Improved constraints on higher-derivative effective field theory extensions of general relativity with GW230627_015337
Abstract
Gravitational-wave (GW) observations of binary black holes provide a powerful probe of general relativity (GR) in the strong-field regime. In effective field theory (EFT) extensions of GR, higher-curvature operators modify the binary dynamics and introduce corrections to the inspiral phase. In this work, we consider two parity-even cubic-curvature couplings and one quartic-curvature coupling, whose leading phase corrections enter at 5PN, 6PN, and 8PN order, respectively. We incorporate these corrections into the individual multipoles of the \texttt{SEOBNRv5HM\_ROM} waveform using the flexible theory-independent framework, allowing higher-order modes and the full inspiral-merger-ringdown signal to be used in the analysis. We first perform a Fisher-matrix analysis of 92 binary-black-hole events selected from a parent sample of 273 events in the public LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA catalogs. GW230627\_015337 provides the tightest forecast constraints on all three EFT couplings and is therefore selected for a full Bayesian analysis. The posterior distributions are consistent with GR, with all three couplings consistent with zero at 90\% credibility. The corresponding one-sided 90\% upper limits on the characteristic length scales are 17.1, 11.1, and 18.3 km. The log Bayes factors of the three EFT models relative to GR range from −5.49 to −2.51, favoring GR under the adopted priors. These bounds probe higher-curvature length scales at the level of 10--20 km and are numerically tighter than representative previous inspiral and ringdown constraints, although differences in the models and analysis assumptions should be taken into account.
Related
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- Electroweak Thermal Histories in the Minimal Type-II Seesaw Model with a Renormalization Group-Improved Effective Potential
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BibTeX
@misc{zhu2026improved,
title = {{Improved constraints on higher-derivative effective field theory extensions of general relativity with GW230627_015337}},
author = {Tao Zhu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.36728},
eprint = {2610.36728},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36728},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Improved constraints on higher-derivative effective field theory extensions of general relativity with GW230627_015337
AU - Tao Zhu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/27
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.36728
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36728
AB - Gravitational-wave (GW) observations of binary black holes provide a powerful probe of general relativity (GR) in the strong-field regime. In effective field theory (EFT) extensions of GR, higher-curvature operators modify the binary dynamics and introduce corrections to the inspiral phase. In this work, we consider two parity-even cubic-curvature couplings and one quartic-curvature coupling, whose leading phase corrections enter at 5PN, 6PN, and 8PN order, respectively. We incorporate these corrections into the individual multipoles of the \texttt{SEOBNRv5HM\_ROM} waveform using the flexible theory-independent framework, allowing higher-order modes and the full inspiral-merger-ringdown signal to be used in the analysis. We first perform a Fisher-matrix analysis of 92 binary-black-hole events selected from a parent sample of 273 events in the public LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA catalogs. GW230627\_015337 provides the tightest forecast constraints on all three EFT couplings and is therefore selected for a full Bayesian analysis. The posterior distributions are consistent with GR, with all three couplings consistent with zero at 90\% credibility. The corresponding one-sided 90\% upper limits on the characteristic length scales are 17.1, 11.1, and 18.3 km. The log Bayes factors of the three EFT models relative to GR range from −5.49 to −2.51, favoring GR under the adopted priors. These bounds probe higher-curvature length scales at the level of 10--20 km and are numerically tighter than representative previous inspiral and ringdown constraints, although differences in the models and analysis assumptions should be taken into account.
ER -