One century after its formulation, Einstein's general relativity (GR) has made remarkable predictions and turned out to be compatible with all experimental tests. Most of these tests probe the theory in the weak-field regime, and there are theoretical and experimental reasons to believe that GR should be modified when gravitational fields are strong and spacetime curvature is large. The best astrophysical laboratories to probe strong-field gravity are black holes and neutron stars, whether isolated or in binary systems. We review the motivations to consider extensions of GR. We present a (necessarily incomplete) catalog of modified theories of gravity for which strong-field predictions have been computed and contrasted to Einstein's theory, and we summarize our current understanding of the structure and dynamics of compact objects in these theories. We discuss current bounds on modified gravity from binary pulsar and cosmological observations, and we highlight the potential of future gravitational wave measurements to inform us on the behavior of gravity in the strong-field regime.

/pdf/testing-general-relativity-with-present-and-future-3ik25z2kf9.pdf

Testing general relativity with present and future astrophysical observations

Formation and evolution of binary and millisecond radio pulsars

THE spatial and luminosity distribution of γ-ray bursts as observed by the BATSE instrument on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory1,2 provides support for the revival of the idea3,4 that the burst sources are at cosmological distances5. I present here a new model for γ-ray bursts at cosmological distances, based on the formation of rapidly rotating neutron stars with surface magnetic fields of the order of 1015. Such objects could form by the gravitational collapse of accreting white dwarfs with anomalously high magnetic fields in binaries, as in magnetic cataclysmic binaries. Once formed, such rapidly rotating and strongly magnetized neutron stars would lose their rotational kinetic energy catastrophically, on a timescale of seconds or less: rotation of the magnetic field creates a strong electric field, and hence an electron–positron plasma, which I show to be optically thick and in quasi-thermodynamic equilibrium. This plasma flows away from the neutron star at relativistic speeds, and X-ray and γ-ray emission at the photosphere of this relativistic wind may then reproduce the observational characteristics of a γ-ray burst.

Millisecond pulsars with extremely strong magnetic fields as a cosmological source of γ-ray bursts

There is a wide range of fundamental physical problems directly related to how pulsars function. Some of these are independent of the specific pulsar mechanism. Others relate directly to the physics of the pulsar and already shed some light on the properties of matter at high density (\ensuremath{\sim}${10}^{15}$ g/cc) and in strong magnetic fields (\ensuremath{\sim}${10}^{12}$ G). Pulsars are assumed to be rotating neutron stars surrounded by strong magnetic fields and energetic particles. It is somewhere within this "magnetosphere" that the pulsar action is expected to take place. Currently there has been considerable difficulty in formulating an entirely self-consistent theory of the magnetospheric behavior and there may be rapid revisions in the near future, which is all the more surprising since many of the issues involve "elementary" problems in electromagnetism. One interesting discovery is that charge-separated plasmas apparently can support stable static discontinuities.

Theory of pulsar magnetospheres

Recent results from the PAMELA satellite indicate the presence of a large flux of positrons (relative to electrons) in the cosmic ray spectrum between approximately 10 and 100 GeV. As annihilating dark matter particles in many models are predicted to contribute to the cosmic ray positron spectrum in this energy range, a great deal of interest has resulted from this observation. Here, we consider pulsars (rapidly spinning, magnetized neutron stars) as an alternative source of this signal. After calculating the contribution to the cosmic ray positron and electron spectra from pulsars, we find that the spectrum observed by PAMELA could plausibly originate from such sources. In particular, a significant contribution is expected from the sum of all mature pulsars throughout the Milky Way, as well as from the most nearby mature pulsars (such as Geminga and B0656+14). The signal from nearby pulsars is expected to generate a small but significant dipole anisotropy in the cosmic ray electron spectrum, potentially providing a method by which the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope would be capable of discriminating between the pulsar and dark matter origins of the observed high energy positrons.

http://cds.cern.ch/record/1133624/files/JCAP.01.2009.025.pdf

Pulsars as the sources of high energy cosmic ray positrons

Theory of pulsars: Polar gaps, sparks, and coherent microwave radiation

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Theory of pulsars: Polar gaps, sparks, and coherent microwave radiation