A Falsifiable Alternative to General Relativity

TL;DR

This paper introduces asymptotically Weyl-invariant gravity (AWIG), a renormalizable alternative to general relativity, which addresses theoretical issues and makes falsifiable predictions about gravitational wave frequencies from black hole mergers.

Contribution

It develops AWIG within the Palatini formalism, deriving a dynamical exponent n(R), and provides observational predictions that can distinguish it from GR.

Findings

Preliminary analysis of GW150914 shows marginal support for AWIG.

Analysis of GW151226 favors AWIG more significantly.

AWIG resolves theoretical issues in Palatini formalism.

Abstract

Asymptotically Weyl-invariant gravity (AWIG) is further developed within the Palatini formalism as a power-counting renormalizable alternative to general relativity (GR). An expression for the dimensionless exponent n(R) is derived based on dynamical dimensional reduction. We show that this version of AWIG naturally resolves several theoretical issues normally associated with the Palatini formalism. A falsifiable prediction regarding the frequency of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers is made. A preliminary analysis of gravitational wave GW150914 yields a maximum tension of 0.9{\sigma} with GR and marginally favours AWIG. A similar analysis of gravitational wave GW151226 yields a maximum tension of 2.7{\sigma} with GR and favours AWIG more significantly.