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Testing the Weak Equivalence Principle near black holes

ORAL

Abstract

Today we have quite stringent constraints on possible violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle from the comparison of the acceleration of test-bodies of different composition in Earth's gravitational field. In this talk, I show how we can test the Weak Equivalence Principle in the strong gravitational field of black holes by studying the reflection features of their accretion disks. Constraints on a possible violation of the Weak Equivalence Principle by massive particles and X-ray photons are inferred from a NuSTAR observation of the black hole binary EXO 1846-031.

Publication: Roy et al. PRD 104 (2021) 044001

Presenters

  • Cosimo Bambi

    Fudan Univ

Authors

  • Cosimo Bambi

    Fudan Univ