TY  - JOUR
PB  - SciPost Foundation
DO  - 10.21468/SciPostPhysCommRep.5
TI  - Possible causes of false general relativity violations in gravitational wave observations
PY  - 2025/02/13
UR  - https://www.scipost.org/SciPostPhysCommRep.5
JF  - SciPost Physics Community Reports
JA  - SciPost Phys. Comm. Rep.
SP  - 5
A1  - Gupta, Anuradha
AU  - Arun, K. G.
AU  - Barausse, Enrico
AU  - Bernard, Laura
AU  - Berti, Emanuele
AU  - Bhat, Sajad A.
AU  - Buonanno, Alessandra
AU  - Cardoso, Vitor
AU  - Cheung, Shun Yin
AU  - Clarke, Teagan A.
AU  - Datta, Sayantani
AU  - Dhani, Arnab
AU  - Ezquiaga, Jose María
AU  - Gupta, Ish
AU  - Guttman, Nir
AU  - Hinderer, Tanja
AU  - Hu, Qian
AU  - Janquart, Justin
AU  - Johnson-McDaniel, Nathan
AU  - Kashyap, Rahul
AU  - Krishnendu, N. V.
AU  - Lasky, Paul D.
AU  - Lundgren, Andrew
AU  - Maggio, Elisa
AU  - Mahapatra, Parthapratim
AU  - Maselli, Andrea
AU  - Narayan, Purnima
AU  - Nielsen, Alex B.
AU  - Nuttall, Laura K.
AU  - Pani, Paolo
AU  - Passenger, Lachlan
AU  - Payne, Ethan
AU  - Pompili, Lorenzo
AU  - Reali, Luca
AU  - Saini, Pankaj
AU  - Samajdar, Anuradha
AU  - Tiwari, Shubhanshu
AU  - Tong, Hui
AU  - Van Den Broeck, Chris
AU  - Yagi, Kent
AU  - Yang, Huan
AU  - Yunes, Nicolas
AU  - Sathyaprakash, B. S.
AB  - General relativity (GR) has proven to be a highly successful theory of gravity since its inception. The theory has thrivingly passed numerous experimental tests, predominantly in weak gravity, low relative speeds, and linear regimes, but also in the strong-field and very low-speed regimes with binary pulsars. Observable gravitational waves (GWs) originate from regions of spacetime where gravity is extremely strong, making them a unique tool for testing GR, in previously inaccessible regions of large curvature, relativistic speeds, and strong gravity. Since their first detection, GWs have been extensively used to test GR, but no deviations have been found so far. Given GR's tremendous success in explaining current astronomical observations and laboratory experiments, accepting any deviation from it requires a very high level of statistical confidence and consistency of the deviation across GW sources. In this paper, we compile a comprehensive list of potential causes that can lead to a false identification of a GR violation in standard tests of GR on data from current and future ground-based GW detectors. These causes include detector noise, signal overlaps, gaps in the data, detector calibration, source model inaccuracy, missing physics in the source and in the underlying environment model, source misidentification, and mismodeling of the astrophysical population. We also provide a rough estimate of when each of these causes will become important for tests of GR for different detector sensitivities. We argue that each of these causes should be thoroughly investigated, quantified, and ruled out before claiming a GR violation in GW observations.
ER  -

@Article{10.21468/SciPostPhysCommRep.5,
	title={{Possible causes of false general relativity violations in gravitational wave observations}},
	author={Anuradha Gupta and K. G. Arun and Enrico Barausse and Laura Bernard and Emanuele Berti and Sajad A. Bhat and Alessandra Buonanno and Vitor Cardoso and Shun Yin Cheung and Teagan A. Clarke and Sayantani Datta and Arnab Dhani and Jose María Ezquiaga and Ish Gupta and Nir Guttman and Tanja Hinderer and Qian Hu and Justin Janquart and Nathan K. Johnson-McDaniel and Rahul Kashyap and N. V. Krishnendu and Paul D. Lasky and Andrew Lundgren and Elisa Maggio and Parthapratim Mahapatra and Andrea Maselli and Purnima Narayan and Alex B. Nielsen and Laura K. Nuttall and Paolo Pani and Lachlan Passenger and Ethan Payne and Lorenzo Pompili and Luca Reali and Pankaj Saini and Anuradha Samajdar and Shubhanshu Tiwari and Hui Tong and Chris Van Den Broeck and Kent Yagi and Huan Yang and Nicolás Yunes and B. S. Sathyaprakash},
	journal={SciPost Phys. Comm. Rep.},
	pages={5},
	year={2025},
	publisher={SciPost},
	doi={10.21468/SciPostPhysCommRep.5},
	url={https://scipost.org/10.21468/SciPostPhysCommRep.5},
}

