Light scalar field constraints from gravitational-wave observations of compact binaries
Abstract
Scalar-tensor theories are among the simplest extensions of general relativity. In theories with light scalars, deviations from Einstein's theory of gravity are determined by the scalar mass m_s and by a Brans-Dicke-like coupling parameter \omega_{BD}. We show that gravitational-wave observations of nonspinning neutron star-black hole binary inspirals can be used to set lower bounds on \omega_{BD} and upper bounds on the combination m_s/\sqrt{\omega_{BD}}$. We estimate via a Fisher matrix analysis that individual observations with signal-to-noise ratio \rho would yield (m_s/\sqrt{\omega_{BD}})(\rho/10)<10^{-15}, 10^{-16} and 10^{-19} eV for Advanced LIGO, ET and eLISA, respectively. A statistical combination of multiple observations may further improve these bounds.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1204.4340,
title = {Light scalar field constraints from gravitational-wave observations of compact binaries},
author = {Emanuele Berti and Leonardo Gualtieri and Michael Horbatsch and Justin Alsing},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.4340},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
9 pages, 4 figures. Matches version accepted in Physical Review D