Solar System planetary tests of \dot c/c

TL;DR

This study investigates whether the speed of light has varied over the last century by analyzing planetary perihelion precessions, finding no significant variation and setting constraints on c/cb.

Contribution

It provides the first constraints on the temporal variation of the speed of light using planetary orbital data and perihelion precession measurements.

Findings

c/cb = (0.5 b 7 2) d7 10^{-7} yr^{-1}

Variation of c/cb over the last century is statistically insignificant

Ratios of perihelia for different planet pairs strongly constrain c/cb variations

Abstract

Analytical and numerical calculations show that a putative temporal variation of the speed of light c, with the meaning of space-time structure constant c_ST, assumed to be linear over timescales of about one century, would induce a secular precession of the longitude of the pericenter \varpi of a test particle orbiting a spherically symmetric body. By comparing such a predicted effect to the corrections \Delta\dot\varpi to the usual Newtonian/Einsteinian perihelion precessions of the inner planets of the Solar System, recently estimated by E.V. Pitjeva by fitting about one century of modern astronomical observations with the standard dynamical force models of the EPM epehemerides, we obtained \dot c/c =(0.5 +/- 2)\times 10^-7 yr^-1. Moreover, the possibility that \dot c/c\neq 0 over the last century is ruled out at 3-12\sigma level by taking the ratios of the perihelia for different pairs of planets. Our results are independent of any measurement of the variations of other fundamental constants which may be explained by a variation of $c$ itself (with the meaning of electromagnetic constant c_EM). It will be important to repeat such tests if and when other teams of astronomers will estimate their own corrections to the standard Newtonian/Einsteinian planetary perihelion precessions.