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arXiv 1401.7407astro-ph.EPgr-qc
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关于使用transit定时变化测试系外行星中新物理学的(不)可能性:偏离引力平方反比定律

On the (im)possibility of testing new physics in exoplanets using transit timing variations: deviation from inverse-square law of gravity

Yi Xie, Xue-Mei Deng

摘要:

现在和将来研究系外行星凌日的地面和空间观测站将大大增加已知系外行星的数量和凌日最小值测量时间的精确度。凌日时间的变化不仅可以用来推断其他行星的存在,还可能为在太阳系以外的地方测试新的物理学提供机会。本文以引力平方反比定律的偏离为例,重点讨论了对牛顿引力的类似第五力的Yukawa型修正,讨论了这种偏离对凌日时间长期变化的影响,并分析了它们在系外行星系统中的可观测性。发现汤川型长期凌日时间变化的最乐观值是每年$\sim 0.1$秒的水平。不幸的是,这些数值只出现在很少的独特情况下,最重要的是,它们仍然比目前的观测能力低至少两个数量级。这种偏离平方反比引力定律的情况可能太小,在可预见的未来无法检测到。与此同时,系统的不确定性,如额外的和未知的行星的存在,可能会非常难以从应该看到的信号中删除。

英文摘要:

Ground-based and space-borne observatories studying exoplanetary transits now and in the future will considerably increase the number of known exoplanets and the precision of the measured times of transit minima. Variations in the transit times can not only be used to infer the presence of additional planets, but might also provide opportunities for testing new physics in the places beyond the Solar system. In this work, we take deviation from the inverse-square law of gravity as an example, focus on the fifth-force-like Yukawa-type correction to the Newtonian gravitational force which parameterizes this deviation, investigate its effects on the secular transit timing variations and analyze their observability in exoplanetary systems. It is found that the most optimistic values of Yukawa-type secular transit timing variations are at the level of $\sim 0.1$ seconds per year. Those values unfortunately appear only in rarely unique cases and, most importantly, they are still at least two orders of magnitude below the current capabilities of observations. Such a deviation from the inverse-square law of gravity is likely too small to detect for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, systematic uncertainties, such as the presence of additional and unknown planets, will likely be exceptionally difficult to remove from a signal that should be seen.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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