Are we close to put the anomalous perihelion precessions from Verlinde's emergent gravity to the test?

TL;DR

This paper assesses whether the predicted anomalous perihelion precession from Verlinde's emergent gravity could be tested with current planetary data, especially focusing on Mars, and finds it near current detection limits.

Contribution

It evaluates the observational prospects of testing Verlinde's emergent gravity predictions against planetary precession data, highlighting Mars as the most promising candidate.

Findings

Verlinde's predicted precession for Mars is about 0.09 mas/cy.

Current ephemerides constrain non-standard precessions above 0.02-0.11 mas/cy.

Other systems like satellites and pulsars are less viable for testing due to smaller effects.

Abstract

In the framework of the emergent gravity scenario by Verlinde, it was recently observed by Liu and Prokopec that, among other things, an anomalous pericenter precession would affect the orbital motion of a test particle orbiting an isolated central body. Here, it is shown that, if it were real, its expected magnitude for the inner planets of the Solar System would be at the same level of the present-day accuracy in constraining any possible deviations from their standard perihelion precessions as inferred from long data records spanning about the last century. The most favorable situation for testing the Verlinde-type precession seems to occur for Mars. Indeed, according to recent versions of the EPM and INPOP planetary ephemerides, non-standard perihelion precessions, of whatsoever physical origin, which are larger than some $\approx 0.02-0.11$ milliarcseconds per century are not admissible, while the putative precession predicted by Liu and Prokopec amounts to $0.09$ milliarcseconds per century. Other potentially interesting astronomical and astrophysical scenarios like, e.g., the Earth's LAGEOS II artificial satellite, the double pulsar system PSR J0737-3039A/B and the S-stars orbiting the Supermassive Black Hole in Sgr A$^\ast$ are, instead, not viable because of the excessive smallness of the predicted effects for them.