Graviton Mass and Memory

Abstract

Gravitational memory, a residual change, arises after a finite gravitational wave pulse interacts with free masses. We calculate the memory effect in massive gravity as a function of the graviton mass $(m_g)$ and show that it is discretely different from the result of general relativity: the memory is reduced not just via the usual expected Yukawa decay but by a numerical factor which survives even in the massless limit. For the strongest existing bounds on the graviton mass, the memory is essentially wiped out for the sources located at distances above 10 Mpc. On the other hand, for the weaker bounds found in the LIGO observations, the memory is reduced to zero for distances above 0.1 Pc. Hence, we suggest that careful observations of the gravitational wave memory effect can rule out the graviton mass or significantly bound it. We also show that adding higher curvature terms reduces the memory effect.

arXiv comment6 pages, matches the published version

References in corpus (15)

• Resummation of Massive Gravity
• Energy in Generic Higher Curvature Gravity Theories
• Photon and Graviton Mass Limits
• New Gravitational Memories
• Conserved charges of the extended Bondi-Metzner-Sachs algebra
• A perturbative and gauge invariant treatment of gravitational wave memory
• BMS Supertranslations and Memory in Four and Higher Dimensions
• Soft Gravitons & the Memory Effect for Plane Gravitational Waves
• Retarded Fields of Null Particles and the Memory Effect
• Examination of a simple example of gravitational wave memory
• The Memory Effect for Particle Scattering in Even Spacetime Dimensions
• Weak Field Limit of Infinite Derivative Gravity
• Memory Effect for Particle Scattering in Odd Spacetime Dimensions
• Spin-Spin Interactions in Massive Gravity and Higher Derivative Gravity Theories
• Gravitomagnetism in Massive Gravity

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Gravitational memory effects and Bondi-Metzner-Sachs symmetries in scalar-tensor theories
• Gravitational wave memory beyond general relativity
• Geodesic congruences in exact plane wave spacetimes and the memory effect
• Gravitational wave memory and its tail in cosmology
• "Conserved charges" of the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs algebra in the Brans-Dicke theory
• Memory effects in Kundt wave spacetimes
• Niederer's transformation, time-dependent oscillators and polarized gravitational waves
• Gravitational memory effects in Brans-Dicke theory
• Gravitational memory: new results from post-Newtonian and self-force theory
• Survey of gravitational wave memory in intermediate mass ratio binaries
• Memory effect of the pp waves with torsion
• Velocity memory effect without soft particles