Paper detail

Tests of gravitational symmetries with radio pulsars

Symmetries play important roles in modern theories of physical laws. In this paper, we review several experimental tests of important symmetries associated with the gravitational interaction, including the universality of free fall for self-gravitating bodies, time-shift symmetry in the gravitational constant, local position invariance and local Lorentz invariance of gravity, and spacetime translational symmetries. Recent experimental explorations for post-Newtonian gravity are discussed, of which, those from pulsar astronomy are highlighted. All of these tests, of very different aspects of gravity theories, at very different length scales, favor to very high precision the predictions of the strong equivalence principle (SEP) and, in particular, general relativity which embodies SEP completely. As the founding principles of gravity, these symmetries are motivated to be promoted to even stricter tests in future.