Using binary stars to bound the mass of the graviton

TL;DR

This paper proposes using gravitational wave observations of white dwarf binary systems, especially helium cataclysmic variables, to place tighter bounds on the graviton's mass by comparing gravitational and electromagnetic signals.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to constrain the graviton mass using correlated electromagnetic and gravitational wave data from known binary star systems.

Findings

Potential to improve graviton mass bounds by over two orders of magnitude

Feasibility of using LISA to observe helium CV systems

Method to compare gravitational wave phases with optical light curves

Abstract

Interacting white dwarf binary star systems, including helium cataclysmic variable (HeCV) systems, are expected to be strong sources of gravitational radiation, and should be detectable by proposed space-based laser interferometer gravitational wave observatories such as LISA. Several HeCV star systems are presently known and can be studied optically, which will allow electromagnetic and gravitational wave observations to be correlated. Comparisons of the phases of a gravitational wave signal and the orbital light curve from an interacting binary white dwarf star system can be used to bound the mass of the graviton. Observations of typical HeCV systems by LISA could potentially yield an upper bound on the inverse mass of the graviton as strong as $h/m_{g} = \lambda_{g} > 1 \times 10^{15}$ km ($m_{g} < 1 \times 10^{-24}$ eV), more than two orders of magnitude better than present solar system derived bounds.