Physics
A Gaia search for boost-holonomy relics: the full-sky co-spatial radial-velocity pair census
The completed full-sky Gaia radial-velocity pair census finds no significant signal. The family statistic is calibrated against a composition-matched null: permissive p = 0.737, strict p = 0.969.
Jonathan Schemoul
A boost-holonomy relic would leave a co-spatial pair of sources whose radial velocities differ by a fixed multiplicative factor, independent of distance and with no lens mass. The electromagnetic channel is a full-sky search for close pairs in Gaia radial-velocity data.
The census covers 33.8 million DR3 radial-velocity sources and produces 16,358 raw pairs. Of these, 7,217 pass the permissive astrometric match, 1,177 are above three sigma, and 939 pass the permissive candidate selection. The strict all-six-astrometry sample has 1,177 matched pairs, 171 above three sigma and 135 candidates. The radial-velocity difference has median 7.4 kilometres per second, 90th percentile 41.6, 99th percentile 126.8 and maximum 489.5.
The family statistic is S = max over b of the number of candidates within a 10 percent window in Lambda. The observed permissive maximum is 173 of 939; the composition-matched bootstrap null has median 179, so p = 0.737. The strict maximum is 24 of 135; the null median is 28, p = 0.969. The 173 is the smooth density seen through a full 7.74 kilometre-per-second window, not a cluster. There is no significant signal, no detection, no exclusion and no density bound.
The decisive epoch-spectrum test is data-limited. Gaia DR3 has no epoch radial-velocity spectra for the candidate pairs. The weak epoch-constancy proxy is available for 112 candidate sources, 51 of which are variable, and one pair has both summary statistics; the full epoch-series test is not executable on DR3 candidate data.
Key results
- Completed EM-1 census: 16,358 raw pairs, 7,217 permissive matches, 939 permissive candidates, 135 strict candidates.
- Calibrated family null: permissive 173/939 at p = 0.737, strict 24/135 at p = 0.969.
- No significant signal, no detection, no exclusion and no density bound.
- EM-2 full epoch-spectrum test is data-limited by DR3.
Status and limits
This is a 30-page content-complete preprint. The EM-2 epoch-spectrum test remains data-limited; the weak epoch-constancy proxy is not a detection. It has not been submitted or peer reviewed.