GW170814: Gravitational wave polarization analysis

Abstract

To determine the polarization character of gravitational waves, we use strain data from the GW170814 binary black hole coalescence event detected by the three LIGO-Virgo observatories, extracting the gravitational wave strain signal amplitude ratios directly from those data. Employing a geometric approach that links those ratios to the gravitational wave polarization properties, we find that there is a range of source sky locations, partially overlapping the LIGI-Virgo 90% credible range of GW170814 source locations, for which vector polarization is consistent with the observed amplitude ratios. A Bayesian inference analysis indicates that the GW170814 data cannot rule out vector polarization for gravitational waves. Confirmation of a vector polarization component of gravitational waves would be a sign of post-general relativity physics.

This version adds (1) enhanced analysis of the raw LIGO-Virgo strain data and (2) Bayesian inference methods for testing polarization models

References in corpus (32)

• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment
• Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger
• GW170814: A Three-Detector Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of $150M_{\odot }$
• Bilby: A user-friendly Bayesian inference library for gravitational-wave astronomy
• Robust parameter estimation for compact binaries with ground-based gravitational-wave observations using the LALInference software library
• Tests of General Relativity with the Binary Black Hole Signals from the LIGO-Virgo Catalog GWTC-1
• Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap
• Tests of General Relativity with GW170817
• An introduction to Bayesian inference in gravitational-wave astronomy: parameter estimation, model selection, and hierarchical models
• A guide to LIGO-Virgo detector noise and extraction of transient gravitational-wave signals
• Probing non-tensorial polarizations of stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds with ground-based laser interferometers
• A Search for Tensor, Vector, and Scalar Polarizations in the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• The basic physics of the binary black hole merger GW150914
• Noise spectral estimation methods and their impact on gravitational wave measurement of compact binary mergers
• Detecting Beyond-Einstein Polarizations of Continuous Gravitational Waves
• Polarization test of gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences
• Generic searches for alternative gravitational wave polarizations with networks of interferometric detectors
• The Polarizations of Gravitational Waves
• Pure polarization test of GW170814 and GW170817 using waveforms consistent with modified theories of gravity
• Analytical Black-Hole Binary Merger Waveforms
• Angular and frequency response of the gravitational wave interferometers in the metric theories of gravity
• Localization of transient gravitational wave sources: beyond triangulation
• Analyzing Gravitational Waves with General Relativity
• Gravitational waves without general relativity: A tutorial
• LEO-Py: Estimating likelihoods for correlated, censored, and uncertain data with given marginal distributions
• GW170817 event rules out general relativity in favor of vector gravity
• Gravitational Waves in G4v
• Simplified equations for gravitational field in the vector theory of gravity and new insights into dark energy
• Arrival Times of Gravitational Radiation Peaks for Binary Inspiral
• Can a "pure vector" gravitational wave mimic a "pure tensor" one?

Cited by in corpus (1)

• GW170817 event rules out general relativity in favor of vector gravity