_version_ 1866909495025729536
author Gupta, Anuradha
Arun, K. G.
Barausse, Enrico
Bernard, Laura
Berti, Emanuele
Bhat, Sajad A.
Buonanno, Alessandra
Cardoso, Vitor
Cheung, Shun Yin
Clarke, Teagan A.
Datta, Sayantani
Dhani, Arnab
Ezquiaga, Jose María
Gupta, Ish
Guttman, Nir
Hinderer, Tanja
Hu, Qian
Janquart, Justin
Johnson-McDaniel, Nathan K.
Kashyap, Rahul
Krishnendu, N. V.
Lasky, Paul D.
Lundgren, Andrew
Maggio, Elisa
Mahapatra, Parthapratim
Maselli, Andrea
Narayan, Purnima
Nielsen, Alex B.
Nuttall, Laura K.
Pani, Paolo
Passenger, Lachlan
Payne, Ethan
Pompili, Lorenzo
Reali, Luca
Saini, Pankaj
Samajdar, Anuradha
Tiwari, Shubhanshu
Tong, Hui
Broeck, Chris Van Den
Yagi, Kent
Yang, Huan
Yunes, Nicolás
Sathyaprakash, B. S.
author_facet Gupta, Anuradha
Arun, K. G.
Barausse, Enrico
Bernard, Laura
Berti, Emanuele
Bhat, Sajad A.
Buonanno, Alessandra
Cardoso, Vitor
Cheung, Shun Yin
Clarke, Teagan A.
Datta, Sayantani
Dhani, Arnab
Ezquiaga, Jose María
Gupta, Ish
Guttman, Nir
Hinderer, Tanja
Hu, Qian
Janquart, Justin
Johnson-McDaniel, Nathan K.
Kashyap, Rahul
Krishnendu, N. V.
Lasky, Paul D.
Lundgren, Andrew
Maggio, Elisa
Mahapatra, Parthapratim
Maselli, Andrea
Narayan, Purnima
Nielsen, Alex B.
Nuttall, Laura K.
Pani, Paolo
Passenger, Lachlan
Payne, Ethan
Pompili, Lorenzo
Reali, Luca
Saini, Pankaj
Samajdar, Anuradha
Tiwari, Shubhanshu
Tong, Hui
Broeck, Chris Van Den
Yagi, Kent
Yang, Huan
Yunes, Nicolás
Sathyaprakash, B. S.
contents General relativity (GR) has proven to be a highly successful theory of gravity since its inception. The theory has thrivingly passed numerous experimental tests, predominantly in weak gravity, low relative speeds, and linear regimes, but also in the strong-field and very low-speed regimes with binary pulsars. Observable gravitational waves (GWs) originate from regions of spacetime where gravity is extremely strong, making them a unique tool for testing GR, in previously inaccessible regions of large curvature, relativistic speeds, and strong gravity. Since their first detection, GWs have been extensively used to test GR, but no deviations have been found so far. Given GR's tremendous success in explaining current astronomical observations and laboratory experiments, accepting any deviation from it requires a very high level of statistical confidence and consistency of the deviation across GW sources. In this paper, we compile a comprehensive list of potential causes that can lead to a false identification of a GR violation in standard tests of GR on data from current and future ground-based GW detectors. These causes include detector noise, signal overlaps, gaps in the data, detector calibration, source model inaccuracy, missing physics in the source and in the underlying environment model, source misidentification, and mismodeling of the astrophysical population. We also provide a rough estimate of when each of these causes will become important for tests of GR for different detector sensitivities. We argue that each of these causes should be thoroughly investigated, quantified, and ruled out before claiming a GR violation in GW observations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_02197
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Possible Causes of False General Relativity Violations in Gravitational Wave Observations
Gupta, Anuradha
Arun, K. G.
Barausse, Enrico
Bernard, Laura
Berti, Emanuele
Bhat, Sajad A.
Buonanno, Alessandra
Cardoso, Vitor
Cheung, Shun Yin
Clarke, Teagan A.
Datta, Sayantani
Dhani, Arnab
Ezquiaga, Jose María
Gupta, Ish
Guttman, Nir
Hinderer, Tanja
Hu, Qian
Janquart, Justin
Johnson-McDaniel, Nathan K.
Kashyap, Rahul
Krishnendu, N. V.
Lasky, Paul D.
Lundgren, Andrew
Maggio, Elisa
Mahapatra, Parthapratim
Maselli, Andrea
Narayan, Purnima
Nielsen, Alex B.
Nuttall, Laura K.
Pani, Paolo
Passenger, Lachlan
Payne, Ethan
Pompili, Lorenzo
Reali, Luca
Saini, Pankaj
Samajdar, Anuradha
Tiwari, Shubhanshu
Tong, Hui
Broeck, Chris Van Den
Yagi, Kent
Yang, Huan
Yunes, Nicolás
Sathyaprakash, B. S.
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
General relativity (GR) has proven to be a highly successful theory of gravity since its inception. The theory has thrivingly passed numerous experimental tests, predominantly in weak gravity, low relative speeds, and linear regimes, but also in the strong-field and very low-speed regimes with binary pulsars. Observable gravitational waves (GWs) originate from regions of spacetime where gravity is extremely strong, making them a unique tool for testing GR, in previously inaccessible regions of large curvature, relativistic speeds, and strong gravity. Since their first detection, GWs have been extensively used to test GR, but no deviations have been found so far. Given GR's tremendous success in explaining current astronomical observations and laboratory experiments, accepting any deviation from it requires a very high level of statistical confidence and consistency of the deviation across GW sources. In this paper, we compile a comprehensive list of potential causes that can lead to a false identification of a GR violation in standard tests of GR on data from current and future ground-based GW detectors. These causes include detector noise, signal overlaps, gaps in the data, detector calibration, source model inaccuracy, missing physics in the source and in the underlying environment model, source misidentification, and mismodeling of the astrophysical population. We also provide a rough estimate of when each of these causes will become important for tests of GR for different detector sensitivities. We argue that each of these causes should be thoroughly investigated, quantified, and ruled out before claiming a GR violation in GW observations.
title Possible Causes of False General Relativity Violations in Gravitational Wave Observations
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.02197