Measuring the propagation speed of gravitational waves with LISA

Abstract

The propagation speed of gravitational waves, $c_T$, has been tightly constrained by the binary neutron star merger GW170817 and its electromagnetic counterpart, under the assumption of a frequency-independent $c_T$. Drawing upon arguments from Effective Field Theory and quantum gravity, we discuss the possibility that modifications of General Relativity allow for transient deviations of $c_T$ from the speed of light at frequencies well below the band of current ground-based detectors. We motivate two representative Ansätze for $c_T(f)$, and study their impact upon the gravitational waveforms of massive black hole binary mergers detectable by the LISA mission. We forecast the constraints on $c_T(f)$ obtainable from individual systems and a population of sources, from both inspiral and a full inspiral-merger-ringdown waveform. We show that LISA will enable us to place stringent independent bounds on departures from General Relativity in unexplored low-frequency regimes, even in the absence of an electromagnetic counterpart.

38+20 pages, 22 figures. V2: Analysis improved, to be published in JCAP

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• GWSpace: a multi-mission science data simulator for space-based gravitational wave detection
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• The gravitational field outside a spatially compact stationary source in a generic fourth-order theory of gravity
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• Gravitational wave propagation in bigravity in the late universe
• Dark energy constraints in light of theoretical priors
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