The first informative astrophysical calibration of gravitational-wave detectors is reported using GW240925 and GW250207.
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Tests of General Relativity with Binary Black Holes from the second LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog
Canonical reference. 79% of citing Pith papers cite this work as background.
abstract
Gravitational waves enable tests of general relativity in the highly dynamical and strong-field regime. Using events detected by LIGO-Virgo up to 1 October 2019, we evaluate the consistency of the data with predictions from the theory. We first establish that residuals from the best-fit waveform are consistent with detector noise, and that the low- and high-frequency parts of the signals are in agreement. We then consider parametrized modifications to the waveform by varying post-Newtonian and phenomenological coefficients, improving past constraints by factors of ${\sim}2$; we also find consistency with Kerr black holes when we specifically target signatures of the spin-induced quadrupole moment. Looking for gravitational-wave dispersion, we tighten constraints on Lorentz-violating coefficients by a factor of ${\sim}2.6$ and bound the mass of the graviton to $m_g \leq 3.09 \times 10^{-23} \mathrm{eV}/c^2$ with 90% credibility. We also analyze the properties of the merger remnants by measuring ringdown frequencies and damping times, constraining fractional deviations away from the Kerr frequency to $\delta \hat{f}_{220} = 0.03^{+0.38}_{-0.35}$ for the fundamental quadrupolar mode, and $\delta \hat{f}_{221} = 0.02^{+0.29}_{-0.33}$ for the first overtone; additionally, we find no evidence for postmerger echoes. Finally, we determine that our data are consistent with tensorial polarizations through a template-independent method. When possible, we assess the validity of general relativity based on collections of events analyzed jointly. We find no evidence for new physics beyond general relativity, for black hole mimickers, or for any unaccounted systematics.
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representative citing papers
Numerical relativity simulations of black hole scattering in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity agree closely with effective-one-body analytic predictions.
Bayesian analysis of GW230627 and GW250114 finds no deviation from GR at 4PN and 4.5PN orders, setting the first empirical baseline with 90% intervals of order O(1)-O(10).
A cross-correlation search of ~11,000 event pairs in GWTC-4 including sub-threshold candidates finds no lensed GW pairs above 3σ, setting an upper bound of ≤1.5/yr on the lensing rate.
An external dynamical environment forms a resonant cavity with a black hole in dCS gravity that triggers Mathieu instability in the scalar sector, producing cascading amplification of gravitational waves via a delayed secondary burst.
Quasinormal mode excitation in black hole ringdown equals the Fourier transform of the perturbation evaluated at the mode frequency, so black holes act as resonant spectral filters.
Natural polynomials for Schwarzschild and Kerr quasinormal modes are Pollaczek-Jacobi polynomials with complex parameters, with recurrence peaking at the physical overtone index for Schwarzschild.
A full-covariance formalism for PTA-astrometry ORF estimators forecasts graviton-mass upper limits of 4.41e-24 eV/c2 for current-like setups and 0.48e-24 eV/c2 for SKA/Theia-like future setups, with astrometry adding significant power in the latter case.
GreyRing model based on greybody factors reproduces numerical relativity ringdown signals with mismatches of order 10^{-6} and enables a new post-merger consistency test of general relativity applied to GW250114.
Leading-order deviations from general relativity in scalar quasinormal modes of rotating black holes are computed numerically up to dimensionless spins of 0.99 in quadratic-curvature scalar-tensor theories.
Ratio-Filter Dechirping converts gravitational-wave matched filtering from a memory-bound FFT into a cache-efficient FIR convolution, delivering a measured 8x speedup in the core loop.
A four-parameter greybody factor model reproduces the frequency-domain ringdown amplitude of comparable-mass aligned-spin mergers with mismatches of order 10^{-5}, improving existing models by two orders of magnitude.
A unified framework for the perturbed Kepler problem derives modified eccentric orbits and gravitational wave imprints from a general perturbed potential, offering a source-specific alternative to post-Newtonian expansions.
Numerical relativity in the decoupling limit reveals dynamical scalarization and spin-induced (de)scalarization during hyperbolic black hole encounters for both signs of the coupling.
SPRING framework propagates pre-merger information into spectral-level ringdown inference, improving Bayesian support for an agnostic two-damped-sinusoid model on GW250114 by ΔlnB ~5-10 while keeping remnant posteriors consistent with IMR estimates.
Bayesian analysis finds individual QNM frequencies near avoided crossings hard to resolve even under optimistic conditions, though collective AC waveform signatures may remain detectable if those modes dominate and slower-mode contamination is minimal.
A framework is developed to test beyond-GR effects in nanohertz continuous waves from individual SMBHBs, deriving modified inter-pulsar correlations, antenna responses, and phase delays for three deviation classes, validated by injection-recovery simulations showing parameter recovery and no GR bias
Kinetic screening non-monotonically suppresses or enhances scalar quadrupolar emission from equal-mass neutron star binaries depending on screening radius versus wavelength, with a dipole re-emerging linearly with mass asymmetry.
A closed formula computes static post-Newtonian corrections at arbitrary odd orders in gravity, yielding the explicit seventh post-Newtonian potential that matches an independent diagrammatic method.
A glitch-robust amortized inference framework combining normalizing flows, time-frequency multimodal fusion, and contrastive learning outperforms MCMC for Taiji massive black hole binary parameter estimation under noise contamination.
Relativistic metric backreaction from scalar dark matter clouds in EMRIs produces dominant polar gravitational wave corrections for Mμ ≲ 0.12, exceeding axial and scalar radiation channels at small separations.
Unmodeled point-mass lensing produces a spurious nonzero graviton mass posterior in GW231123 that vanishes when lensing is included in the analysis.
The LQG parameter ξ enlarges equatorial bound orbit energy ranges, confines off-equatorial trajectories, and produces larger deviations from Kerr waveforms in EMRI models for two rotating LQG black holes, though signals fall below detector sensitivities.
GW250114 data constrains GR deviations in merger amplitude to 10% and frequency to 4% at 90% CL, with first bounds on the (4,4) mode frequency at 6%.
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Forecasting graviton-mass constraints from the full covariance of PTA-astrometry ORF estimators
A full-covariance formalism for PTA-astrometry ORF estimators forecasts graviton-mass upper limits of 4.41e-24 eV/c2 for current-like setups and 0.48e-24 eV/c2 for SKA/Theia-like future setups, with astrometry adding significant power in the latter case.
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Quadratic gravity corrections to scalar QNMs of rapidly rotating black holes
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Generalized Perturbed Kepler Problem: Gravitational Wave Imprints from Eccentric Compact Binaries
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Scalarization and descalarization in hyperbolic encounters of black holes
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Detectability of avoided crossings in black hole ringdowns
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