Testing general relativity using higher-order modes of gravitational waves from binary black holes

Anna Puecher; Chinmay Kalaghatgi; Soumen Roy; Yoshinta Setyawati; Ish Gupta; B. S. Sathyaprakash; Chris Van Den Broeck

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.106.082003

Testing general relativity using higher-order modes of gravitational waves from binary black holes

Anna Puecher
, Chinmay Kalaghatgi
, Soumen Roy
, Yoshinta Setyawati
, Ish Gupta
, B. S. Sathyaprakash
, Chris Van Den Broeck

Pennsylvania State University
Cardiff University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Recently, strong evidence was found for the presence of higher-order modes in the gravitational wave signals GW190412 and GW190814, which originated from compact binary coalescences with significantly asymmetric component masses. This has opened up the possibility of new tests of general relativity by looking at the way in which the higher-order modes are related to the basic signal. Here we further develop a test which assesses whether the amplitudes of subdominant harmonics are consistent with what is predicted by general relativity. To this end we incorporate a state-of-the-art waveform model with higher-order modes and precessing spins into a Bayesian parameter estimation and model selection framework. The analysis methodology is tested extensively through simulations. We investigate to what extent deviations in the relative amplitudes of the harmonics will be measurable depending on the properties of the source, and we map out correlations between our testing parameters and the inclination of the source with respect to the observer. Finally, we apply the test to GW190412 and GW190814, finding no evidence for violations of general relativity.

Original language	English
Article number	082003
Journal	Physical Review D
Volume	106
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.106.082003
Publication status	Published - 12 Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
A. P., C. K., S. R., Y. S., and C. V. D. B. are supported by the research program of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). I. G. and B. S. S. are supported by NSF Grants No. PHY-2012083 and No. AST-2006384. B. S. S.’s research was also supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958 and part of B.S.S.’s work was performed at the Aspen Center for Physics, which is supported by the National Science Foundation grant PHY-1607611. The authors are grateful for computational resources provided by the LIGO Laboratory and supported by the National Science Foundation Grants No. PHY-0757058 and No. PHY-0823459. This research has made use of data, software and/or web tools obtained from the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center , a service of LIGO Laboratory, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration. LIGO is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Virgo is funded by the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Italian Istituto Nazionale della Fisica Nucleare (INFN) and the Dutch Nikhef, with contributions by Polish and Hungarian institutes.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Physical Society.

Funding

A. P., C. K., S. R., Y. S., and C. V. D. B. are supported by the research program of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). I. G. and B. S. S. are supported by NSF Grants No. PHY-2012083 and No. AST-2006384. B. S. S.’s research was also supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958 and part of B.S.S.’s work was performed at the Aspen Center for Physics, which is supported by the National Science Foundation grant PHY-1607611. The authors are grateful for computational resources provided by the LIGO Laboratory and supported by the National Science Foundation Grants No. PHY-0757058 and No. PHY-0823459. This research has made use of data, software and/or web tools obtained from the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center , a service of LIGO Laboratory, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration. LIGO is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Virgo is funded by the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Italian Istituto Nazionale della Fisica Nucleare (INFN) and the Dutch Nikhef, with contributions by Polish and Hungarian institutes.

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PhysRevD.106.082003Final published version, 1.79 MBLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

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title = "Testing general relativity using higher-order modes of gravitational waves from binary black holes",

abstract = "Recently, strong evidence was found for the presence of higher-order modes in the gravitational wave signals GW190412 and GW190814, which originated from compact binary coalescences with significantly asymmetric component masses. This has opened up the possibility of new tests of general relativity by looking at the way in which the higher-order modes are related to the basic signal. Here we further develop a test which assesses whether the amplitudes of subdominant harmonics are consistent with what is predicted by general relativity. To this end we incorporate a state-of-the-art waveform model with higher-order modes and precessing spins into a Bayesian parameter estimation and model selection framework. The analysis methodology is tested extensively through simulations. We investigate to what extent deviations in the relative amplitudes of the harmonics will be measurable depending on the properties of the source, and we map out correlations between our testing parameters and the inclination of the source with respect to the observer. Finally, we apply the test to GW190412 and GW190814, finding no evidence for violations of general relativity.",

