co – author of the study.
"Whenever we have tested Einstein's theory of relativity up to now, the results have been consistent," Stairs said. "But we continue to look for deviations from relativity because it could help us understand how to describe gravity and quantum mechanics with the same mathematical language."
The study should deter anyone with alternative theories of gravity. The extreme nature of the observed system has resulted in an even narrower range of theoretical possibilities than ever before.
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