Plunge-Merger-Ringdown Tests of General Relativity with GW250114

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Grimaldi, Leonardo, Maggio, Elisa, Pompili, Lorenzo, Buonanno, Alessandra
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866908946939248640
author Grimaldi, Leonardo
Maggio, Elisa
Pompili, Lorenzo
Buonanno, Alessandra
author_facet Grimaldi, Leonardo
Maggio, Elisa
Pompili, Lorenzo
Buonanno, Alessandra
contents The binary black hole signal GW250114, the clearest gravitational wave detected to date, offers a unique opportunity to test general relativity in the relativistic strong-gravity regime. How well does GW250114 agree with Einstein's predictions in the plunge-merger-ringdown stage? To address this point, we constrain deviations from general relativity across the plunge-merger-ringdown stage of spin-precessing binaries with a parametrized waveform model within the effective-one-body formalism. We find that deviations from the peak gravitational-wave amplitude and instantaneous frequency of the $(\ell, |m|)=(2,2)$ mode are constrained to about $10\%$ and $4\%$, respectively, at $90\%$ credible level. These constraints are, respectively, two and four times more stringent than those obtained by analyzing GW150914. We also constrain, for the first time, the instantaneous frequency of the $(\ell, |m|)=(4,4)$ mode at merger to about $6\%$, and the time at which the gravitational-wave amplitude peaks to about $5~\mathrm{ms}$. These results are the most precise tests of general relativity in the nonlinear regime to date, and can be employed to constrain extensions of Einsten's theory.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_13173
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Plunge-Merger-Ringdown Tests of General Relativity with GW250114
Grimaldi, Leonardo
Maggio, Elisa
Pompili, Lorenzo
Buonanno, Alessandra
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
The binary black hole signal GW250114, the clearest gravitational wave detected to date, offers a unique opportunity to test general relativity in the relativistic strong-gravity regime. How well does GW250114 agree with Einstein's predictions in the plunge-merger-ringdown stage? To address this point, we constrain deviations from general relativity across the plunge-merger-ringdown stage of spin-precessing binaries with a parametrized waveform model within the effective-one-body formalism. We find that deviations from the peak gravitational-wave amplitude and instantaneous frequency of the $(\ell, |m|)=(2,2)$ mode are constrained to about $10\%$ and $4\%$, respectively, at $90\%$ credible level. These constraints are, respectively, two and four times more stringent than those obtained by analyzing GW150914. We also constrain, for the first time, the instantaneous frequency of the $(\ell, |m|)=(4,4)$ mode at merger to about $6\%$, and the time at which the gravitational-wave amplitude peaks to about $5~\mathrm{ms}$. These results are the most precise tests of general relativity in the nonlinear regime to date, and can be employed to constrain extensions of Einsten's theory.
title Plunge-Merger-Ringdown Tests of General Relativity with GW250114
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.13173