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Detecting fundamental fields with LISA observations of gravitational waves from extreme mass-ratio inspirals

Nature Astronomy volume 6, pages 464–470 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna1, LISA, will detect gravitational wave signals from extreme mass-ratio inspirals2, where a stellar mass compact object orbits a supermassive black hole and eventually plunges into it. Here we report on LISA’s capability to detect whether the smaller compact object in an extreme mass-ratio inspiral is endowed with a scalar field3,4, and to measure its scalar charge—a dimensionless quantity that acts as a measure of how much scalar field the object carries. By direct comparison of signals, we show that LISA will be able to detect and measure the scalar charge with an accuracy of the order of per cent, which is an unprecedented level of precision. This result is independent of the origin of the scalar field and of the structure and other properties of the small compact object, so it can be seen as a generic assessment of LISA’s capabilities to detect new fundamental fields.

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Fig. 1: Faithfulness between the GW plus polarization computed with and without the scalar charge, as a function of the latter and for different signal durations.
Fig. 2: Corner plot for the probability distribution of the masses, primary spin and secondary charge, inferred after one year of observation with LISA.
Fig. 3: Uncertainties on the scalar charge for prototype EMRIs observed with different SNRs after one year of observation by LISA.
Fig. 4: Probability distribution of the dimensionful coupling constant of shift-symmetric Gauss–Bonnet gravity inferred from constraints made by LISA.

Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and the other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Code availability

The codes used to create the plots within this paper and support the other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request. Flux calculations have been performed using the numerical routines of the Black Hole Perturbation Toolkit (http://bhptoolkit.org).

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Bhagwat, J. Harms, C. Pacilio, G. Piovano, L. Speri and N. Warburton for useful discussions and having carefully read the manuscript. A.M. acknowledges support from the Amaldi Research Center funded by the MIUR programme ‘Dipartimento di Eccellenza’ (CUP: B81I18001170001). N.F. acknowledges financial support provided under the European Union’s H2020 ERC Consolidator Grant ‘GRavity from Astrophysical to Microscopic Scales’ grant agreement No. GRAMS-815673. P.P. acknowledges financial support provided under the European Union’s H2020 ERC Starting Grant agreement No. DarkGRA–757480. We acknowledge financial support provided under the European Union’s H2020 MSCA-RISE Grant GRU, grant agreement No. 101007855. T.P.S. acknowledges partial support from the STFC Consolidated Grants No. ST/T000732/1 and No. ST/V005596/1. We also acknowledge support under the MIUR PRIN and FARE programmes (GW-NEXT, CUP: B84I20000100001). We also acknowledge networking support by the COST Action GW-verse Grant No. CA16104. All computations were performed on the Vera cluster of the Amaldi Research Center.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), L’Aquila, Italy

    Andrea Maselli

  2. INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi, Italy

    Andrea Maselli

  3. SISSA, INFN Sezione di Trieste, Trieste, Italy

    Nicola Franchini

  4. IFPU - Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe, Trieste, Italy

    Nicola Franchini

  5. Dipartimento di Fisica, ‘Sapienza’ Universitá di Roma, Rome, Italy

    Leonardo Gualtieri, Susanna Barsanti & Paolo Pani

  6. Sezione INFN Roma1, Rome, Italy

    Leonardo Gualtieri, Susanna Barsanti & Paolo Pani

  7. Nottingham Centre of Gravity, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Thomas P. Sotiriou

  8. School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Thomas P. Sotiriou

  9. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Thomas P. Sotiriou

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  1. Andrea Maselli
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  2. Nicola Franchini
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  4. Thomas P. Sotiriou
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Contributions

A.M. and T.P.S. conceived the idea of probing the detectability of scalar charge by LISA with the approach developed in this manuscript. A.M. led the waveform modelling and statistical analysis and contributed to all aspects of the project. N.F. contributed significantly to the numerical calculations, the error analysis and the interpretation of the results. L.G. and T.P.S. made a major contribution to the development of the theoretical framework. S.B. made an important contribution to the computation of gravitational and scalar fluxes. L.G., T.P.S. and P.P. contributed strongly to the interpretation of the results and to overcoming technical difficulties in the analysis.

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Correspondence to Andrea Maselli.

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Further details on the waveform generation and discussion of the numerical procedure adopted for the EMRI parameter estimation and the accuracy of the calculations.

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Maselli, A., Franchini, N., Gualtieri, L. et al. Detecting fundamental fields with LISA observations of gravitational waves from extreme mass-ratio inspirals. Nat Astron 6, 464–470 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01589-5

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