Relativistic gravitational deflection of light and its impact on the modeling accuracy for the Space Interferometry Mission

TL;DR

This paper assesses how relativistic gravitational effects influence the accuracy of the Space Interferometry Mission, emphasizing the need for a relativistic model to ensure precise astrometric measurements and estimating the potential to measure the Eddington parameter .

Contribution

It introduces a differential relativistic model for SIM measurements and provides estimates for gravitational deflection effects and the precision in measuring .

Findings

Gravitational deflections exceed the 1 uas accuracy in many cases.

A relativistic model is necessary for accurate SIM data analysis.

Potential to measure  with an accuracy of ~7 x 10^{-6}.

Abstract

We study the impact of relativistic gravitational deflection of light on the accuracy of future Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). We estimate the deflection angles caused by the monopole, quadrupole and octupole components of gravitational fields for a number of celestial bodies in the solar system. We observe that, in many cases, the magnitude of the corresponding effects is significantly larger than the 1 uas accuracy expected from SIM. This fact argues for the development of a relativistic observational model for the mission that would account for the influence of both static and time-varying effects of gravity on light propagation. Results presented here are different from the ones obtained elsewhere by the fact that we specifically account for the differential nature of the future SIM astrometric measurements. We also obtain an estimate for the accuracy of possible determination of the Eddington's parameter \gamma via SIM global astrometric campaign; we conclude that accuracy of ~7 x 10^{-6} is achievable via measurements of deflection of light by solar gravity.