Tests of general relativity with GW150914

Abbott, B. P. and Abbott, R. and Abbott, T. D. and Abernathy, M. R. and Acernese, F. and Barta, Dániel and Bojtos, István Péter and Debreczeni, Gergely and Frei, Zsolt and Gergely, Árpád László and Gondán, László and Raffai, Péter and Tápai, Márton and Vasúth, Mátyás Zsolt (2016) Tests of general relativity with GW150914. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 116. ISSN 0031-9007

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Abstract

The LIGO detection of GW150914 provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the two-body motion of a compact-object binary in the large velocity, highly nonlinear regime, and to witness the final merger of the binary and the excitation of uniquely relativistic modes of the gravitational field. We carry out several investigations to determine whether GW150914 is consistent with a binary black-hole merger in general relativity. We find that the final-remnant's mass and spin, determined from the inspiral and post-inspiral phases of the signal, are mutually consistent with the binary black-hole solution in general relativity. The data following the peak of GW150914 are consistent with the least-damped quasi-normal-mode inferred from the mass and spin of the remnant black hole. By using waveform models that allow for parameterized general-relativity violations during the inspiral and merger phases, we perform quantitative tests on the gravitational-wave phase in the dynamical regime and, bound, for the first time several high-order post-Newtonian coefficients. We constrain the graviton Compton wavelength in a hypothetical theory of gravity in which the graviton is massive and place a $90\%$-confidence lower bound of $10^{13}$ km. Within our statistical uncertainties, we find no evidence for violations of general relativity in the genuinely strong-field regime of gravity.

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