Bounding the graviton mass with binary pulsar observations

TL;DR

This paper uses binary pulsar orbital decay data to set an upper limit on the graviton mass, providing a dynamic-field bound that complements static-field constraints from solar system tests.

Contribution

It introduces the first bound on the graviton mass derived from dynamic gravitational fields using binary pulsar observations.

Findings

Graviton mass bound is less than 7.6×10⁻²⁰ eV/c² at 90% confidence.

This dynamic-field bound is about two orders of magnitude weaker than static-field bounds.

Further pulsar observations are expected to improve the graviton mass constraints.

Abstract

By comparing the observed orbital decay of the binary pulsars PSRB1913+16 and PSRB1534+12 to that predicted by general relativity due to gravitational-wave emission, we are able to bound the mass of the graviton to be less than $7.6\times10^{-20} \text{eV}/c^2$ at 90% confidence. This is the first such bound to be derived from dynamic gravitational fields. It is approximately two orders of magnitude weaker than the static-field bound from solar system observations, and will improve with further observations.