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Within the general theory of relativity, the curvature of spacetime is related to the energy and momentum of the present matter and radiation. One of the more specific predictions of general relativity is the deflection of light and…
Advanced LIGO's recent observations of gravitational waves (GWs) from merging binary black holes have opened up a unique laboratory to test general relativity (GR) in the highly relativistic regime. One of the tests used to establish the…
Amplitude and phase of the gravitational waveform from compact binary systems can be decomposed in terms of their mass- and current-type multipole moments. In a modified theory of gravity, one or more of these multipole moments could…
Gravitational wave observations of compact binary mergers are already providing stringent tests of general relativity and constraints on modified gravity. Ground-based interferometric detectors will soon reach design sensitivity and they…
In modified gravity theories that seek to explain cosmic acceleration, dwarf galaxies in low density environments can be subject to enhanced forces. The class of scalar-tensor theories, which includes f(R) gravity, predict such a force…
Neutron star binaries and their associated gravitational wave signal facilitate precision tests of General Relativity. Any deviation of the detected gravitational waveform from General Relativity would therefore be a smoking gun signature…
Gravitational wave (GW) standard sirens are well-established probes with which one can measure cosmological parameters, and are complementary to other probes like the cosmic microwave background or supernovae standard candles. Here we focus…
The merger phase of compact binary coalescences is the strongest gravity regime that can be observed. To test the validity of general relativity (GR) in strong gravitational fields, we propose a gravitational waveform parameterized for…
Two new observational windows have been opened to strong gravitational physics: gravitational waves, and very long baseline interferometry. This suggests observational searches for new phenomena in this regime, and in particular for those…
The gravitational wave observations of colliding black holes have opened a new window into the unexplored extreme gravity sector of physics, where the gravitational fields are immensely strong, non-linear, and dynamical. 10 binary black…
Binary interactions are commonplace among massive stars, giving rise observed phenomena such as X-ray binaries, stripped stars & supernovae, and gravitational-wave sources. The multiplicity properties of massive stars thus represent a…
Many physically motivated extensions to general relativity (GR) predict significant deviations in the properties of spacetime surrounding massive neutron stars. We report the measurement of a 2.01 +/- 0.04 solar mass pulsar in a 2.46-hr…
In this PhD thesis I make use of the "Effective Field Theory of Gravity for Extended Objects" by Goldberger and Rothstein in order to investigate theories of gravity and to take a different point of view on the physical information that can…
Gravitational parity violation is a possibility motivated by particle physics, string theory and loop quantum gravity. One effect of it is amplitude birefringence of gravitational waves, whereby left and right circularly-polarized waves…
A novel constraint on $f(R)$ theories of gravity is obtained from the gravitational wave signal emitted from the binary neutron star merger event GW170817. The $f(R)$ theories possess an additional massive scalar degree of freedom apart…
Astrophysical tests of modified modified gravity theories in the nearby universe have been emphasized recently by Hui, Nicolis and Stubbs (2009) and Jain and VanderPlas (2011). A key element of such tests is the screening mechanism whereby…
We mine the Tycho-{\it Gaia} astrometric solution (TGAS) catalog for wide stellar binaries by matching positions, proper motions, and astrometric parallaxes. We separate genuine binaries from unassociated stellar pairs through a Bayesian…
Gravitational wave observations of compact binaries allow us to test general relativity (and modifications thereof) in the strong and highly-dynamical field regime of gravity. Here we confront two extensions to general relativity, dynamical…
The Doppler effect is commonly used to infer the velocity difference between stars based on the relative shifts in the rest-frame wavelengths of their spectral features. In dynamically-cold systems with a low velocity dispersion, such as…
Recent work by Chae et al. (2026) reported a gravitational anomaly in 36 wide-binary pairs, finding a gravity boost factor of $\gamma \equiv G_{\rm eff}/G_{\rm N} \approx 1.60_{-0.14}^{+0.17}$ at low accelerations, consistent with…