Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Gravitational wave astronomy has placed strong constraints on fundamental physics, and there is every expectation that future observations will continue to do so. In this work we quantify this expectation for future binary merger observations to constrain hidden sectors, such as scalar-tensor gravity or dark matter, which induce a Yukawa-type modification to the gravitational potential. We explicitly compute the gravitational waveform, and perform a Fisher information matrix analysis to estimate the sensitivity of next generation gravitational wave detectors to these modifications. We find an optimal sensitivity to the Yukawa interaction strength of 10 −5 and to the associated dipole emission parameter of 10 −7 , with the best constraints arising from the Einstein telescope. When applied to a minimal model of dark matter, this provides an exquisite probe of dark matter accumulation by neutron stars, and for sub-TeV dark matter gravitational waves are able to detect mass fractions less then 1 part in 10 15 .
Source: Classical and Quantum Gravity
Authors: Stephon Alexander, Evan McDonough, Robert Sims, Nicolás Yunes
Institutions: Brown University, Montana State University
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: CAREER: Gravitational Waves from Compact Binaries as Probes of the Universe, THIS PROPOSAL IS FOCUSED ON (I) NUCLEAR PHYSICS IN EXTREME GRAVITY (II) EXPERIMENTAL RELATIVITY IN EXTREME GRAVITY AND (III) MULTIMESSENGER ASTROPHYSICS IN EXTREME GRAVITY. REGARDING (I) WE PROPOSE TO IMPROVE AND DEVELOP NEW TOOLS TO EXTRACT THE MOST ASTROPHYSICS FROM X-RAY DATA OBTAINED WITH NASA'S NEUTRON STAR INTERIOR COMPOSITION EXPLORER (NICER). THESE TOOLS WILL ALLOW FOR PRECISE CONSTRAINTS ON THE NEUTRON STAR EQUATION OF STATE THROUGH MEASUREMENTS OF THEIR MASS AND RADIUS. REGARDING (II) WE PROPOSE TO CREATE A FRAMEWORK THROUGH WHICH TO TEST GENERAL RELATIVITY WITH BOTH GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DATA FROM THE LASER INTERFEROMETER SPACE ANTENNA (LISA) AND X-RAY DATA FROM NICER IN A ROBUST AND MODEL-INDEPENDENT FASHION. THIS FRAMEWORK WILL ALLOW FOR CONSISTENCY CHECKS OF EINSTEIN'S THEORY AND THE SEARCH FOR MODIFIED GRAVITY ANOMALIES WITH NEUTRON STARS AND BLACK HOLES. REGARDING (III) WE PROPOSE TO LEARN ABOUT NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND GENERAL RELATIVITY BY COMBINING X-RAY INFORMATION FROM NICER GAMMA-RAY INFORMATION FROM NASA'S FERMI AND SWIFT TELESCOPES AND GRAVITATIONAL WAVE INFORMATION FROM ADVANCED LIGO. THE PROPOSED WORK IS OF DIRECT RELEVANCE TO NASA'S STRATEGIC MISSION TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE THROUGH OBSERVATION AND NASA'S MISSION OF DISCOVERY AND KNOWLEDGE. THE REGION OF THE UNIVERSE WHERE GRAVITY IS UNBEARABLY STRONG AND DYNAMICALLY CHANGING (THE EXTREME GRAVITY UNIVERSE) IS ONE OF THE LAST UNTURNED STONES. THIS IS IN PART BECAUSE EXTREME GRAVITY OBJECTS LIKE NEUTRON STARS AND BLACK HOLES ARE DIFFICULT TO RESOLVE DUE TO THEIR SIZE AND DISTANCE FROM EARTH. NASA'S INVESTMENTS IN NEUTRON STAR ASTROPHYSICS AND IN SPACE-BORNE GRAVITATIONAL WAVE ASTROPHYSICS ARE AIMED AT RESOLVING SUCH OBJECTS AND FOR THE FIRST TIME EXPLORING THE EXTREME GRAVITY UNIVERSE IN DETAIL. THE FOCUS OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO AID IN THIS ENDEAVOR BY DEVELOPING THE TOOLS AND THE UNDERSTANDING NEEDED TO EXTRACT THE MOST INFORMATION FROM THE DATA., A SPACE BASED GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTOR WILL OPEN UP THE SOURCE RICH LOW FREQUENCY PORTION OF THE SPECTRUM THAT CAN NOT BE ACCESSED FROM THE GROUND
OpenAlex ID: W2885582143