Testing MOND/TEVES with LISA Pathfinder

Understand

We suggest that LISA Pathfinder could be used to subject TEVES, and in particular the non-relativistic MOND phenomenology it incorporates, to a direct, controlled experimental test, in just a few years' time.

• The basic concept is to fly LISA Pathfinder through the region around the Sun-Earth saddle point, following its nominal mission, in order to look for anomalous gravity gradients.
• We examine various strategies to reach the saddle point, and conclude that the preferred strategy, resulting in relatively short transfer times of order one year, probably involves a lunar fly-by.
• We present robust estimates of the MOND gravity gradients that LISA Pathfinder should be exposed to, and conclude that if the gradiometer on-board the spacecraft achieves its nominal performance, these gradients will not just be detected, but measured and characterised in some detail, should they exist.