How general relativity stacks up: Testing gravity by coherently combining gravitational-wave observations
Abstract
A core mission of gravitational-wave astronomy is to test general relativity (GR) in the high-curvature, high-velocity regime. The field has already seen significant progress in this space, though a remaining challenge is how to combine data from a population of binary mergers. This can both boost the significance of potential GR violations, and develop a phenomenological picture of how deviations manifest in different mergers. We propose a framework to coherently combine gravitational-wave measurements to build a population-level test of physics beyond GR. We assume that deviations from GR are (i) strongest near the merger, (ii) vary smoothly with the total mass of the binary, and (iii) are most prominent in the ℓ=|m|=2 mode. While these assumptions do not describe every possible deviation of GR, they provide us with a plausible starting point upon which a more general framework can be built. We apply our framework to 28 high signal-to-noise ratio binary black hole mergers from LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA's Fifth Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog, finding no evidence for deviations from GR. Our framework allows one to show how deviations could vary as a function of total mass of the system. We argue that such a reconstruction can be used to convincingly distinguish between systematic waveform errors and genuine GR violations.
Related
- A new window on dynamical dark energy: combining DESI-DR2 BAO with future gravitational wave observations
- Evidence for deviation in gravitational light deflection from general relativity at cosmological scales with KiDS-Legacy and CMB lensing
- Deep Learning Detection of Beyond-General-Relativity Deviations in Gravitational-Wave Signals: A Detection-Threshold Study with Real LIGO Noise
- Biases in Ringdown Tests of General Relativity from Gravitational-Wave Microlensing
- Testing Source Dependence in Gravitational-Wave Tests of General Relativity with Mutual Information
BibTeX
@misc{passenger2026general,
title = {{How general relativity stacks up: Testing gravity by coherently combining gravitational-wave observations}},
author = {Lachlan Passenger and Nir Guttman and Paul D. Lasky and Eric Thrane},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.29247},
eprint = {2610.29247},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29247},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - How general relativity stacks up: Testing gravity by coherently combining gravitational-wave observations
AU - Lachlan Passenger
AU - Nir Guttman
AU - Paul D. Lasky
AU - Eric Thrane
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.29247
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29247
AB - A core mission of gravitational-wave astronomy is to test general relativity (GR) in the high-curvature, high-velocity regime. The field has already seen significant progress in this space, though a remaining challenge is how to combine data from a population of binary mergers. This can both boost the significance of potential GR violations, and develop a phenomenological picture of how deviations manifest in different mergers. We propose a framework to coherently combine gravitational-wave measurements to build a population-level test of physics beyond GR. We assume that deviations from GR are (i) strongest near the merger, (ii) vary smoothly with the total mass of the binary, and (iii) are most prominent in the ℓ=|m|=2 mode. While these assumptions do not describe every possible deviation of GR, they provide us with a plausible starting point upon which a more general framework can be built. We apply our framework to 28 high signal-to-noise ratio binary black hole mergers from LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA's Fifth Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog, finding no evidence for deviations from GR. Our framework allows one to show how deviations could vary as a function of total mass of the system. We argue that such a reconstruction can be used to convincingly distinguish between systematic waveform errors and genuine GR violations.
ER -