Bounds on the charge of the graviton using gravitational wave observations

Abstract

If the graviton possesses a non-zero charge $q_g$, gravitational waves (GW) originating from astrophysical sources would experience an additional time delay due to intergalactic magnetic fields. This would result in a modification of the phase evolution of the observed GW signal similar to the effect induced by a massive graviton. As a result, we can reinterpret the most recent upper limits on the graviton's mass as constraints on the joint mass-charge parameter space, finding $|q_g|/e<3\times 10^{-34}$ where $e$ represents the charge of an electron. Additionally, we illustrate that a charged graviton would introduce a constant phase difference in the gravitational waves detected by two spatially separated GW detectors due to the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Using the non-observation of such a phase difference for the GW event GW190814, we establish a mass-independent constraint $|q_g|/e<2\times 10^{-26}$. To the best of our knowledge, our results constitute the first-ever bounds on the charge of the graviton. We also discuss various caveats involved in our measurements and prospects for strengthening these bounds with future GW observations.

arXiv comment9 pages, 3 figures, matches published version in JCAP

References in corpus (38)

• SciPy 1.0--Fundamental Algorithms for Scientific Computing in Python
• Array Programming with NumPy
• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
• The Astropy Project: Building an inclusive, open-science project and status of the v2.0 core package
• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• GWTC-1: A Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog of Compact Binary Mergers Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the First and Second Observing Runs
• Advanced LIGO
• GWTC-2: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the First Half of the Third Observing Run
• dynesty: A Dynamic Nested Sampling Package for Estimating Bayesian Posteriors and Evidences
• GW190814: Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of a 23 M${}_{\odot }$ Black Hole with a 2.6 M${}_{\odot }$ Compact Object
• GWTC-3: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the Second Part of the Third Observing Run
• Tests of general relativity with GW150914
• Bilby: A user-friendly Bayesian inference library for gravitational-wave astronomy
• Evidence for strong extragalactic magnetic fields from Fermi observations of TeV blazars
• Tests of General Relativity with the Binary Black Hole Signals from the LIGO-Virgo Catalog GWTC-1
• Tests of General Relativity with Binary Black Holes from the second LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog
• Tests of General Relativity with GW170817
• Computationally efficient models for the dominant and sub-dominant harmonic modes of precessing binary black holes
• Bayesian inference for compact binary coalescences with BILBY: Validation and application to the first LIGO--Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalogue
• The origin, evolution and signatures of primordial magnetic fields
• Bounding the mass of the graviton using gravitional-wave observations of inspiralling compact binaries
• IndIGO and LIGO-India: Scope and Plans for Gravitational Wave Research and Precision Metrology in India
• Constraining Lorentz-violating, Modified Dispersion Relations with Gravitational Waves
• Gravitational waves from inspiralling compact binaries: Energy flux to third post-Newtonian order
• Phase effects from strong gravitational lensing of gravitational waves
• PESummary: the code agnostic Parameter Estimation Summary page builder
• Identifying Type II Strongly Lensed Gravitational-Wave Images in Third-Generation Gravitational-Wave Detectors
• On the waveforms of gravitationally lensed gravitational waves
• On the identification of individual gravitational wave image types of a lensed system using higher-order modes
• Relative Binning and Fast Likelihood Evaluation for Gravitational Wave Parameter Estimation
• Detection and parameter estimation challenges of Type-II lensed binary black hole signals
• Measuring the correlation length of intergalactic magnetic fields from observations of gamma-ray induced cascades
• Does the speed of gravitational waves depend on the source velocity?
• Bound on the Photon Charge from the Phase Coherence of Extragalactic Radiation
• Pulsar Bound on the Photon Electric Charge Reexamined
• Astrophysical Bounds on the Photon Charge and Magnetic Moment
• Accelerated parameter estimation in Bilby with relative binning

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Exact black hole solutions in gravity with a background Kalb-Ramond field
• Parametrized tests of general relativity using eccentric compact binaries
• Signatures of modified gravity from the gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect
• Testing general relativity with gravitational waves -- improving and extending Modified Dispersion Relation tests
• Constraining Lorentz and parity violations in gravity with multiband gravitational wave observations
• Multi-messenger lensing time delay as a probe of the graviton mass