We show that the weak equivalence principle (WEP) is violated for a quantum particle in a gravitational wave (GW) background, in the sense that extra mass information can be extracted in the presence of the GW. We quantify the degree of violation with the Fisher information of mass. This provides a precise characterisation of WEP violation by quantum systems in a GW, that should be useful in formalising other works that have argued for such violations heuristically.
The Fisher-matrix formalism is used routinely in the literature on gravitational-wave detection to characterize the parameter-estimation performance of gravitational-wave measurements, given parametrized models of the waveforms, and assuming detector noise of known colored Gaussian distribution. Unfortunately, the Fisher matrix can be a poor predictor of the amount of information obtained from typical observations, especially for waveforms with several parameters and relatively low expected signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), or for waveforms depending weakly on one or more parameters, when their pr…
We present a new Python package, gwbench, implementing the well-established Fisher information formalism as a fast and straightforward tool for the purpose of gravitational-wave benchmarking, i.e. the estimation of signal-to-noise ratios and measurement errors of gravitational waves observed by a network of detectors. Such an infrastructure is necessary due to the high computational cost of Bayesian parameter estimation methods which renders them less effective for the scientific assessment of gravitational waveforms, detectors, and networks of detectors, especially when determining their effe…
Gravitational waves from a binary with a single dynamically significant spin, notably including precessing black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries, let us constrain that binary's properties: the two masses and the dominant black hole spin. Based on a straightforward fourier transform of $h(t)$ enabled by the corotating frame, we show the Fisher matrix for precessing binaries can be well-approximated by an extremely simple semianalytic approximation. This approximation can be easily understood as a weighted average of independent information channels, each associated with one gravitational wav…
In this paper we apply to gravitational waves from non-spinning binary systems a recently intro- duced frequentist methodology to calculate analytically the error for a maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) of physical parameters. While existing literature focuses on using the Cramer Rao Lower bound (CRLB) and Monte Carlo simulations, we use a power expansion of the bias and covariance in inverse powers of the signal to noise ratio. The use of higher order derivatives of the likelihood function in the expansions makes the prediction also sensitive to the secondary lobes of the MLE probability dist…
Inspiralling black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries emit a complicated gravitational wave signature, produced by multiple harmonics sourced by their strong local gravitational field and further modulated by the orbital plane's precession. Some features of this complex signal are easily accessible to ground-based interferometers (e.g., the rate of change of frequency); others less so (e.g., the polarization content); and others unavailable (e.g., features of the signal out of band). For this reason, an ambiguity function (a diagnostic of dissimilarity) between two such signals varies on many …
Theoretical studies in gravitational wave astronomy often require the calculation of Fisher Information Matrices and Likelihood functions, which in a direct approach entail the costly step of computing gravitational waveforms. Here I describe an alternative technique that sidesteps the need to compute full waveforms, resulting in significant computational savings. I describe how related techniques can be used to speed up Bayesian inference applied to real gravitational wave data.
Long before the general theory of relativity was finally formulated in 1916, arguments based entirely on Einstein's equivalence principle predicted the well known phenomenon of the gravitational red shift. Precisely the same arguments are widely being used today to derive the same phenomenon. Accordingly, it is often claimed that the observed gravitational red shift is a verification of the equivalence principle rather than a verification of the full theory of general relativity. Here we show that, contrary to these claims, the arguments based on the equivalence principle are false and that \i…
For a given space-time and for an arbitrary time-like geodesic, we analyze the conditions for the construction of Fermi coordinates so that they are also rigid covariant. We then apply these conditions to linear plane gravitational waves.
A scheme of an optical detector is proposed for checking Einsteins equivalence principle (EEP) in a null gravitational redshift experiment and for testing methods for calculating the length of a resonator in a weak variable gravitational field by recording the variations of the difference frequency of resonators caused by lunisolar variations of the geopotential in a double or a two-resonator laser system.
We review the hypothesis of the existence of gravitational magnetic monopoles (H-pole for short) defined in analogy with the Dirac's hypothesis of magnetic monopoles in electrodynamics. These hypothetical dual particles violate the equivalence principle and are accelerated by a gravitational field. We propose an expression for the gravitational force exerted upon an H-pole. According to GR ordinary matter (which we call E-poles) follows geodesics in a background metric. The dual H-poles follows geodesics in an effective metric.
