Constraining mass of the graviton with GW170817

TL;DR

This paper refines constraints on the graviton's mass by analyzing gravitational wave data from GW170817, incorporating higher-order dispersion effects into waveform models to improve the bounds.

Contribution

It derives higher-order relations between graviton emission and absorption times and applies them to gravitational wave data to set tighter mass limits.

Findings

Upper bounds on graviton mass: 1.305×10⁻⁵⁴ g (low spin)

Upper bounds on graviton mass: 2.996×10⁻⁵⁴ g (high spin)

Improved constraints using higher-order dispersion terms

Abstract

We consider the massive graviton phenomenological model based on the graviton's dispersion terms included into phase of gravitational wave's waveform. Such model was already considered in many works but it was based on a single leading-order dispersion term only. Here we derive a relation between relativistic gravitons emission and absorption time intervals computed up to ${\cal O}(\gamma^{-6})$, where $\gamma$ is the Lorentz factor. Including the dispersion terms into the phase of gravitational wave's waveform results in two non-GR parameters of the $1^{st}$ and the $-2^{nd}$ post-Newtonian orders whose posteriors are used to put a constraint on the graviton's rest mass. We use the TaylorF2 waveform model to analyse the event GW170817 and report the following $95\%$-confidence upper bounds on the graviton's rest mass: $m^{Low\,Spin}_{g}\leq1.305\times10^{-54}$g and $m^{High\,Spin}_{g}\leq2.996\times10^{-54}$g for the high and low spin priors.