Related papers: A Robust Test of General Relativity in Space
The capture of compact stellar remnants by galactic black holes provides a unique laboratory for exploring the near horizon geometry of the Kerr spacetime, or possible departures from general relativity if the central cores prove not to be…
The temporal evolution of the gravitational wave background signal resulting from stellar-mass binary black hole (BBH) inspirals has a unique statistical signature. We describe the application of a new filter, based on the `probability…
We propose a novel method to test the binary black hole (BBH) nature of compact binaries detectable by gravitational wave (GW) interferometers and hence constrain the parameter space of other exotic compact objects. The spirit of the test…
General relativity is one of the pillars of modern physics. For decades, the theory has been mainly tested in the weak field regime with experiments in the Solar System and radio observations of binary pulsars. Until 2015, the strong field…
Theoretical investigations have provided proof-of-principle calculations suggesting measurements of stellar or pulsar orbits near the Galactic Center could strongly constrain the properties of the Galactic Center black hole, local matter,…
Although General Relativity (GR) has been tested extensively in the weak gravity regime, similar tests in the strong gravity regime are still missing. In this paper we explore the possibility to use X-ray spectropolarimetric observations of…
The recent LIGO detection of gravitational waves from black-hole binaries offers the exciting possibility of testing gravitational theories in the previously inaccessible strong-field, highly relativistic regime. While the LIGO detections…
We study parameter estimation of supermassive black hole binary systems in the final stage of inspiral using the full post-Newtonian gravitational waveforms. We restrict our analysis to systems in circular orbit with negligible spins, in…
The inspiral of a stellar-mass compact object into a massive ($\sim 10^{4}$-$10^{7} M_{\odot}$) black hole produces an intricate gravitational-wave signal. Due to the extreme-mass ratios involved, these systems complete $\sim…
We study Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals (EMRIs), during which a small body spirals into a supermassive black hole, in gravity theories with additional scalar fields. We first argue that no-hair theorems and the properties of known theories…
Extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs) take place when a stellar-mass black hole (BH) merges with a supermassive black hole (SMBH). The gravitational wave emission from such an event is expected to be detectable by the future Laser…
The measurement of multipole moments of astrophysical objects through gravitational wave (GW) observations provides a novel way to distinguish black holes from other astrophysical objects. This paper studies the gravitational wave radiation…
The direct discovery of gravitational waves from compact binary systems leads for the first time to explore the possibility of black hole spectroscopy. Newly formed black holes produced by coalescing events are copious emitters of…
The memory effect, in the context of gravitational-waves (GWs), manifests itself in the permanent relative displacement of test masses when they encounter the GWs. A number of works have explored the possibility of detecting the memory when…
The gravitational wave (GW) signals from extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs), a key target for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), will be affected in the presence of dark matter (DM) halos. In this paper we explore whether the…
General relativity predicts the existence of black holes, compact objects whose spacetimes depend on only their mass, spin, and charge in vacuum (the "no hair" theorem). As various observations probe deeper into the strong fields of black…
This is a whitepaper submitted to the 2010 Astronomy Decadal Review process, addressing the potential tests of gravity theory that could be made by observations of gravitational waves in the milliHertz frequency band by the proposed…
Extreme mass-ratio inspirals, a target source for the space-based gravitational wave detector LISA, are a sensitive probe of fundamental scalar fields coupled to gravity. We assess the capability of LISA to detect whether the secondary…
Primordial black holes possibly formed in the early universe could provide a significant fraction of the dark matter and would be unique probes of inflation. A smoking gun for their discovery would be the detection of a subsolar mass…
The no-hair theorem can be tested in the strong gravity regime by using the top-bottom approach and the bottom-top approach. The non-Kerr spacetime of the later approach is an ideal framework to do the tests in the region very close to the…