sidebar
"The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment"
Clifford M. Will 
Abstract
1 Introduction
2 Tests of the Foundations of Gravitation Theory
2.1 The Einstein equivalence principle
2.2 Theoretical frameworks for analyzing EEP
2.3 EEP, particle physics, and the search for new interactions
3 Metric Theories of Gravity and the PPN Formalism
3.1 Metric theories of gravity and the strong equivalence principle
3.2 The parametrized post-Newtonian formalism
3.3 Competing theories of gravity
4 Tests of Post-Newtonian Gravity
4.1 Tests of the parameter γ
4.2 The perihelion shift of Mercury
4.3 Tests of the strong equivalence principle
4.4 Other tests of post-Newtonian gravity
4.5 Prospects for improved PPN parameter values
5 Strong Gravity and Gravitational Waves: Tests for the 21st Century
5.1 Strong-field systems in general relativity
5.2 Motion and gravitational radiation in general relativity: A history
5.3 Compact binary systems in general relativity
5.4 Compact binary systems in scalar–tensor theories
6 Stellar System Tests of Gravitational Theory
6.1 The binary pulsar and general relativity
6.2 A zoo of binary pulsars
6.3 Binary pulsars and alternative theories
6.4 Binary pulsars and scalar–tensor gravity
7 Gravitational-Wave Tests of Gravitational Theory
7.1 Gravitational-wave observatories
7.2 Gravitational-wave amplitude and polarization
7.3 Gravitational-wave phase evolution
7.4 Speed of gravitational waves
8 Astrophysical and Cosmological Tests
9 Conclusions
Acknowledgments
References
Footnotes
Updates
Figures
Tables
Figure 10
Figure 10: The six polarization modes for gravitational waves permitted in any metric theory of gravity. Shown is the displacement that each mode induces on a ring of test particles. The wave propagates in the +z direction. There is no displacement out of the plane of the picture. In (a), (b), and (c), the wave propagates out of the plane; in (d), (e), and (f), the wave propagates in the plane. In GR, only (a) and (b) are present; in massless scalar–tensor gravity, (c) may also be present.

Clifford M. Will, "The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment",
Living Rev. Relativity, 17 (2014), 4, doi:10.12942/lrr-2014-4, URL (accessed <date>): http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2014-4.
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. © The author(s), except where otherwise noted.