Stochastic gravitational wave background from supernovae in massive scalar-tensor gravity

TL;DR

This paper predicts a potentially detectable stochastic background of scalar-polarized gravitational waves from supernovae in massive scalar-tensor gravity, which could soon be constrained by current detectors at design sensitivity.

Contribution

It models the stochastic gravitational wave background from supernovae in massive scalar-tensor gravity and assesses its detectability with current detectors.

Findings

Energy density below current constraints but detectable at design sensitivity

Signals are long-lived and can overlap, forming a stochastic background

Potential to constrain massive scalar-tensor gravity parameters

Abstract

In massive scalar-tensor gravity, core-collapse supernovae are strong sources of scalar-polarized gravitational waves. These can be detectable out to large distance. The dispersive nature of the propagation of waves in the massive scalar field mean the gravitational wave signals are long lived and many such signals can overlap to form a stochastic background. Using different models for the population of supernova events in the nearby universe, we compute predictions for the energy-density in the stochastic scalar-polarized gravitational wave background from core-collapse events in massive scalar-tensor gravity for theory parameters that facilitate strong scalarization. The resulting energy density is below the current constraints on a Gaussian stochastic gravitational wave background but large enough to be detectable with the current generation of detectors when they reach design sensitivity, indicating that it will soon be possible to place new constraints on the parameter space of massive scalar-tensor gravity.