Cosmological Constant, Conical Defect and Classical Tests of General Relativity

TL;DR

This paper examines how a cosmological constant and conical defects influence classical tests of general relativity, providing constraints on defect parameters using observational data.

Contribution

It extends previous analyses by incorporating a cosmological constant into the study of conical defects' effects on planetary and light trajectories.

Findings

Parameter epsilon less than 10^{-9} and 10^{-7} from observational data

Limits on cosmic string linear mass densities derived

Generalization of earlier results to include cosmological constant

Abstract

We investigate the perihelion shift of the planetary motion and the bending of starlight in the Schwarzschild field modified by the presence of a $\Lambda$-term plus a conical defect. This analysis generalizes an earlier result obtained by Islam (Phys. Lett. A 97, 239, 1983) to the case of a pure cosmological constant. By using the experimental data we obtain that the parameter $\epsilon$ characterizing the conical defect is less than $10^{-9}$ and $10^{-7}$, respectively, on the length scales associated with such phenomena. In particular, if the defect is generated by a cosmic string, these values correspond to limits on the linear mass densities of $10^{19}g/cm$ and $10^{21}g/cm$, respectively.