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arXiv · 1905.00870

Fundamental physics implications on higher-curvature theories from the binary black hole signals in the LIGO-Virgo Catalog GWTC-1

Remya Nair·Scott Perkins·Hector O. Silva·Nicolás Yunes
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Abstract

Gravitational-wave astronomy offers not only new vistas into the realm of astrophysics, but it also opens an avenue for probing, for the first time, general relativity in its strong-field, nonlinear, and dynamical regime, where the theory's predictions manifest themselves in their full glory. We present a study of whether the gravitational wave events detected so far by the LIGO-Virgo scientific collaborations can be used to probe higher-curvature corrections to general relativity. In particular, we focus on two examples: Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet and dynamical Chern-Simons gravity. We find that the two events with a low-mass $m \approx 7 M_{\odot}$ BH (GW151226 and GW170608) place stringent constraints on Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, ${\alpha}^{1/2}_{\rm EdGB} \lesssim 5.6$ km, whereas dynamical Chern-Simons gravity remains unconstrained by the gravitational-wave observations analyzed.

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Remya Nair, Scott Perkins, Hector O. Silva, Nicolás Yunes. 2019-05-02. Fundamental physics implications on higher-curvature theories from the binary black hole signals in the LIGO-Virgo Catalog GWTC-1. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.123.191101

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