# Constraining the mass of the graviton with the planetary ephemeris INPOP

## TL;DR

This paper uses planetary ephemeris data to set new upper limits on the graviton's mass, showing that deviations in residuals can constrain alternative gravity theories.

## Contribution

It provides a novel constraint on the graviton mass using planetary ephemerides and discusses the implications for fifth force theories and residual analysis.

## Key findings

- Graviton mass limit of 6.76×10⁻²³ eV/c² from planetary data
- Residuals degrade significantly for Compton wavelengths below 1.83×10¹³ km
- Constraints are comparable to those from LIGO-Virgo in the radiative regime

## Abstract

We use the planetary ephemeris INPOP17b to constrain the mass of the graviton in the Newtonian limit. We also give an interpretation of this result for a specific case of fifth force framework. We find that the residuals for the Cassini spacecraft significantly (90\% C.L.) degrade for Compton wavelengths of the graviton smaller than $1.83\times 10^{13}$ km, corresponding to a graviton mass bigger than $6.76\times 10^{-23} eV/c^2$. This limit is comparable in magnitude to the one obtained by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration in the radiative regime. We also use this specific example to illustrate why constraints on alternative theories of gravity obtained from postfit residuals are generically overestimated.