{
  "abstract": "Higher-dimensional theories of gravity predict that gravitational waves (GWs) can propagate into extra spatial dimensions, leading to modified amplitude damping over cosmological distances. Measurements of GW luminosity distances therefore provide a unique probe of the dimensionality of spacetime. In this work, we constrain higher-dimensional GW propagation using the dark-siren method with the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog 4.0 (GWTC-4). We adopt a phenomenological parameterization motivated by braneworld scenarios, in which deviations from General Relativity are characterized by the spacetime dimension number $D$ and a crossover scale $R_c$ governing the transition between four- and higher-dimensional gravity. We perform a hierarchical Bayesian analysis combining 141 compact binary coalescences from GWTC-4 with line-of-sight galaxy information from the GLADE+ catalog. For a prior $H_0 \\in [65,77]\\ {\\rm km~s^{-1}Mpc^{-1}}$ and $\\log(R_c/{\\rm Mpc}) \\in [2.7,4.0]$, we obtain $D = 4.38^{+1.91}_{-1.01}$ (68\\% credible interval). We also find that the inferred posterior distribution of $R_c$ accumulates near the upper prior boundary, indicating that the crossover scale remains poorly constrained by current observations. We further show that the inferred constraint on $D$ depends sensitively on the assumed prior range of $R_c$, which determines the characteristic distance scale at which deviations from General Relativity become significant. Our results provide the first GWTC-4 dark-siren constraints on higher-dimensional GW propagation and demonstrate that current observations remain consistent with four-dimensional General Relativity.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2606.14549",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Anson Chen"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jun Zhang"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7gycw3cpefjt7.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2606.14549",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "7gycw3cpefjt7",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.14549",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "gr-qc"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.14549",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-19",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7gycw3cpefjt7.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:30:52Z",
      "native_id": "2606.14549",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.14549"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:gr-qc",
      "subfield": "gravitation"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Searching for Extra Dimensions with Gravitational Waves: Dark-Siren Constraints from GWTC-4",
  "title_text": "Searching for Extra Dimensions with Gravitational Waves: Dark-Siren Constraints from GWTC-4",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:33:41Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7gycw3cpefjt7",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}