Paper detail

Spacecraft Doppler tracking with possible violations of LLI and LPI: a theoretical modeling

Currently two-way and three-way spacecraft Doppler tracking techniques are widely used and playing important roles in control and navigation for deep space missions. Starting from one-way Doppler model, we extend the models of two-way and three-way Doppler by making them include possible violations of the local Lorentz invariance (LLI) and the local position invariance (LPI) in order to test the Einstein equivalence principle which is the cornerstone of general relativity and all other metric theories of gravity. After taking the finite speed of light into account, which is so-called light-time solution (LTS), we have these models depending on the time of reception of the signal only for practical convenience. We find that possible violations of LLI and LPI can not affect two-way Doppler under linear approximation of LTS although this approximation is sufficiently good for most cases in the solar system. We also show that, in three-way Doppler, possible violations of LLI and LPI associate with two stations only, which suggests that it is better to set the stations at places with significant differences in velocities and gravitational potentials to obtain high level of sensitivity for tests.