Gravitational-Wave Propagation Through the Axiverse

TL;DR

This paper investigates how ultralight scalar and pseudoscalar fields influence gravitational wave propagation, revealing oscillatory effects and potential observational signatures in GW data, constrained by GW170817 and detectable by future space-based detectors.

Contribution

It introduces the effects of oscillating (pseudo)scalar fields on GWs through specific couplings, highlighting observable signatures and constraints from current and future GW observations.

Findings

Oscillatory features in GW redshift, speed, and phase due to scalar couplings.

Constraints on parity-even scalar-graviton coupling from GW170817.

Potential detection of scalar-induced GW modulations with space-based detectors like LISA.

Abstract

We study the effects of oscillating, ultralight scalar and pseudoscalar fields on the propagation of gravitational waves (GWs). We consider two potential couplings of the (pseudo)scalars to gravity; a parity-even Gauss-Bonnet coupling, and parity-odd Chern-Simons coupling. We find several effects at both the population and individual GW event level, characterized by oscillatory features controlled by the (pseudo)scalar mass. In the parity-even case, this feature can be seen in the observed GW redshift and speed distributions, as well as in the dispersion relation and phase of individual events. We use the observation of the GW170817 multimessenger binary neutron star event to place constraints on the parity-even scalar-graviton coupling. In the parity-odd case, the effects are birefringent, but we find an overall washout of polarization at the population level. Oscillatory features can be seen in the observed GW amplitude and inclination distributions. Finally, we find that continuous, monochromatic GW sources are a promising target to observe these effects. The presence of a (pseudo)scalar field imprints a modulation of the GW waveform in the time domain, which can potentially be observed with space-based detectors such as LISA.