Polarization Birefringence and Waveform Systematics in GW231123

Abstract

GW231123 is a short, massive binary-black-hole event whose source properties show strong waveform dependence. We use this event to test gravitational-wave polarization birefringence, modeled as a frequency-dependent rotation of the tensor-polarization basis. Instead of sampling a distance-normalized coefficient directly, we sample the band-differential rotation ${\delta }_{\mathrm{br}}=\Delta (448\mathrm{Hz})-\Delta (20\mathrm{Hz})$ with prior $[-\pi ,\pi ]$, and report the derived coefficient ${\beta }_{\mathrm{br}}^{\mathrm{derived}}$ for comparison with standard propagation parametrizations. We analyze three waveform families: IMRPhenomXPHM (XPHM), IMRPhenomXO4a (XO4a), and NRSur7dq4. The derived posteriors are consistent with the general relativity value, giving $90\%$ upper limits $|{\beta }_{\mathrm{br}}^{\mathrm{derived}}{|}_{90}=0.378,0.097,0.273$ for XPHM, XO4a, and NRSur7dq4, respectively. The directly sampled ${\delta }_{\mathrm{br}}$ posterior remains broad, with $|{\delta }_{\mathrm{br}}{|}_{90}\simeq 2.8\mathrm{rad}$, so the accumulated rotation across the analysis band is weakly constrained. The Bayes factors are waveform dependent: $\ln {\mathcal{B}}_{br/GR}=-1.26\pm 0.30$, $+3.64\pm 0.28$, and $-0.86\pm 0.29$, respectively. We therefore find no waveform-robust evidence for parity-violating propagation. The positive XO4a result is better interpreted as a waveform-dependent birefringence-like response associated with the mass-ratio--distance--spin degeneracy of this short high-mass event.

arXiv comment9 pages, 4 figures, comments are welcome