A way to constrain a graviton mass from astronomical observations

arXiv:2607.11764 · gr-qc, astro-ph.CO, astro-ph.GA · Submitted 2026-07-13 · Read on arXiv

gr-qc, astro-ph.CO, astro-ph.GA

Submitted: 2026-07-13

Updated: 2026-09-22

Comments: 22 pages, 2 figures, presented as an invited plenary talk at the VIII International Conference "Models in Quantum Field Theory" (MQFT-2025) dedicated to Prof. A. N. Vasiliev

Journal ref: Theoretical and Mathematical Physics 228 (2026) 1212 - 1224

DOI: 10.1134/S004057792607010X

License: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

The gist: Along with a whole range of alternative theories of gravity, variants of the massive theory of gravity, i.e.

Terminology

Abstract

Along with a whole range of alternative theories of gravity, variants of the massive theory of gravity, i.e. the theory of gravity, in which the graviton has mass, have been actively discussed in recent years. Theorists have proposed versions of massive gravity theories that address the shortcomings of early versions of such theories. Astrophysicists and experimental physicists have been discussing limitations on the graviton mass from various astronomical observations. In particular, in the first LIGO paper, where the discovery of gravitational waves from binary black holes was reported, a limit on the mass of the graviton was obtained from the analysis of the profile of the gravitational wave signal. In the paper graviton mass constraints were obtained by analyzing the trajectory of a bright star in the vicinity of the center of our Galaxy, using observations from the GRAVITY and Keck groups. Briefly other astronomical ways to limit a graviton mass were discussed.

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