We define passive gravitational mass operator of the simplest composite quantum body - a hydrogen atom - to be proportional to its weight operator in a weak gravitational field. Although it does not commute with energy operator, taken in the absence of the field, the equivalence between the expectation value of passive gravitational mass and energy is shown to survive for stationary quantum states. All the so-called relativistic corrections to electron energy in a hydrogen atom are taken into account in the calculations.
It is shown that the gravitational ultrarelativistic spin-orbit interaction violates the weak equivalence principle in the traditional sense. This fact is a direct consequence of the Mathisson-Papapetrou equations in the frame of reference comoving with a spinning test particle. The widely held assumption that the deviation of a spinning test body from a geodesic trajectory is caused by tidal forces is not correct
It is shown that passive gravitational mass operator of a hydrogen atom in the post-Newtonian approximation of the general relativity does not commute with its energy operator, taken in the absence of gravitational field. Nevertheless, the equivalence between the expectation values of passive gravitational mass and energy is shown to survive at a macroscopic level for stationary quantum states. Breakdown of the equivalence between passive gravitational mass and energy at a microscopic level for stationary quantum states can be experimentally detected by studying unusual electromagnetic radiati…
We derive a Fisher matrix for the parameters characterising a population of gravitational-wave events. This provides a guide to the precision with which population parameters can be estimated with multiple observations, which becomes increasingly accurate as the number of events and the signal-to-noise ratio of the sampled events increases. The formalism takes into account individual event measurement uncertainties and selection effects, and can be applied to arbitrary population models. We illustrate the framework with two examples: an analytical calculation of the Fisher matrix for the mean …
The Strong Equivalence Principle (SEP) holds the full essence and meaning of the General Theory of Relativity as the nonlinear relativistic theory of gravitation. It asserts the universal coupling of gravity to all matter and its interactions including the gravitational interaction and the gravitational self energy. We point out that confirming the gravitational coupling to gravitons, and hence to the gravitational waves, is the direct test of the SEP. We show that the near simultaneous detection of gravitational waves and gamma rays from the merger of binary neutron stars provides a unique an…
The Gibbons-Werner method where the Gauss-Bonnet theorem is applied to study the gravitational deflection angle has received much attention recently. In this paper, we study the equivalence of the Gibbons-Werner method to the standard geodesics method, and it is shown that the geodesics method can be derived with the Gibbons-Werner method, for asymptotically flat case. In the geodesics method, the gravitational deflection angle of particle depends entirely on the geodesic curvature of the particle ray in the Euclidean space. The gravitational deflection of light in Kerr-Newman spacetime is cal…
Gravitational-wave astronomers often wish to characterize the expected parameter-estimation accuracy of future observations. The Fisher matrix provides a lower bound on the spread of the maximum-likelihood estimator across noise realizations, as well as the leading-order width of the posterior probability, but it is limited to high signal strengths often not realized in practice. By contrast, Monte Carlo Bayesian inference provides the full posterior for any signal strength, but it is too expensive to repeat for a representative set of noises. Here I describe an efficient semianalytical techni…
The simplest quantum composite body, a hydrogen atom, is considered in the presence of a weak external gravitational field. We define an operator for the passive gravitational mass of the atom in the post-Newtonian approximation of the general relativity and show that it does not commute with its energy operator. Nevertheless, the equivalence between the expectation values of the mass and energy is shown to survive at a macroscopic level for stationary quantum states. Breakdown of the equivalence between passive gravitational mass and energy at a microscopic level for stationary quantum states…
We determine active gravitational mass operator of the simplest composite quantum body - a hydrogen atom - within the semiclassical approach to the Einstein equation for a gravitational field. We show that the expectation value of the mass is equivalent to energy for stationary quantum states. On the other hand, it occurs that, for quantum superpositions of stationary states with constant expectation values of energy, the expectation values of the gravitational mass exhibit time-dependent oscillations. This breaks the equivalence between active gravitational mass and energy and can be observed…
It is shown that weight operator of a composite quantum body in a weak external gravitational field in the post-Newtonian approximation of the General Relativity does not commute with its energy operator, taken in the absence of the field. Nevertheless, the weak equivalence between the expectations values of weight and energy is shown to survive at a macroscopic level for stationary quantum states for the simplest composite quantum body - a hydrogen atom. Breakdown of the weak equivalence between weight and energy at a microscopic level for stationary quantum states can be experimentally detec…
The expression of the gravitational energy-momentum defined in the context of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity is extended to an arbitrary set of real-valued tetrad fields, by adding a suitable reference space subtraction term. The characterization of tetrad fields as reference frames is addressed in the context of the Kerr space-time. It is also pointed out that Einstein's version of the principle of equivalence does not preclude the existence of a definition for the gravitational energy-momentum density.
