Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: The observation of low-frequency gravitational waves with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna will allow the study of new sources of gravitational radiation that are not accessible by ground-based instruments. Gravitational wave sources provide invaluable information both about their astrophysics, as well as the nature of the gravitational interaction in their neighborhoods. One low frequency source that has not received much attention regarding the latter are galactic binaries composed of two white dwarves or a white dwarf and a neutron star. We here show that, contrary to the common lore, such gravitational wave sources can indeed be used to constrain an important feature of the gravitational interaction: the absence of pre-Newtonian, dipolar dissipation. We propose a model-independent framework to carry out a null test for the presence of this feature in the data that is very much analogous to tests of general relativity with radio-observations of binary pulsars. We then go one step further and specialize this test to scalar–tensor theories to derive projected constraints on spontaneous scalarization. We find that these constraints can be comparable to current bounds with binary pulsars, and in some optimistic cases, they can be even stronger.
Source: Classical and Quantum Gravity
Authors: Tyson B Littenberg, Nicolás Yunes
Institutions: Marshall Space Flight Center, Montana State University
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: 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., G4494979790, 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, G773360097
OpenAlex ID: W2898914432