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arXiv · 2212.03888

Detecting massive scalar fields with Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals

Susanna Barsanti·Andrea Maselli·Thomas P. Sotiriou·Leonardo Gualtieri
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Abstract

We study the imprint of light scalar fields on gravitational waves from extreme mass ratio inspirals -- binary systems with a very large mass asymmetry. We first show that, to leading order in the mass ratio, any effects of the scalar on the waveform are captured fully by two parameters: the mass of the scalar and the scalar charge of the secondary compact object. We then use this theory-agnostic framework to show that the future observations by LISA will be able to simultaneously measure both of these parameters with enough accuracy to detect ultra-light scalars.

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Susanna Barsanti, Andrea Maselli, Thomas P. Sotiriou, Leonardo Gualtieri. 2022-12-07. Detecting massive scalar fields with Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.131.051401

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