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Authors / Affiliations: mappings to Contributors and Organizations

• ¹ Anuradha Gupta,
• ² K. G. Arun,
• ^{3 4 5} Enrico Barausse,
• ^{6 7 8 9 10} Laura Bernard,
• ¹¹ Emanuele Berti,
• ^{2 12} Sajad A. Bhat,
• ^{13 14} Alessandra Buonanno,
• ^{15 16} Vitor Cardoso,
• ^{17 18} Shun Yin Cheung,
• ^{17 18} Teagan A. Clarke,
• ^{2 19} Sayantani Datta,
• ^{13 20} Arnab Dhani,
• ¹⁵ Jose María Ezquiaga,
• ²⁰ Ish Gupta,
• ^{17 18} Nir Guttman,
• ²¹ Tanja Hinderer,
• ²² Qian Hu,
• ^{21 23} Justin Janquart,
• ¹ Nathan Johnson-McDaniel,
• ²⁰ Rahul Kashyap,
• ²⁴ N. V. Krishnendu,
• ^{17 18} Paul D. Lasky,
• ²⁵ Andrew Lundgren,
• ¹³ Elisa Maggio,
• ² Parthapratim Mahapatra,
• ^{26 27} Andrea Maselli,
• ¹ Purnima Narayan,
• ²⁸ Alex B. Nielsen,
• ²⁵ Laura K. Nuttall,
• ^{29 30} Paolo Pani,
• ^{17 18} Lachlan Passenger,
• ³¹ Ethan Payne,
• ¹³ Lorenzo Pompili,
• ¹¹ Luca Reali,
• ² Pankaj Saini,
• ^{21 23} Anuradha Samajdar,
• ³² Shubhanshu Tiwari,
• ^{17 18} Hui Tong,
• ^{21 23} Chris Van Den Broeck,
• ¹⁹ Kent Yagi,
• ^{33 34 35} Huan Yang,
• ³⁶ Nicolas Yunes,
• ^{20 37} B. S. Sathyaprakash

• ¹ University of Mississippi
• ² சென்னை கணிதவியல் கழகம் / Chennai Mathematical Institute [CMI]
• ³ Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe [IFPU]
• ⁴ Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati / International School for Advanced Studies [SISSA]
• ⁵ INFN Sezione di Trieste / INFN Trieste
• ⁶ Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research [CNRS]
• ⁷ Observatoire de Paris / Paris Observatory
• ⁸ Laboratoire Univers et Théories / Laboratoire Univers et Théories [LUTH]
• ⁹ Université de recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres / PSL Research University [PSL]
• ¹⁰ Université de Paris / University of Paris
• ¹¹ Johns Hopkins University [JHU]
• ¹² ഇന്റർ യൂനിവേഴ്സിറ്റി സെന്റർ ഫോർ ആസ്ട്രോണമി ആൻഡ് ആസ്ട്രോഫിസിക്സ് / Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics [IUCAA]
• ¹³ Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik / Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics [AEI]
• ¹⁴ University of Maryland, College Park [UMCP]
• ¹⁵ Niels Bohr Institute [NBI]
• ¹⁶ Universidade de Lisboa / University of Lisbon
• ¹⁷ Monash University
• ¹⁸ ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery
• ¹⁹ University of Virginia [UVA]
• ²⁰ Pennsylvania State University [PSU]
• ²¹ Universiteit Utrecht / University of Utrecht [UU]
• ²² University of Glasgow
• ²³ Nationaal instituut voor Subatomaire Fysica / National Institute for Subatomic Physics [NIKHEF]
• ²⁴ International Centre for Theoretical Sciences [ICTS-TIFR]
• ²⁵ University of Portsmouth
• ²⁶ Gran Sasso Science Institute [GSSI]
• ²⁷ Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso / Gran Sasso National Laboratory [LNGS]
• ²⁸ Universitetet i Stavanger / University of Stavanger [UiS]
• ²⁹ INFN Sezione di Roma-1 / INFN Sezione di Roma-1
• ³⁰ Sapienza – Università di Roma / Sapienza University of Rome
• ³¹ California Institute of Technology [CalTech]
• ³² Universität Zürich / University of Zurich [UZH]
• ³³ Institut Périmètre de physique théorique / Perimeter Institute [PI]
• ³⁴ Tsinghua University [THU]
• ³⁵ University of Guelph
• ³⁶ University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign [UIUC]
• ³⁷ Prifysgol Caerdydd / Cardiff University