Seven Novel Observational Tests of General Relativity

TL;DR

This paper proposes seven new observational tests of general relativity, exploring phenomena from gravitational waves to cosmic microwave background anisotropies and dark matter alternatives, with implications for astrophysics and cosmology.

Contribution

It introduces seven novel observational tests of general relativity, linking gravitational wave effects, cosmological limits, modified inertia, and dark matter interactions.

Findings

Gravitational wave pulses can cause permanent Earth-Moon distance increases.

Relativistic energy flux from cosmological sources has an absolute upper limit.

Modified inertia at low accelerations affects spacecraft fuel requirements.

Abstract

I study seven novel observational tests of general relativity. First, I show that a gravitational wave pulse from a major merger of massive black holes at the Galactic center induces a permanent increase in the Earth-Moon separation. Second, I show that General Relativity sets an absolute upper limit on the energy flux observed from a cosmological source as a function of its redshift. Third, I consider the implications of modified inertia at low accelerations for rockets. An attractive interpretation of MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) as an alternative to dark matter, changes the inertia of matter at low accelerations. I show that if inertia is modified at low accelerations, this suppresses the exponential factor for the required fuel mass in low acceleration journeys. Fourth, I show that in MOND the amplitude of the observed dipole of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) can originate from the primordial fluctuation amplitude on the scale of the cosmic horizon. Fifth, I show that the tidal gravitational potential of the Milky-Way galaxy removes fuzzy dark matter from its satellite dwarf galaxies through quantum-mechanical tunneling. Sixth, I show that a charged particle can be accelerated to arbitrarily high energies by maintaining a permanent resonance with the phase of a planar gravitational wave propagating along a uniform magnetic field. Seventh, I show that non-relativistic objects traveling in intergalactic space at an initial peculiar velocity $v$ will traverse in the future of the LCDM cosmological model a maximum comoving distance of ~(v/1.7H_0), irrespective of travel time, where H_0 is the Hubble constant. To reach beyond the Virgo cluster of galaxies, requires an initial peculiar speed >3,000km/s, a hundred times faster than the chemical rockets launched to space so far.