14–16 Jan 2026
INFN - Pisa
Europe/Rome timezone

Constraining Einstein-Aether gravity with binary pulsar observations

14 Jan 2026, 16:00
25m
Room Galileo Galilei (131), ground floor (INFN - Pisa)

Room Galileo Galilei (131), ground floor

INFN - Pisa

Polo Fibonacci, Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3, Building C

Speaker

Massimo Vaglio (SISSA)

Description

We constrain Einstein-Aether gravity, a leading alternative to General Relativity that introduces a preferred-frame via a dynamical time-like vector field, using high-precision pulsar timing observations from EPTA. Our analysis incorporates both conservative and dissipative first post-Newtonian corrections and utilizes full times of arrival from multiple pulsars, processed with Vela.jl, a Bayesian tool based on PINT. The model spans many parameters, including binary component masses, Einstein-Aether coupling constants and center-of-mass velocity components. We extract posteriors on post-Keplerian parameters from timing data and employ normalizing flows combined with resampling techniques to map these onto constraints for the fundamental theory parameters. Our results demonstrate the power of pulsar timing to probe deviations from General Relativity and provide insights into the phenomenology of preferred-frame gravity.

Presentation materials