Probing Near-Horizon Fluctuations with Black Hole Binary Mergers

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum fluctuations near black hole horizons, as proposed by Giddings, could produce observable deviations in gravitational wave signals from black hole mergers, potentially detectable by aLIGO.

Contribution

It numerically models horizon fluctuations and demonstrates their impact on gravitational waveforms, providing a possible observational test for quantum gravity effects.

Findings

Significant waveform deviations caused by horizon fluctuations

Potential detectability of these effects by aLIGO

Fluctuations influence gravitational waves even before merger

Abstract

The strong version of the nonviolent nonlocality proposal of Giddings predicts "strong but soft" quantum metric fluctuations near black hole horizons in an attempt to resolve the information paradox. To study observable signatures of this proposal, we numerically solve Einstein's equations modified by these fluctuations and analyze the gravitational wave signal from the inspiral and merger of two black holes. In a model of evolution for such fluctuations, we show that they lead to significant deviations in the observed waveform, even when the black holes are still well separated, and could potentially be observed by aLIGO.