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Searching for deviations from General Relativity near gravitational Saddle Points with LISA Pathfinder

We investigate whether LISA Pathfinder can be used to search for deviations from General Relativity, by executing well-defined de-orbiting manoeuvres following the end of the nominal mission. We focus on trajectories where LISA Pathfinder, with an extremely sensitive gravitational gradiometer on-board, flies through the region near the Sun – Earth or Earth – Moon gravitational saddle points. We present sample trajectories and discuss some operational constraints. The saddle point regions can be the ideal location for precision tests of General Relativity. For example, one alternative gravitational theory, TEVES, predicts anomalous gravitational gradients in these regions. We calculate the strength of the expected TEVES signal, and compare it with the nominal gradiometer sensitivity offered by LISA Pathfinder.

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