Detecting fundamental fields with LISA observations of gravitational waves from extreme mass-ratio inspirals

TL;DR

LISA can detect and precisely measure scalar charges in extreme mass-ratio inspirals, providing a new way to explore fundamental fields through gravitational wave observations.

Contribution

This work demonstrates LISA's ability to detect and measure scalar charges in inspiraling objects, a novel test of fundamental physics using gravitational waves.

Findings

LISA can detect scalar charges with percent-level accuracy.

The detection capability is independent of the scalar field's origin.

This method offers a generic test for new fundamental fields.

Abstract

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, LISA, will detect gravitational wave signals from Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals, where a stellar mass compact object orbits a supermassive black hole and eventually plunges into it. Here we report on LISA's capability to detect whether the smaller compact object in an Extreme Mass Ratio Inspiral is endowed with a scalar field, and to measure its scalar charge -- a dimensionless quantity that acts as a measure of how much scalar field the object carries. By direct comparison of signals, we show that LISA will be able to detect and measure the scalar charge with an accuracy of the order of percent, which is an unprecedented level of precision. This result is independent of the origin of the scalar field and of the structure and other properties of the small compact object, so it can be seen as a generic assessment of LISA's capabilities to detect new fundamental fields.