Gravitational Waves from Compact Binaries as Probes of the Universe

TL;DR

This paper reviews how astrophysical environments and fundamental physics can influence gravitational wave signals from compact binaries, discussing detection prospects and theoretical frameworks for deviations from General Relativity.

Contribution

It summarizes recent developments in modeling environmental effects on gravitational waves and evaluates the parameterized post-Einsteinian framework for testing gravity theories.

Findings

Environmental effects can modify gravitational wave signals.

Current detectors may detect signatures of astrophysical environments.

The parameterized post-Einsteinian framework is a promising tool for testing gravity.

Abstract

The future detection of gravitational wave forces us to consider the many ways in which astrophysics, gravitational wave theory and fundamental theory will interact. In this paper, I summarize some recent work done to develop such an interface. In particular, I concentrate on how non-vacuum astrophysical environments can modify the gravitational wave signal emitted by compact binary inspirals, and whether signatures from the former are detectable by current and future gravitational wave detectors. I also describe the interface between gravitational wave modeling and fundamental theory, focusing on the status of the parameterized post-Einsteinian framework (a general framework to detect deviations away from General Relativity in future gravitational wave data) and its current data analysis implementation.