http://arxiv.org/abs/2203.04634
Gravitational-wave observations provide a unique opportunity to test General Relativity (GR) in the strong-field and highly-dynamical regime of the theory. Parameterized tests of GR are one well-known approach for quantifying violations of GR. This approach constrains deviations in the coefficients of the post-Newtonian (PN) phasing formula, which describes the gravitational-wave phase evolution of a compact binary as it inspirals. Current bounds from this test using LIGO/Virgo observations assume that binaries are circularized by the time they enter the detector frequency band. Here, we investigate the impact of residual binary eccentricity on the parameterized tests. We study the systematic biases in the parameter bounds when a phasing based on the circular orbit assumption is employed for a system that has some small residual eccentricity. We find that a systematic bias (for example, on the leading Newtonian deformation parameter) becomes comparable to the statistical errors for even moderate eccentricities of $\sim 0.04$ at $10$ Hz in LIGO/Virgo band. This happens at an even lower value of orbital eccentricity ($\sim 0.005$ at $10$ Hz) in the frequency band of third-generation (3G) detectors like Cosmic Explorer. These results demonstrate that incorporating physical effects like eccentricity in waveform models is important for accurately extracting science results from future detectors.
P. Saini, M. Favata and K. Arun
Thu, 10 Mar 22
29/60
Comments: 12 pages, 3 figures