Accurate Measurement in the Field of the Earth of the General-Relativistic Precession of the LAGEOS II Pericenter and New Constraints on Non-Newtonian Gravity

Understand

The pericenter shift of a binary system represents a suitable observable to test for possible deviations from the Newtonian inverse-square law in favor of new weak interactions between macroscopic objects.

• We analyzed 13 years of tracking data of the LAGEOS satellites with GEODYN II software but with no models for general relativity.
• From the fit of LAGEOS II pericenter residuals we have been able to obtain a 99.8% agreement with the predictions of Einstein's theory.
• This result may be considered as a 99.8% measurement in the field of the Earth of the combination of the {\gamma} and {\beta} parameters of general relativity, and it may be used to constrain possible deviations from the inverse-square law in favor of new weak interactions parametrized by a Yukawa-like potential with strength {\alpha} and range {\lambda}.