No Arabic abstract
Modifications of General Relativity leave their imprint both on the cosmic expansion history through a non-trivial dark energy equation of state, and on the evolution of cosmological perturbations in the scalar and in the tensor sectors. In particular, the modification in the tensor sector gives rise to a notion of gravitational-wave (GW) luminosity distance, different from the standard electromagnetic luminosity distance, that can be studied with standard sirens at GW detectors such as LISA or third-generation ground based experiments. We discuss the predictions for modified GW propagation from some of the best studied theories of modified gravity, such as Horndeski or the more general degenerate higher order scalar-tensor (DHOST) theories, non-local infrared modifications of gravity, bigravity theories and the corresponding phenomenon of GW oscillation, as well as theories with extra or varying dimensions. We show that modified GW propagation is a completely generic phenomenon in modified gravity. We then use a simple parametrization of the effect in terms of two parameters $(Xi_0,n)$, that is shown to fit well the results from a large class of models, to study the prospects of observing modified GW propagation using supermassive black hole binaries as standard sirens with LISA. We construct mock source catalogs and perform detailed Markov Chain Monte Carlo studies of the likelihood obtained from LISA standard sirens alone, as well as by combining them with CMB, BAO and SNe data to reduce the degeneracies between cosmological parameters. We find that the combination of LISA with the other cosmological datasets allows one to measure the parameter $Xi_0$ that characterizes modified GW propagation to the percent level accuracy, sufficient to test several modified gravity theories. [Abridged]
Quasars have recently been used as an absolute distance indicator, extending the Hubble diagram to high redshift to reveal a deviation from the expansion history predicted for the standard, $Lambda$CDM cosmology. Here we show that the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will efficiently test this claim with standard sirens at high redshift, defined by the coincident gravitational wave (GW) and electromagnetic (EM) observations of the merger of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs). Assuming a fiducial $Lambda$CDM cosmology for generating mock standard siren datasets, the evidence for the $Lambda$CDM model with respect to an alternative model inferred from quasar data is investigated. By simulating many realizations of possible future LISA observations, we find that for $50%$ of these realizations (median result) 4 MBHB standard siren measurements will suffice to strongly differentiate between the two models, while 14 standard sirens will yield a similar result in $95%$ of the realizations. In addition, we investigate the measurement precision of cosmological parameters as a function of the number of observed LISA MBHB standard sirens, finding that 15 events will on average achieve a relative precision of 5% for $H_0$, reducing to 3% and 2% with 25 and 40 events, respectively. Our investigation clearly highlights the potential of LISA as a cosmological probe able to accurately map the expansion of the universe at $zgtrsim 2$, and as a tool to cross-check and cross-validate cosmological EM measurements with complementary GW observations.
We use the cosmic shear data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey to place constraints on $f(R)$ and {it Generalized Dilaton} models of modified gravity. This is highly complimentary to other probes since the constraints mainly come from the non-linear scales: maximal deviations with respects to the General-Relativity + $Lambda$CDM scenario occurs at $ksim1 h mbox{Mpc}^{-1}$. At these scales, it becomes necessary to account for known degeneracies with baryon feedback and massive neutrinos, hence we place constraints jointly on these three physical effects. To achieve this, we formulate these modified gravity theories within a common tomographic parameterization, we compute their impact on the clustering properties relative to a GR universe, and propagate the observed modifications into the weak lensing $xi_{pm}$ quantity. Confronted against the cosmic shear data, we reject the $f(R)$ ${ |f_{R_0}|=10^{-4}, n=1}$ model with more than 99.9% confidence interval (CI) when assuming a $Lambda$CDM dark matter only model. In the presence of baryonic feedback processes and massive neutrinos with total mass up to 0.2eV, the model is disfavoured with at least 94% CI in all different combinations studied. Constraints on the ${ |f_{R_0}|=10^{-4}, n=2}$ model are weaker, but nevertheless disfavoured with at least 89% CI. We identify several specific combinations of neutrino mass, baryon feedback and $f(R)$ or Dilaton gravity models that are excluded by the current cosmic shear data. Notably, universes with three massless neutrinos and no baryon feedback are strongly disfavoured in all modified gravity scenarios studied. These results indicate that competitive constraints may be achieved with future cosmic shear data.
We explore the cosmological implications of five modified gravity (MG) models by using the recent cosmological observational data, including the recently released SNLS3 type Ia supernovae sample, the cosmic microwave background anisotropy data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 7-yr observations, the baryon acoustic oscillation results from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 7, and the latest Hubble constant measurement utilizing the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope. The MG models considered include the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati(DGP) model, two $f(R)$ models, and two $f(T)$ models. We find that compared with the $Lambda$CDM model, MG models can not lead to a appreciable reduction of the $chi^2_{min}$. The analysis of AIC and BIC shows that the simplest cosmological constant model($Lambda$CDM) is still most preferred by the current data, and the DGP model is strongly disfavored. In addition, from the observational constraints, we also reconstruct the evolutions of the growth factor in these models. We find that the current available growth factor data are not enough to distinguish these MG models from the $Lambda$CDM model.
Gravitational waves (GWs) directly measure the luminosity distance to the merger, which, when combined with an independent measurement of the sources redshift, provides a novel probe of cosmology. The proposed next generation of ground-based GW detectors, Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, will detect tens of thousands of binary neutron stars (BNSs) out to cosmological distances ($z>2$), beyond the peak of the star formation rate (SFR), or cosmic noon. At these distances, it will be challenging to measure the sources redshifts by observing electromagnetic (EM) counterparts or statistically marginalizing over a galaxy catalog. In the absence of an EM counterpart or galaxy catalog, Ding et al. showed that theoretical priors on the merger redshift distribution can be used to infer parameters in a $w$CDM cosmology. We argue that in the BNS case, the redshift distribution will be measured by independent observations of short gamma ray bursts (GRBs), kilonovae, and known BNS host galaxies. We show that, in addition to measuring the background cosmology, this method can constrain the effects of dark energy on modified GW propagation. We consider the simple case in which the BNS rate is textit{a priori} known to follow the SFR. If the SFR is perfectly known, $mathcal{O}(10,000)$ events (to be expected within a year of observation with Cosmic Explorer) would yield a sub-tenth percent measurement of the combination $H_0^{2.8}Omega_M$. Fixing $H_0$ and $Omega_M$, this method may enable a 5% measurement of the dark energy equation of state parameter. Fixing the background cosmology and probing modified GW propagation, the running of the Planck mass parameter $c_M$ may be measured to $pm0.02$. Although realistically, the redshift evolution of the merger rate will be uncertain, prior knowledge of the peak redshift will provide valuable information for standard siren analyses.
The recent Advanced LIGO detections of coalescing black hole binaries (BHBs) imply a large population of such systems emitting at milli-Hz frequencies, accessible to the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We show that these systems provide a new class of cosmological standard sirens. Direct LISA luminosity distance -$D_l$- measurements, combined with the inhomogeneous redshift -$z$- distribution of possible host galaxies provide an effective way to populate the $D_l-z$ diagram at $z<0.1$, thus allowing a precise local measurement of the Hubble expansion rate. To be effective, the method requires a sufficiently precise LISA distance determination and sky localization of a sizeable number of BHBs, which is best achieved for a 6-link detector configuration. We find that, for a BHB population consistent with current fiducial LIGO rates, the Hubble constant $H_0$ can be determined at the $sim$5% and $sim$2% level (68% confidence) assuming two and five million Km arm-length respectively.