On the effects of the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati braneworld gravity on the orbital motion of a test particle

TL;DR

This paper calculates the secular orbital perturbations caused by the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati braneworld gravity model, discussing potential observational effects in the Solar System and implications for planetary mean longitudes.

Contribution

It provides explicit formulas for orbital element perturbations due to DGP gravity and assesses their detectability with current Solar System data.

Findings

The DGP model induces a measurable secular precession of planetary longitudes.

For Mars, the effect could be detected with about 7% observational accuracy.

Systematic errors from other gravitational effects could limit the detection sensitivity.

Abstract

In this paper we explicitly work out the secular perturbations induced on all the Keplerian orbital elements of a test body to order O(e^2) in the eccentricity e by the weak-field long-range modifications of the usual Newton-Einstein gravity due to the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) braneworld model. The Gauss perturbative scheme is used. It turns out that the argument of pericentre and the mean anomaly are affected by secular rates which are independent of the semimajor axis of the orbit of the test particle. The first nonvaishing eccentricity-dependent corrections are of order O(e^2). For circular orbits the Lue-Starkman (LS) effect on the pericentre is obtained. Some observational consequences are discussed for the Solar System planetary mean longitudes lambda which would undergo a 1.2\cdot 10^-3 arcseconds per century braneworld secular precession. According to recent data analysis over 92 years for the EPM2004 ephemerides, the 1-sigma formal accuracy in determining the Martian mean longitude amounts to 3\cdot 10^-3 milliarcseconds, while the braneworld effect over the same time span would be 1.159 milliarcseconds. The major limiting factor is the 2.6\cdot 10^-3 arcseconds per century systematic error due to the mismodelling in the Keplerian mean motion of Mars. A suitable linear combination of the mean longitudes of Mars and Venus may overcome this problem. The formal, 1-sigma obtainable observational accuracy would be \sim 7%. The systematic error due to the present-day uncertainties in the solar quadrupole mass moment, the Keplerian mean motions, the general relativistic Schwarzschild field and the asteroid ring would amount to some tens of percent.