Modeling Uncertainties in Modified Gravity Predictions for the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
astro-ph.CO, gr-qc
Submitted: 2026-07-06
Updated: 2026-09-30
Comments: 13 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables. Comments are welcome
Code: https://github.com/fsrodrigofraga-hash/SAGE
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: We investigate the impact of modified gravity on the stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) generated by a cosmological population of unresolved binary black hole mergers.
Terminology
Abstract
We investigate the impact of modified gravity on the stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) generated by a cosmological population of unresolved binary black hole mergers. We consider two complementary classes of beyond-General Relativity (GR) effects: waveform-generation modifications described within the parametrized post-Einsteinian (ppE) framework and cosmological propagation effects associated with a modified gravitational-wave luminosity distance. Astrophysical uncertainties in the binary black hole population are consistently incorporated using a Power-Law plus Peak mass model combined with a Madau--Dickinson merger-rate evolution. Using SGWB forecasts for Advanced LIGO, the Einstein Telescope (ET), and Cosmic Explorer (CE), we perform injection-recovery analyses jointly varying modified-gravity and astrophysical population parameters. We show that frequency-dependent ppE corrections produce characteristic distortions in the SGWB spectral shape and can be meaningfully constrained by third-generation detectors, particularly CE. In contrast, modified propagation effects mainly induce smooth amplitude rescalings and exhibit stronger degeneracies with astrophysical uncertainties. Our results demonstrate that future SGWB observations will provide a complementary probe of gravitational physics across cosmic history and may open new avenues for testing deviations from GR beyond individually resolved compact-binary events.
Sources
- Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
- The Gravitational-Wave Physics
- The stochastic gravity-wave background: sources and detection
- Detecting a stochastic background of gravitational radiation: Signal processing strategies and sensitivities
- The astrophysical gravitational wave stochastic background
- Stochastic Gravitational Wave Backgrounds
- Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Backgrounds: Current Detection Efforts and Future Prospects
- Upper Limits on the Isotropic Gravitational-Wave Background from the first part of LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA's fourth Observing Run
- Directional Search for Persistent Gravitational Waves: Results from the First Part of LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA's Fourth Observing Run
- The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Evidence for a Gravitational-Wave Background
- The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Piecewise Power-Law Reconstruction of the Gravitational-Wave Background
- The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Targeted Searches for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
- The Science of the Einstein Telescope
- A Horizon Study for Cosmic Explorer: Science, Observatories, and Community
- Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
- Testing General Relativity with Present and Future Astrophysical Observations
- Testing General Relativity in Cosmology
- Modified Gravity and Cosmology
- Generalized framework for testing gravity with gravitational-wave propagation. I. Formulation
- Modified gravitational-wave propagation and standard sirens
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