The maximum likelihood method is often used for parameter estimation in gravitational wave astronomy. Recently, an interesting approach was proposed by Vallisneri to evaluate the distributions of parameter estimation errors expected for the method. This approach is to statistically analyze the local peaks of the likelihood surface, and works efficiently even for signals with low signal-to-noise ratios. Focusing special attention to geometric structure of the likelihood surface, we follow the proposed approach and derive formulae for a simplified model of data analysis where the target signal h…
We define passive and active gravitational mass operators of the simplest composite quantum body - a hydrogen atom. Although they do not commute with its energy operator, the equivalence between the expectation values of passive and active gravitational masses and energy is shown to survive for stationary quantum states. In our calculations of passive gravitational mass operator, we take into account not only kinetic and Coulomb potential energies but also the so-called relativistic corrections to electron motion in a hydrogen atom. Inequivalence between passive and active gravitational masses…
The Newtonian approximation for the gravitational field equation should not necessarily involve admission of non-relativistic properties of the source terms in Einstein's equations: it is sufficient to merely consider the weak-field condition for gravitational field. When a source has electromagnetic nature, one simply {\em cannot} ignore its intrinsically relativistic properties, since there cannot be invented any non-relativistic approximation which would describe electromagnetic stress-energy tensor adequately, even at large distances where the fields become naturally weak. But the test par…
We study the possibility of experimental testing the manifestations of equivalence principle in spin-gravity interactions. We reconsider the earlier experimental data and get the first experimental bound on anomalous gravitomagnetic moment. The spin coupling to the Earth's rotation may also be explored at the extensions of neutron EDM and g-2 experiments. The spin coupling to the terrestrial gravity produces a considerable effect which may be discovered at the planned deuteron EDM experiment. The Earth's rotation should also be taken into account in optical experiments on a search for axionlik…
The weak equivalence principle (WEP) is the cornerstone of gravitational theories. At the local scale, WEP has been tested to high accuracy by various experiments. On the intergalactic distance scale, WEP could be tested by comparing the arrival time of different messengers emitted from the same source. The gravitational time delay caused by massive galaxies is proportional to $γ+1$, where the parameter $γ$ is unity in general relativity. The values of $γ$ for different massless particles should be different if WEP is violated, i.e., $Δγ$ is used to indicate the deviation from WEP. So far, $|Δ…
We review recent theoretical results, obtained for the equivalence between gravitational mass and energy of a composite quantum body as well as for its breakdown at macroscopic and microscopic levels. In particular, we discuss that the expectation values of passive and active gravitational masses operators are equivalent to the expectation value of energy for electron stationary quantum states in a hydrogen atom. On the other hand, for superpositions of the stationary quantum states, inequivalence between the gravitational masses and energy appears at a macroscopic level. It reveals itself as …
The relative acceleration between two nearby particles moving along accelerated trajectories is studied, which generalizes the geodesic deviation equation. The polarization content of the gravitational wave in Horndeski theory is investigated by examining the relative acceleration between two self-gravitating particles. It is found out that the longitudinal polarization exists no matter whether the scalar field is massive or not. It would be still very difficult to detect the enhanced longitudinal polarization with the interferometer, as the violation of the strong equivalence principle of mir…
We show that the energy-momentum four-vector of a planet, p = mu, is conserved during geodesic motion. Therefore, there is no exchange of energy-momentum with the gravitational field. We discuss the meaning of a gravitational field which is free of energy, momentum, and stress.
Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are currently the only experiments directly sensitive to gravitational waves with decade-long periods. Within the next five to ten years, PTAs are expected to detect the stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) collectively sourced by inspiralling supermassive black hole binaries. It is expected that this background is mostly isotropic, and current searches focus on the monopole part of the SGWB. Looking ahead, anisotropies in the SGWB may provide a trove of additional information both on known and unknown astrophysical and cosmological sources. In this paper…
We review our recent theoretical results about inequivalence between passive gravitational mass and energy for a composite quantum body at a macroscopic level. In particular, we consider macroscopic ensembles of the simplest composite quantum bodies - hydrogen atoms. Our results are as follows. For the most ensembles, the Einstein's Equivalence Principle is valid. On the other hand, we discuss that for some special quantum ensembles - ensembles of the coherent superpositions of the stationary quantum states in the hydrogen atoms (which we call Gravitational demons) - the Equivalence Principle …
The Fisher information matrix (FM) plays an important role in forecasts and inferences in many areas of physics. While giving fast parameter estimation with the Gaussian likelihood approximation in the parameter space, the FM can only give the ellipsoidal posterior contours of parameters and lose the higher-order information beyond Gaussianity. We extend the FM in gravitational-wave (GW) data analysis using the Derivative Approximation for LIkelihoods (DALI), a method to expand the likelihood while keeping it positive definite and normalizable at every order, for more accurate forecasts and in…
We introduce $\texttt{GWFAST}$, a Fisher information matrix $\texttt{Python}$ code that allows easy and efficient estimation of signal-to-noise ratios and parameter measurement errors for large catalogs of resolved sources observed by networks of gravitational-wave detectors. In particular, $\texttt{GWFAST}$ includes the effects of the Earth's motion during the evolution of the signal, supports parallel computation, and relies on automatic differentiation rather than on finite differences techniques, which allows the computation of derivatives with accuracy close to machine precision. We also …
In the paper, for the Kerr field, we prove that Chandrasekhar's Dirac Hamiltonian and the self-adjoint Hamiltonian H_η with a flat scalar product of the wave functions are physically equivalent. Operators of transformation of Chandrasekhar's Hamiltonian and wave functions to the η-representation with a flat scalar product are defined explicitly. If the domain of the wave functions of Dirac's equation in the Kerr field is bounded by two-dimensional surfaces of revolution around the z axis, Chandrasekhar's Hamiltonian and the self-adjoint Hamiltonian in the η-representation are Hermitian with eq…
Unlike ground-based gravitational wave detectors, space-based gravitational wave detectors can detect the ringdown signals from massive black hole mergers with large signal-to-noise ratios, help to localize sources and extract their parameters. To reduce the computation time in the Fisher information matrix analysis, we derive the analytical formulas of frequency-domain ringdown signals for both heliocentric and geocentric detectors by considering the effects of the harmonic phases, the rotation period of the geocentric detector, and the detector's arm length. We explore median errors of the p…
The relationship between uniformly accelerated reference frames in flat spacetime and the uniform gravitational field is examined in a relativistic context. It is shown that, contrary to previous statements in the pages of this journal, equivalence does not break down in this context. No restrictions to Newtonian approximations or small enclosures are necessary.
Gravitational self-interactions are assumed to be determined by the covariant derivative acting on the Riemann-Christoffel field strength. Once imposed on a metric theory, this Yang-Mills gauge constraint extends the equality of gravitational mass and inertial mass to compact bodies with non-negligible gravitational binding energy. Applied to generalized Brans-Dicke theories, it singles out one tensor theory and one scalar theory for gravity but also suggests a way to implement a minimal violation of the strong equivalence principle.
First, for each case to be tested, a specific target inspiral signal is selected for parameter extraction. In a future real analysis, the target signal would be a real signal actually observed by a gravitational wave detector such as LISA. In this study, however, the target signals are themselves simulations. Some cases were selected to resemble sources likely to be detected by LISA when it flies; others were selected to facilitate comparison with previous work using Fisher matrix techniques. Then, for each target inspiral signal, a grid search of the input parameter space is conducted to dete…
In extended new general relativity, which is formulated as a reduction of $\bar{Poincaré} $gauge theory of gravity whose gauge group is the covering group of the Poincaré group, we study the problem of whether the total energy-momentum, total angular momentum and total charge are equal to the corresponding quantities of the gravitational source. We examine this for charged axi-symmetric solutions of gravitational field equations. Our main concern is the restriction on the asymptotic form of the gravitational field variables imposed by the requirement that physical quantities of the total syste…
The role of the equivalence principle in the context of non-relativistic quantum mechanics and matter wave interferometry, especially atom beam interferometry, will be discussed. A generalised form of the weak equivalence principle which is capable of covering quantum phenomena too, will be proposed. It is shown that this generalised equivalence principle is valid for matter wave interferometry and for the dynamics of expectation values. In addition, the use of this equivalence principle makes it possible to determine the structure of the interaction of quantum systems with gravitational and i…
The role of the Equivalence Principle (EP) in classical and quantum mechanics is reviewed. It is shown that the weak EP has a counterpart in quantum theory, a Quantum Equivalence Principle (QEP). This implies that also in the quantum domain the geometrisation of the gravitational interaction is an operational procedure similar to the procedure in classical physics. This QEP can be used for showing that it is only the usual Schrödinger equation coupled to gravito--inertial fields which obeys our equivalence principle. In addition, the QEP applied to a generalised Pauli equation including spin r…
We use the intertwining properties of integral transformations to provide a compact proof of the holographic equivalence between the first law of entanglement entropy and the linearized gravitational equations, in the context of the AdS/CFT-correspondence. We build upon the framework developed by Faulkner et al. [1] using the the Wald formalism, and exploit the symmetries of the vacuum modular Hamiltonian of ball-shaped boundary regions.
