Constraining Dirty Black Holes and pseudo-complex General Relativity with the Gravitational Waves Transient Catalog 3.0

TL;DR

This paper uses gravitational wave data to constrain deviations from General Relativity, focusing on pseudo-complex GR and dirty black hole models, and rules out certain horizonless solutions.

Contribution

It provides new bounds on parameters of pseudo-complex GR and dirty black holes using gravitational wave observations, excluding some horizonless models.

Findings

Excluded 1PN deviations that prevent horizon formation

First-time constraints on 1.5PN deviations

Identified new parameter space regions consistent with observations

Abstract

We use data from the Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog 3.0 to update constraints on parameterized deviations from General Relativity, as encountered in pseudo-complex general relativity (pcGR) theory and models of dirty black holes. The pcGR framework extends Einstein's theory of general relativity by introducing additional parameters that diverge from standard predictions in the strong-field regime, potentially excluding black hole horizons for specific parameter choices. We analyze gravitational wave signals from coalescing compact objects to obtain new bounds on these parameters. Our results modify existing constraints and identify previously unexplored regions of parameter space, exploring the observational viability of dirty black holes and horizonless solutions in pcGR. We confirm the exclusion of 1PN deviations sufficient to avoid a horizon, and for the first time rule out 1.5PN as well. We also discuss implications for current and future gravitational wave observations in refining these constraints