Astrometric Effects of Gravitational Wave Backgrounds with non-Luminal Propagation Speeds

Abstract

A passing gravitational wave causes a deflection in the apparent astrometric positions of distant stars. The effect of the speed of the gravitational wave on this astrometric shift is discussed. A stochastic background of gravitational waves would result in a pattern of astrometric deflections which are correlated on large angular scales. These correlations are quantified and investigated for backgrounds of gravitational waves with sub- and super-luminal group velocities. The statistical properties of the correlations are depicted in two equivalent and related ways: as correlation curves and as angular power spectra. Sub-(super-)luminal gravitational wave backgrounds have the effect of enhancing (suppressing) the power in low-order angular modes. Analytical representations of the redshift-redshift and redshift-astrometry correlations are also derived. The potential for using this effect for constraining the speed of gravity is discussed.

14 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review D

References in corpus (13)

• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• The Gaia mission
• The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment
• Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger
• Gravitational Waves and Gamma-rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A
• GW170814: A Three-Detector Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• Gaia Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties
• Models of non-relativistic quantum gravity: the good, the bad and the healthy
• Detecting massive gravitons using pulsar timing arrays
• Degrees of Freedom in Massive Gravity
• Pulsars and Gravity
• Gravitational wave signal from massive gravity
• Limits on the speed of gravitational waves from pulsar timing

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Exploring the Early Universe with Gaia and THEIA
• Ultra-low frequency gravitational waves from cosmological and astrophysical processes
• Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies
• Constraining the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with Photometric Surveys
• Stochastic gravitational wave background constraints from Gaia DR3 astrometry
• Dissecting the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with Astrometry
• Beyond the Hellings-Downs curve: Non-Einsteinian gravitational waves in pulsar timing array correlations
• Correlations for an anisotropic polarized stochastic gravitational wave background in pulsar timing arrays
• Harmonic analysis for pulsar timing arrays
• All-sky analysis of astrochronometric signals induced by gravitational waves
• Memory of a Random Walk: Astrometric deflections from gravitational wave memory accumulation over cosmological scales
• Dark Photon Dark Matter and Low-Frequency Gravitational Wave Detection with Gaia-like Astrometry
• On the anisotropies of the cosmological gravitational-wave background from pulsar timing array observations
• Connecting Inflation to the NANOGrav 15-year Data Set via Massive Gravity
• Gravitational Wave Gastronomy