Testing Extra-Dimensional Gravitational-Wave Polarizations with Compact-Binary Observations
Abstract
Extra spatial dimensions arise naturally in theories beyond four-dimensional general relativity (GR), but direct observational evidence remains elusive. Gravitational waves offer a distinctive probe: geometric projection onto the observable three-dimensional spatial subspace can produce apparent tensor, vector, and scalar polarizations. We consider one additional spatial dimension and a two-mode tensor-wave ansatz for which the projected polarization components are fixed linear combinations of the same two underlying GR tensor waveforms. These components enter the measured strain through the standard detector antenna patterns. A frequency-domain Bayesian analysis of five compact-binary events constrains two rotation angles for two noncommuting orderings of rotations that preserve propagation within the observed subspace. Two events are further analyzed for four orderings that allow propagation to tilt into the extra dimension. For GW250114, the maximum GR quantiles among the tested rotation orderings are QGR≃0.6% for the two-angle fits and QmargGR≃4.6% for the three-angle fits after marginalizing over the third angle. Across the full event sample, the GR reference point lies inside the estimated 90% highest-posterior-density region in every case.
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BibTeX
@misc{wang2026testing,
title = {{Testing Extra-Dimensional Gravitational-Wave Polarizations with Compact-Binary Observations}},
author = {Hai-Tian Wang and Dicong Liang and Lijing Shao and Yu-Xiao Liu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.11855},
eprint = {2610.11855},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11855},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Testing Extra-Dimensional Gravitational-Wave Polarizations with Compact-Binary Observations
AU - Hai-Tian Wang
AU - Dicong Liang
AU - Lijing Shao
AU - Yu-Xiao Liu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.11855
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11855
AB - Extra spatial dimensions arise naturally in theories beyond four-dimensional general relativity (GR), but direct observational evidence remains elusive. Gravitational waves offer a distinctive probe: geometric projection onto the observable three-dimensional spatial subspace can produce apparent tensor, vector, and scalar polarizations. We consider one additional spatial dimension and a two-mode tensor-wave ansatz for which the projected polarization components are fixed linear combinations of the same two underlying GR tensor waveforms. These components enter the measured strain through the standard detector antenna patterns. A frequency-domain Bayesian analysis of five compact-binary events constrains two rotation angles for two noncommuting orderings of rotations that preserve propagation within the observed subspace. Two events are further analyzed for four orderings that allow propagation to tilt into the extra dimension. For GW250114, the maximum GR quantiles among the tested rotation orderings are Q_GR≃0.6% for the two-angle fits and Q^marg_GR≃4.6% for the three-angle fits after marginalizing over the third angle. Across the full event sample, the GR reference point lies inside the estimated 90% highest-posterior-density region in every case.
ER -