Parkes observations for project P361 semester 2011APRS

The neutron star-white dwarf relativistic binary PSR J1141-6545 is a unique target for testing General Relativity and its competing alternatives. Our eight years of timing observations have enabled measurements of its orbital decay and Shapiro delay, as well as accurate determination of the two stellar masses. The limits derived from our timing for the strongly non-linear coupling parameter of tensor-scalar theories of gravity are currently the most stringent to date and are expected to improve dramatically over the next few years. In light of these encouraging results and future prospects, we propose to continue regular observations of this pulsar.

中子星-白矮星相对论双星系统PSR J1141-6545是检验广义相对论（General Relativity）及其竞争性替代理论的独特观测靶标。我们历时八年的计时观测已实现对其轨道衰减与夏皮罗延迟（Shapiro delay）的测量，同时完成了两颗恒星质量的精确测定。基于本次计时观测得到的张量-标量引力理论强非线性耦合参数的约束，是截至目前最为严苛的，且预计在未来数年内将得到大幅优化。鉴于这些令人振奋的研究结果与未来研究前景，我们提议继续对该脉冲星开展常规观测。