Gravitational wave inference on a numerical-relativity simulation of a black hole merger beyond general relativity

Abstract

We apply common gravitational wave inference procedures on binary black hole merger waveforms beyond general relativity. We consider dynamical Chern-Simons gravity, a modified theory of gravity with origins in string theory and loop quantum gravity. This theory introduces an additional parameter $\ell$, corresponding to the length-scale below which beyond-general-relativity effects become important. We simulate data based on numerical relativity waveforms produced under an approximation to this theory, which differ from those of general relativity in the strongly nonlinear merger regime. We consider a system with parameters similar to GW150914 with different values of $\ell$ and signal-to-noise ratios. We perform two analyses of the simulated data. The first is a template-based analysis that uses waveforms derived under general relativity and allows us to identify degeneracies between the two waveform morphologies. The second is a morphology-independent analysis based on BayesWave that does not assume that the signal is consistent with general relativity. The BayesWave analysis faithfully reconstructs the simulated signals. However, waveform models derived under general relativity are unable to fully mimic the simulated modified-gravity signals and such a deviation would be identifiable with existing inference tools. Depending on the magnitude of the deviation, we find that the templated analysis can under perform the morphology-independent analysis in fully recovering simulated beyond-GR waveforms even for achievable signal-to-noise ratios $\gtrsim 20-30$.

8 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (31)

• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment
• Advanced LIGO
• GWTC-2: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the First Half of the Third Observing Run
• Exploring the Sensitivity of Next Generation Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Tests of General Relativity with Binary Black Holes from the second LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog
• Scientific Objectives of Einstein Telescope
• BayesWave: Bayesian Inference for Gravitational Wave Bursts and Instrument Glitches
• Towards models of gravitational waveforms from generic binaries II: Modelling precession effects with a single effective precession parameter
• Model Waveform Accuracy Standards for Gravitational Wave Data Analysis
• Analysis of spin precession in binary black hole systems including quadrupole-monopole interaction
• BayesLine: Bayesian Inference for Spectral Estimation of Gravitational Wave Detector Noise
• Observational Black Hole Spectroscopy: A time-domain multimode analysis of GW150914
• Linking Tests of Gravity On All Scales: from the Strong-Field Regime to Cosmology
• The Barbero-Immirzi Parameter as a Scalar Field: K-Inflation from Loop Quantum Gravity?
• The BayesWave analysis pipeline in the era of gravitational wave observations
• Testing the no-hair theorem with black hole ringdowns using TIGER
• Evolution of Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity using a modified harmonic formulation
• Dynamical descalarization in binary black hole mergers
• Interaction of the Barbero--Immirzi Field with Matter and Pseudo-Scalar Perturbations
• The Initial Value Formulation of Dynamical Chern-Simons Gravity
• Modeling the source of GW150914 with targeted numerical-relativity simulations
• Fixing extensions to General Relativity in the non-linear regime
• Parametrized ringdown spin expansion coefficients: a data-analysis framework for black-hole spectroscopy with multiple events
• Numerical relativity for Horndeski gravity
• Testing general relativity with gravitational-wave catalogs: the insidious nature of waveform systematics
• Investigating the relation between gravitational wave tests of general relativity
• A morphology-independent test of the mixed polarization content of gravitational wave signals from compact binary coalescences
• Population inference of spin-induced quadrupole moments as a probe for non-black hole compact binaries
• Numerical renormalization group-based approach to secular perturbation theory
• Probing neutron stars with the full pre-merger and post-merger gravitational wave signal from binary coalescences

Cited by in corpus (14)

• SEOBNRv5PHM: Next generation of accurate and efficient multipolar precessing-spin effective-one-body waveforms for binary black holes
• The Science of the Einstein Telescope
• The universal Teukolsky equations and black hole perturbations in higher-derivative gravity
• Tests of general relativity in the nonlinear regime: a parametrized plunge-merger-ringdown gravitational waveform model
• Fortifying gravitational-wave tests of general relativity against astrophysical assumptions
• Constraining gravitational wave amplitude birefringence with GWTC-3
• Chiral Gravitational Waves in Palatini Chern-Simons
• GRFolres: A code for modified gravity simulations in strong gravity
• Solving the initial conditions problem for modified gravity theories
• SCoRe: A New Framework to Study Unmodeled Physics from Gravitational Wave Data
• Gravitational Radiation from Eccentric Binary Black Hole System in Dynamical Chern-Simons Gravity
• Einstein-Klein-Gordon system via Cauchy-characteristic evolution: Computation of memory and ringdown tail
• The directional isotropy of LIGO-Virgo binaries
• Measuring spin precession from massive black hole binaries with gravitational waves: insights from time-domain signal morphology