A precise extragalactic test of General Relativity

Thomas Collett; Lindsay Oldham; Russell Smith; Matthew W. Auger; Kyle Westfall; David Bacon; Bob Nichol; Karen Masters; Kazuya Koyama; Remco C. E. Van Den Bosch

doi:10.1126/science.aao2469

A precise extragalactic test of General Relativity

Thomas Collett, Lindsay Oldham, Russell Smith, Matthew W. Auger, Kyle Westfall, David Bacon, Bob Nichol, Karen Masters, Kazuya Koyama, Remco C. E. Van Den Bosch

Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

202 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Einstein’s theory of gravity, General Relativity, has been precisely tested on Solar System scales, but the long-range nature of gravity is still poorly constrained. The nearby strong gravitational lens, ESO 325-G004, provides a laboratory to probe the weak-field regime of gravity and measure the spatial curvature generated per unit mass, γ. By reconstructing the observed light profile of the lensed arcs and the observed spatially resolved stellar kinematics with a single self-consistent model, we conclude that γ = 0.97 ± 0.09 at 68% confidence. Our result is consistent with the prediction of 1 from General Relativity and provides a strong extragalactic constraint on the weak-field metric of gravity.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1342-1346
Number of pages	5
Journal	Science
Volume	360
Issue number	6395
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao2469
Publication status	Published - 22 Jun 2018

Keywords

RCUK
STFC
ST/N000688/1
ST/P000541/1

Access to Document

10.1126/science.aao2469

aao2469_CombinedPDF_v8
This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science Vol. 360, Issue 6395, 22 June 2018, doi: 10.1126/science.aao2469 .
Accepted author manuscript (Post-print), 2.34 MB

Cosmological Tests of Gravity
Koyama, K. (PI)
European Research Council
1/09/15 → 31/08/20
Project: Research

Cite this

@article{5c46b139a9e84adeb80eafb97faaf9c5,

title = "A precise extragalactic test of General Relativity",

abstract = "Einstein{\textquoteright}s theory of gravity, General Relativity, has been precisely tested on Solar System scales, but the long-range nature of gravity is still poorly constrained. The nearby strong gravitational lens, ESO 325-G004, provides a laboratory to probe the weak-field regime of gravity and measure the spatial curvature generated per unit mass, γ. By reconstructing the observed light profile of the lensed arcs and the observed spatially resolved stellar kinematics with a single self-consistent model, we conclude that γ = 0.97 ± 0.09 at 68% confidence. Our result is consistent with the prediction of 1 from General Relativity and provides a strong extragalactic constraint on the weak-field metric of gravity.",

keywords = "RCUK, STFC, ST/N000688/1, ST/P000541/1",

author = "Thomas Collett and Lindsay Oldham and Russell Smith and Auger, {Matthew W.} and Kyle Westfall and David Bacon and Bob Nichol and Karen Masters and Kazuya Koyama and {Van Den Bosch}, {Remco C. E.}",

year = "2018",

month = jun,

day = "22",

doi = "10.1126/science.aao2469",

language = "English",

volume = "360",

pages = "1342--1346",

journal = "Science",

issn = "1095-9203",

publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",

number = "6395",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A precise extragalactic test of General Relativity

AU - Collett, Thomas

AU - Oldham, Lindsay

AU - Smith, Russell

AU - Auger, Matthew W.

AU - Westfall, Kyle

AU - Bacon, David

AU - Nichol, Bob

AU - Masters, Karen

AU - Koyama, Kazuya

AU - Van Den Bosch, Remco C. E.

PY - 2018/6/22

Y1 - 2018/6/22

N2 - Einstein’s theory of gravity, General Relativity, has been precisely tested on Solar System scales, but the long-range nature of gravity is still poorly constrained. The nearby strong gravitational lens, ESO 325-G004, provides a laboratory to probe the weak-field regime of gravity and measure the spatial curvature generated per unit mass, γ. By reconstructing the observed light profile of the lensed arcs and the observed spatially resolved stellar kinematics with a single self-consistent model, we conclude that γ = 0.97 ± 0.09 at 68% confidence. Our result is consistent with the prediction of 1 from General Relativity and provides a strong extragalactic constraint on the weak-field metric of gravity.

AB - Einstein’s theory of gravity, General Relativity, has been precisely tested on Solar System scales, but the long-range nature of gravity is still poorly constrained. The nearby strong gravitational lens, ESO 325-G004, provides a laboratory to probe the weak-field regime of gravity and measure the spatial curvature generated per unit mass, γ. By reconstructing the observed light profile of the lensed arcs and the observed spatially resolved stellar kinematics with a single self-consistent model, we conclude that γ = 0.97 ± 0.09 at 68% confidence. Our result is consistent with the prediction of 1 from General Relativity and provides a strong extragalactic constraint on the weak-field metric of gravity.

KW - RCUK

KW - STFC

KW - ST/N000688/1

KW - ST/P000541/1

UR - http://www.sciencemag.org/authors/science-journals-editorial-policies

U2 - 10.1126/science.aao2469

DO - 10.1126/science.aao2469

M3 - Article

SN - 1095-9203

VL - 360

SP - 1342

EP - 1346

JO - Science

JF - Science

IS - 6395

ER -

A precise extragalactic test of General Relativity

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Projects

Cosmological Tests of Gravity

Cite this