2018/07/31 by K. H. Lai, Kwun-Hang Lai, Tjonnie G. F. Li +1 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Binary black hole #Black hole (networking) #Classical mechanics #Einstein Telescope #Event horizon #General relativity #Gravitational wave #Horizon #LIGO #Numerical relativity #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Tests of general relativity #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.98.084059
published in Physical review. D/Physical review. D. 98(8) (American Physical Society) · 12 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2018/09/21 · openalex publication_date 2018/10/30 · arxiv updated 2018/11/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
General relativity predicts mass and spin growth of an inspiralling black hole due to an energy-momentum flux flowing through the black-hole horizon. The leading-order terms of this horizon flux introduce 2.5 and 3.5 post-Newtonian corrections to inspiral motions of binary black holes. The corrections may be measurable by gravitational waves detectors. Since the proper improvements to general relativity are still a mystery, it is possible that the true modified gravity theory introduces negligible direct corrections to the geodesics of test masses, while near-horizon corrections are observable. We introduce a parametrization to describe arbitrary mass and spin growth of inspiralling black holes. Comparing signals of gravitational waves and a waveform model with parametrized horizon flux corrections, deviations from general relativity can be constrained. We simulate a set of gravitational wave signals following an astrophysical distribution with horizon flux modifications. Then, we perform a Bayesian analysis to obtain the expected constraints from the simulated response of the Advanced LIGO-Virgo detector network to the simulated signals. We show that the constraint can be improved by stacking multiple detections. The constraints of modified horizon flux can be used to test a specific class of modified gravity theories which predict dominant corrections near black-hole horizons over other types of corrections to general relativity. To support Hawking's area theorem at 90% confidence level, over 10000 LIGO-Virgo detections are required. Within the lifetime of the LIGO and Einstein Telescope, a future ground-based gravitational wave detector, near-horizon corrections of modified gravity theories are potentially detectable if one of the modified gravity theories is true and the theory predicts a strong correction.