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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…
Direct detections of gravitational waves offer a unique opportunity to test gravity in the highly dynamical and strong field regime. Current tests are typically performed assuming signals from quasicircular binaries. However, the complex…
Recent advancements in observational techniques have led to new tests of the general relativistic predictions for black-hole spacetimes in the strong-field regime. One of the key ingredients for several tests is a metric that allows for…
Binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected via gravitational waves are addressing key open questions in astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. Our scientific conclusions rely on extracting accurate source parameters, for which we…
X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a powerful tool for testing the Kerr hypothesis and probing the strong gravity regime around accreting black holes. Most tests of General Relativity (GR) assume that the spacetime around a black hole is…
Characterizing eccentricity in gravitational waveforms in a consistent manner is crucial to facilitate parameter estimation, astrophysical population studies, as well as searches for these rare systems. We present a framework to…
Gravitational wave observations will probe non-linear gravitational interactions and thus enable strong tests of Einstein's theory of general relativity. We present a numerical relativity study of the late inspiral and merger of binary…
The first discovery of the gravitational wave (GW) event, GW150914, suggests a higher merger rate of black-hole (BH) binaries. If this is true, a number of BH binaries will be observed via the second-generation GW detectors, and the…
We discuss the extraction of information from detected binary black hole (BBH) coalescence gravitational waves, focusing on the merger phase that occurs after the gradual inspiral and before the ringdown. Our results are: (1) If numerical…
Gravitational wave echoes may appear following a compact binary coalescence if the remnant is an "exotic compact object" (ECO). ECOs are proposed alternatives to the black holes of Einstein's general relativity theory and are predicted to…
Extreme-mass-ratio inspirals, in which a stellar-mass compact object spirals into a supermassive black hole, are prime candidates for detection with space-borne milliHertz gravitational wave detectors, similar to the Laser Interferometer…
Despite its success in the weak gravity regime, General Relativity (GR) has yet to be verified in the regime of strong gravity. In this paper, we present the results of detailed ray tracing simulations aiming at clarifying if the combined…
Orbital eccentricity is a crucial physical effect to unveil the origin of compact-object binaries detected by ground- and spaced-based gravitational-wave (GW) observatories. Here, we perform for the first time a Bayesian inference study of…
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…
The orbital evolution of binary black hole (BBH) systems is determined by the component masses and spins of the black holes and the governing gravity theory. Gravitational wave (GW) signals from the evolution of BBH orbits offer an…
The observation of gravitational waves has inaugurated a new era for testing gravitational theories in strong-field, nonlinear regimes. Gravitational waves emit during the ringdown phase of binary black hole mergers and from extreme mass…
We present a systematic comparison of the binary black hole (BBH) signal waveform reconstructed by two independent and complementary approaches used in LIGO and Virgo source inference: a template-based analysis, and a morphology-independent…
The detection of gravitational waves has offered us the opportunity to explore the dynamical and strong-field regime of gravity. Because matched filtering is more sensitive to variations in the gravitational waveform phase than the…
We investigate the influence of the generalized Compton wavelength (GCW), emerging from a three-dimensional dynamical quantum vacuum (3D DQV) on Schwarzschild-like black hole spacetimes, motivated by the work of Fiscaletti…
We characterize the expected statistical errors with which the parameters of black-hole binaries can be measured from gravitational-wave (GW) observations of their inspiral, merger and ringdown by a network of second-generation ground-based…