Modeling and detecting resonant tides of exotic compact objects

TL;DR

This paper investigates how exotic compact objects that reflect gravitational waves, unlike black holes, produce resonant tides detectable through phase shifts in gravitational wave signals, offering a new way to test black hole nature.

Contribution

It introduces a model-independent framework for detecting resonant tides caused by reflective exotic compact objects using gravitational wave phase shifts.

Findings

Resonant phase shifts can be significant in high SNR gravitational wave events.

Detection is feasible with Einstein Telescope for asymmetric binaries.

The method cannot probe Planck-scale physics.

Abstract

The event horizon of a black hole in general relativity absorbs all infalling radiation. Any observation of the contrary would immediately challenge the expectation that astrophysical black holes are described by the vacuum Kerr geometry. If a putative black hole does reflect part of the ingoing radiation, its quasinormal mode structure is drastically altered. Low frequency modes can be introduced that are resonantly excited during the inspiral of a binary system. We study the resulting phase shift of the gravitational wave signal. Building on neutron star results, we obtain a model-independent expression for the phase shift that depends only on quasinormal modes and Love numbers of the compact object. We find that the phase shift might be detectable with Einstein Telescope for asymmetric binaries in high signal-to-noise events ($\sim 10^3$), but by far cannot explore the Planck scale.