Constraining spacetime torsion with the Moon and Mercury

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We report a search for new gravitational physics phenomena based on Einstein-Cartan theory of General Relativity including spacetime torsion.

• Starting from the parametrized torsion framework of Mao, Tegmark, Guth and Cabi, we analyze the motion of test bodies in the presence of torsion, and in particular we compute the corrections to the perihelion advance and to the orbital geodetic precession of a satellite.
• We describe the torsion field by means of three parameters, and we make use of the autoparallel trajectories, which in general may differ from geodesics when torsion is present.
• We derive the equations of motion of a test body in a spherically symmetric field, and the equations of motion of a satellite in the gravitational field of the Sun and the Earth.