After a historical discussion of Einstein's 1907 principle of equivalence, a homogeneous gravitational field in Minkowski spacetime is constructed. It is pointed out that the reference frames in gravitational theory can be understood as spaces with a flat connection and torsion defined through teleparallelism. This kind of torsion was introduced by Einstein in 1928. The concept of torsion is discussed through simple examples and some historical observations.
We show that the locally constant force necessary to get a stable hyperbolic motion regime for classical charged point particles, actually, is a combination of an applied external force and of the electromagnetic radiation reaction force. It implies, as the strong Equivalence Principle is valid, that the passive gravitational mass of a charged point particle should be slight greater than its inertial mass. An interesting new feature that emerges from the unexpected behavior of the gravitational and inertial mass relation, for classical charged particles, at very strong gravitational field, is …
We review our recent theoretical results about inequivalence between passive and active gravitational masses and energy in semiclassical variant of general relativity, where gravitational field is not quantized but matter is quantized. To this end, we consider the simplest quantum body with internal degrees of freedom - a hydrogen atom. We concentrate our attention on the following physical effects, related to electron mass. The first one is inequivalence between passive gravitational mass and energy at microscopic level. Indeed, quantum measurement of gravitational mass can give result, which…
Gravitationally bound neutrons have become an important tool in the experimental searches for new physics, such as modifications to Newton's force or candidates for dark matter particles. Here we include the relativistic effects of mass-energy equivalence into the model of gravitationally bound neutrons. Specifically, we investigate a correction in a gravitationally bound neutron's Hamiltonian due to the presence of an external magnetic field. We show that the neutron's additional weight due to mass-energy equivalence will cause a small shift in the neutron's eigenenergies and eigenstates, and…
The Einstein Equivalence Principle (EEP) carries a pivotal role in understanding theory of gravity and spacetime. It guarantees the gravity to be understood as geometric phenomenon. Considering gravitational coupling of matter in the standard model extension, we propose a novel scheme using frequency measurements to limit the equivalence principle violations in normal matter. The proposal consists of the comparison of high-precision clocks, comoving with the freely falling frame. The experimental comparison of identical kind of clocks on Earth surface can be used to carry out the proposed test…
We have recently shown that both passive and active gravitational masses of a composite body are not equivalent to its energy due to some quantum effects. We have also suggested an idealized and more realistic experiments to detect the above mentioned inequivalence for a passive gravitational mass. The suggested idealized effect is as follows. A spacecraft moves protons of a macroscopic ensemble of hydrogen atoms with constant velocity in the Earth's gravitational field. Due to non-homogeneous squeezing of space by the field, electron ground state wave function experiences time-dependent pertu…
Using the \texttt{lalinference} Markov-chain Monte Carlo parameter estimation code, we examine two distinct nonprecessing black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries with and without higher-order harmonics. Our simulations suggest that higher harmonics provide a minimal amount of additional information, principally about source geometry. Higher harmonics do provide disproportionately more information than expected from the signal power. Our results compare favorably to the "effective Fisher matrix" approach. Extrapolating using analytic scalings, we expect higher harmonics will provide little new…
Universality of motion under gravity, the equivalence principle, is violated for quantum particles. Here, we study time it takes for a quantum particle to scatter from the gravitational potential, and show that the scattering time, formulated here using the opportune Bohmian formulation, acts as an indicator of the equivalence principle violation. The scattering times of wavepackets are distinctive enough to distinguish between the Bohmian and Copenhagen interpretations. The scattering time of mono-energetic stationary states, formulated here as a modification of the Bohmian time by probabilit…
