Testing Gravitational Memory Generation with Compact Binary Mergers

Abstract

Gravitational memory is an important prediction of General Relativity, which is intimately related to asymptotic symmetries at null infinity and the so-called soft graviton theorem. For a given transient astronomical event, the angular distribution of energy and angular momentum fluxes uniquely determine the displacement and spin memory effect in the sky. We investigate the possibility of using the binary black hole merger events detected by Advanced LIGO/Virgo to test the relation between the source’s energy emission and the gravitational memory measured on Earth, as predicted by General Relativity. We find that while it is difficult for Advanced LIGO/Virgo one-year detection of a third-generation detector network will easily rule out the hypothesis assuming isotropic memory distribution. In addition, we construct a phenomenological model for memory waveforms of binary neutron star mergers and use it to address the detectability of memory from these events in the third-generation detector era. We find that measuring gravitational memory from neutron star mergers is a possible way to distinguish between different neutron star equations of state.