Evidence of deviations from general relativity in binary pulsars?

Xing Zhang, Wen Zhao, Tan Liu, Kai Lin, Chao Zhang, Shaojun Zhang, Xiang Zhao, Tao Zhu, Anzhong Wang

Published 2018-06-07Version 1

Testing gravitational theories by binary pulsars nowadays becomes a key issue. For the general screened modified gravity (SMG), the post-Keplerian parameters in the neutron star (NS) - white dwarf (WD) binaries differ from those of general relativity (GR), and the differences are quantified by the scalar charge $\epsilon_{\scriptscriptstyle\rm WD}$ of WD. After deriving the constraints on $\epsilon_{\scriptscriptstyle\rm WD}$ from four different NS-WD binaries, we find that $\epsilon_{\scriptscriptstyle\rm WD}$ is different from zero at the 2$\sigma$ level in all the cases studied, and there exists an inverse correlation between masses and scalar charges of low-mass WDs, which is consistent with the screening mechanisms. In particular, two independent binaries with measured radii of WDs follow the coincident constraints on the vacuum expectation value of the scalar field. These self-consistent results indicate that the observations in NS-WD binary pulsars seem in favor of SMG, rather than GR.