Modified Gravitation Theory (MOG) and the aLIGO GW190521 Gravitational Wave Event

TL;DR

This paper explores how Modified Gravity (MOG) theory can explain the GW190521 gravitational wave event with lower mass binary systems, aligning with stellar collapse models and reducing the inferred black hole masses.

Contribution

It demonstrates that MOG allows fitting GW190521 data with lower mass black hole binaries, challenging the need for extremely massive black holes in standard models.

Findings

MOG can fit GW190521 data with lower mass binaries.

Component masses can be smaller than previously inferred.

Final remnant masses are consistent with stellar collapse models.

Abstract

A consequence of adopting a modified gravitational theory (MOG) for the aLIGO GW190521 gravitational wave detection involving binary black hole sources is to fit the aLIGO strain and chirp data with lower mass, compact coalescing binary systems such as neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS), black hole - neutron star (BH-NS), and black hole-black hole (BH-BH) systems. In MOG BH - BH component masses can be smaller than the component masses $m_1=85M_\odot$ and $m_2=66M_\odot$ inferred from the aLIGO GW190521 gravitational wave event. This reduces the mass of the final remnant mass $M_f=150M_\odot$ and allows the primary, secondary and final remnant masses of the black holes to be formed by conventional stellar collapse models.