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April 27, 2026Astronomy Letters0 citations

Prospects for Measuring the Gravitational Time Dilation Effect Using Clocks in a Distant Retrograde Lunar Orbit

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ДЛД. А. ЛитвиновААА. В. Алакоз

Key Points

  • This research aims to test the gravitational time dilation effect related to the Einstein Equivalence Principle using clocks in a distant lunar orbit.
  • Developed a model to estimate accuracy based on clock noise characteristics and bias.
  • Focused on three clock types: hydrogen masers, cesium fountain, and strontium optical clocks.
  • Assumed data accumulation over 5 years for accuracy estimates.
  • Achievable accuracy: $$6\times 10^{-4}$$ for VCH-1010, $$1\times 10^{-5}$$ for VCH-2021, $$2\times 10^{-5}$$ for PHARAO, and $$3\times 10^{-7}$$ for I-SOC.
  • Optical clocks significantly improve accuracy over current results ($$(2{-}3)\times 10^{-5}$$ from GREAT project).
  • Results exceed anticipated accuracy from ISS and Tiangong experiments.

Abstract

The prospects for testing the Einstein Equivalence Principle by measuring the gravitational time dilation effect using clocks in a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon are investigated. To obtain estimates of the accuracy that can be achieved in such an experiment, we constructed a model that accounts for the colored nature of the clock noise, as well as a possible clock frequency bias and drift. This model is applied to the case of a lunar distant retrograde orbit (a 2: 1 resonance) and three types of clocks characterized by qualitatively different stability and accuracy parameters: hydrogen masers (VCH-1010 and VCH-2021), a cesium fountain clock (PHARAO), and a strontium optical clock (I-SOC). Assuming 5 years of data accumulation, the following estimates for the achievable accuracy of the experiment were obtained: 6 10^-4 for VCH-1010, 1 10^-5 for VCH-2021, 2 10^-5 for PHARAO, and 3 10^-7 for I-SOC. These estimates show that an experiment with an optical clock would significantly improve upon both the current best result ( (2-3) 10^-5, GREAT project) and the anticipated results of experiments on the ISS and Tiangong orbital stations. A comparison of our results with previous studies that do not account for clock drift and frequency bias is provided.

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Cite This Study

Литвинов et al. (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69eefdd1fede9185760d49abhttps://doi.org/10.1134/s1063773726700040
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