Testing General Relativity with Low-Frequency, Space-Based Gravitational-Wave Detectors
Abstract
We review the tests of general relativity that will become possible with space-based gravitational-wave detectors operating in the ∼ 10-5 - 1 Hz low-frequency band. The fundamental aspects of gravitation that can be tested include the presence of additional gravitational fields other than the metric; the number and tensorial nature of gravitational-wave polarization states; the velocity of propagation of gravitational waves; the binding energy and gravitational-wave radiation of binaries, and therefore the time evolution of binary inspirals; the strength and shape of the waves emitted from binary mergers and ringdowns; the true nature of astrophysical black holes; and much more. The strength of this science alone calls for the swift implementation of a space-based detector; the remarkable richness of astrophysics, astronomy, and cosmology in the low-frequency gravitational-wave band make the case even stronger.
- Publication:
-
Living Reviews in Relativity
- Pub Date:
- September 2013
- DOI:
- 10.12942/lrr-2013-7
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1212.5575
- Bibcode:
- 2013LRR....16....7G
- Keywords:
-
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- data analysis;
- black holes;
- general relativity;
- gravitation;
- eLISA;
- LISA;
- gravitational waves;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
- E-Print:
- 109 pages