Testing General Relativity with Low-Frequency, Space-Based Gravitational-Wave Detectors
Abstract
We review the tests of general relativity that will become possible with space-based
gravitational-wave detectors operating in the 10–5 – 1 Hz low-frequency band. The
fundamental aspects of gravitation that can be tested include the presence of additional
gravitational fields other than the metric; the number and tensorial nature of gravitational-wave
polarization states; the velocity of propagation of gravitational waves; the binding energy and
gravitational-wave radiation of binaries, and therefore the time evolution of binary inspirals; the
strength and shape of the waves emitted from binary mergers and ringdowns; the true nature of
astrophysical black holes; and much more. The strength of this science alone calls for the swift
implementation of a space-based detector; the remarkable richness of astrophysics, astronomy,
and cosmology in the low-frequency gravitational-wave band make the case even stronger.
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