The Confrontation Between General Relativity and Experiment

We review the experimental evidence for Einstein’s general relativity. A variety of high precision null experiments confirm the Einstein Equivalence Principle, which underlies the concept that gravitation is synonymous with spacetime geometry, and must be described by a metric theory. Solar system e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSpace science reviews Vol. 148; no. 1-4; pp. 3 - 13
Main Author Will, C. M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.12.2009
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Aerospace Technology and Astronautics
Astronomy
Astrophysics and Astroparticles
Gamma rays
Gravity
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Planetology
Space Exploration and Astronautics
Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics
Gravitational experiments
General relativity
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Summary:We review the experimental evidence for Einstein’s general relativity. A variety of high precision null experiments confirm the Einstein Equivalence Principle, which underlies the concept that gravitation is synonymous with spacetime geometry, and must be described by a metric theory. Solar system experiments that test the weak-field, post-Newtonian limit of metric theories strongly favor general relativity. Binary pulsars test gravitational-wave damping and aspects of strong-field general relativity. During the coming decades, tests of general relativity in new regimes may be possible. Laser interferometric gravitational-wave observatories on Earth and in space may provide new tests via precise measurements of the properties of gravitational waves. Future efforts using X-ray, infrared, gamma-ray and gravitational-wave astronomy may one day test general relativity in the strong-field regime near black holes and neutron stars.
ISSN:0038-6308
1572-9672
DOI:10.1007/s11214-009-9541-6