author = "Anna Puecher and Chinmay Kalaghatgi and Soumen Roy and Yoshinta Setyawati and Ish Gupta and Sathyaprakash, \{B. S.\} and \{Van Den Broeck\}, Chris",

note = "Funding Information: A. P., C. K., S. R., Y. S., and C. V. D. B. are supported by the research program of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). I. G. and B. S. S. are supported by NSF Grants No. PHY-2012083 and No. AST-2006384. B. S. S.{\textquoteright}s research was also supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958 and part of B.S.S.{\textquoteright}s work was performed at the Aspen Center for Physics, which is supported by the National Science Foundation grant PHY-1607611. The authors are grateful for computational resources provided by the LIGO Laboratory and supported by the National Science Foundation Grants No. PHY-0757058 and No. PHY-0823459. This research has made use of data, software and/or web tools obtained from the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center , a service of LIGO Laboratory, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration. LIGO is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Virgo is funded by the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Italian Istituto Nazionale della Fisica Nucleare (INFN) and the Dutch Nikhef, with contributions by Polish and Hungarian institutes. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 American Physical Society.",

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AU - Gupta, Ish

AU - Sathyaprakash, B. S.

AU - Van Den Broeck, Chris

N1 - Funding Information: A. P., C. K., S. R., Y. S., and C. V. D. B. are supported by the research program of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). I. G. and B. S. S. are supported by NSF Grants No. PHY-2012083 and No. AST-2006384. B. S. S.’s research was also supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958 and part of B.S.S.’s work was performed at the Aspen Center for Physics, which is supported by the National Science Foundation grant PHY-1607611. The authors are grateful for computational resources provided by the LIGO Laboratory and supported by the National Science Foundation Grants No. PHY-0757058 and No. PHY-0823459. This research has made use of data, software and/or web tools obtained from the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center , a service of LIGO Laboratory, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration. LIGO is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Virgo is funded by the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Italian Istituto Nazionale della Fisica Nucleare (INFN) and the Dutch Nikhef, with contributions by Polish and Hungarian institutes. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 American Physical Society.

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N2 - Recently, strong evidence was found for the presence of higher-order modes in the gravitational wave signals GW190412 and GW190814, which originated from compact binary coalescences with significantly asymmetric component masses. This has opened up the possibility of new tests of general relativity by looking at the way in which the higher-order modes are related to the basic signal. Here we further develop a test which assesses whether the amplitudes of subdominant harmonics are consistent with what is predicted by general relativity. To this end we incorporate a state-of-the-art waveform model with higher-order modes and precessing spins into a Bayesian parameter estimation and model selection framework. The analysis methodology is tested extensively through simulations. We investigate to what extent deviations in the relative amplitudes of the harmonics will be measurable depending on the properties of the source, and we map out correlations between our testing parameters and the inclination of the source with respect to the observer. Finally, we apply the test to GW190412 and GW190814, finding no evidence for violations of general relativity.

AB - Recently, strong evidence was found for the presence of higher-order modes in the gravitational wave signals GW190412 and GW190814, which originated from compact binary coalescences with significantly asymmetric component masses. This has opened up the possibility of new tests of general relativity by looking at the way in which the higher-order modes are related to the basic signal. Here we further develop a test which assesses whether the amplitudes of subdominant harmonics are consistent with what is predicted by general relativity. To this end we incorporate a state-of-the-art waveform model with higher-order modes and precessing spins into a Bayesian parameter estimation and model selection framework. The analysis methodology is tested extensively through simulations. We investigate to what extent deviations in the relative amplitudes of the harmonics will be measurable depending on the properties of the source, and we map out correlations between our testing parameters and the inclination of the source with respect to the observer. Finally, we apply the test to GW190412 and GW190814, finding no evidence for violations of general relativity.

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ER -

Testing general relativity using higher-order modes of gravitational waves from binary black holes

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