Testing f(R)-theories using the first time derivative of the orbital period of the binary pulsars

TL;DR

This study tests f(R)-theories of gravity by analyzing the first time derivative of orbital periods in binary pulsars, comparing theoretical predictions with observations to constrain the theories.

Contribution

It introduces a method to constrain f(R)-gravity using binary pulsar data and estimates parameters of the theory based on observational comparisons.

Findings

f(R)-theories are not ruled out by current data for double neutron star systems

theories can explain the gap between GR predictions and observed data in some cases

constraints on f(R) parameters are derived from binary pulsar observations

Abstract

In this paper we use one of the Post-Keplerian parameters to obtain constraints on f(R)-theories of gravity. Using Minkowskian limit, we compute the prediction of f(R)-theories on the first time derivative of the orbital period of a sample of binary stars, and we use our theoretical results to perform a comparison with the observed one. Selecting a sample of relativistic binary systems we estimate the parameters of an analytic f(R)-gravity. We find that the theory is not ruled out if we consider only the double neutron star systems, and in this case we can cover the existing gap between the General Relativity prediction and the observed data.