Generic EFT-motivated beyond General Relativity gravitational wave tests and their curvature dependence: from observation to interpretation

TL;DR

This paper develops a framework linking gravitational wave deviations from General Relativity to an Effective Field Theory approach, enabling more efficient interpretation of observational data and differentiation of physical effects from errors.

Contribution

It introduces a 'dictionary' that connects deviations in gravitational waveforms to EFT parameters, aiding interpretation and comparison across theories.

Findings

Provides a method to identify curvature-dependent deviations in waveforms.

Connects deviations to Post-Newtonian corrections in EFT-based theories.

Facilitates combining data from multiple gravitational wave events.

Abstract

We present a "dictionary" to expedite the identification of potential deviations in gravitational waveforms from those predicted by General Relativity (GR) during the inspiral phase of black hole binaries. Assuming deviations from GR can be described by a local Effective Field Theory (EFT) formulated in terms of curvature operators (and possibly additional scalar fields), this dictionary characterizes how deviations scale with the masses of the binary components and identifies the leading order Post-Newtonian corrections in generic theories constructed within the EFT framework. By establishing a direct connection between observations and candidate theories beyond GR, this dictionary also aids in distinguishing genuine physical effects from systematic errors. These results can be readily incorporated into essentially all existing tests for the inspiral regime and, in particular, facilitate a more efficient combination of data from multiple events.