{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/116149"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/116149","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Tests of fundamental physics with gravitational waves: Theory and application","abstract":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-15 without embargo terms","abstract_html":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-15 without embargo terms","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Perkins, Scott Ellis"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Physics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Yunes, Nicolas","Witek, Helvi","Narayan, Gautham","Holder, Gilbert"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2022,"date_issued":"2022-08","date_published":"2022-08","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:55Z","subjects":["gravity","gravitational waves","tests of general relativity"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2022 Scott Perkins"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116149","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Yunes, Nicolas","Witek, Helvi","Narayan, Gautham","Holder, Gilbert"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Perkins, Scott Ellis"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2022-08","2022-06-21"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Physics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["gravity","gravitational waves","tests of general relativity"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2022 Scott Perkins"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116149"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-15 without embargo terms","The student, Scott Perkins, accepted the attached license on 2022-06-09 at 02:55.","The student, Scott Perkins, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2022-06-09 at 09:14.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2022-06-21 at 15:27.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #18046 on 2022-11-15 at 17:37:29","The era of gravitational wave astronomy began in 2015 with the first direct detection of gravitational radiation. Those ripples in spacetime ushered in a new age in astronomy, astrophysics, fundamental physics and a host of other fields in science. In this dissertation, we examine how this method of observation can be used to constrain alternative theories of gravity using inspiral tests of general relativity. We begin by using a variety of simulation techniques to evaluate the efficacy of different methods and future detectors for investigating the gravitational interaction. Specifically, we start by examining the existence of the graviton mass, where we explore the impact of screening effects on the measureablility of this modification with future detectors with a Fisher analysis. We then widen the scope of our Fisher analysis, considering a variety of different gravitational theories as well as theory-agnostic models. By considering astrophysically realistic populations of black holes and the most accurate gravitational wave detector timelines, we make predictions about the next three decades of fundamental science through gravitational wave observation. Next, we investigate potential sources of systematic error in theory-agnostic inspiral tests of general relativity. To accomplish this, we propose a new waveform model and prior inspired by post-Newtonian calculations. We then use it to analyze synthetic data, through which we show that current constraints are robust to these systematic effects. We then transition to working with current data released by the LIGO-Virgo-Kagra collaboration in order to place constraints on viable alternatives to general relativity. Specifically, we focus on two theories of gravity, Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet and dynamical Chern Simons, and successfully place a constraint on the size of the relevant lengthscales of Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet. In order to obtain these constraints, we use observations from the first, second and third gravitational wave catalogs. To ensure the robustness of our conclusions, we verified that two key, potential sources of systematic error, possible mis-modeling both within and without general relativity, do not impact our result."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Tests of fundamental physics with gravitational waves: Theory and application"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Yunes, Nicolas","Witek, Helvi","Narayan, Gautham","Holder, Gilbert"],"dc:creator":["Perkins, Scott Ellis"],"dc:date":["2022-08","2022-06-21"],"dc:description":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-15 without embargo terms","The student, Scott Perkins, accepted the attached license on 2022-06-09 at 02:55.","The student, Scott Perkins, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2022-06-09 at 09:14.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2022-06-21 at 15:27.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #18046 on 2022-11-15 at 17:37:29","The era of gravitational wave astronomy began in 2015 with the first direct detection of gravitational radiation. Those ripples in spacetime ushered in a new age in astronomy, astrophysics, fundamental physics and a host of other fields in science. In this dissertation, we examine how this method of observation can be used to constrain alternative theories of gravity using inspiral tests of general relativity. We begin by using a variety of simulation techniques to evaluate the efficacy of different methods and future detectors for investigating the gravitational interaction. Specifically, we start by examining the existence of the graviton mass, where we explore the impact of screening effects on the measureablility of this modification with future detectors with a Fisher analysis. We then widen the scope of our Fisher analysis, considering a variety of different gravitational theories as well as theory-agnostic models. By considering astrophysically realistic populations of black holes and the most accurate gravitational wave detector timelines, we make predictions about the next three decades of fundamental science through gravitational wave observation. Next, we investigate potential sources of systematic error in theory-agnostic inspiral tests of general relativity. To accomplish this, we propose a new waveform model and prior inspired by post-Newtonian calculations. We then use it to analyze synthetic data, through which we show that current constraints are robust to these systematic effects. We then transition to working with current data released by the LIGO-Virgo-Kagra collaboration in order to place constraints on viable alternatives to general relativity. Specifically, we focus on two theories of gravity, Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet and dynamical Chern Simons, and successfully place a constraint on the size of the relevant lengthscales of Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet. In order to obtain these constraints, we use observations from the first, second and third gravitational wave catalogs. To ensure the robustness of our conclusions, we verified that two key, potential sources of systematic error, possible mis-modeling both within and without general relativity, do not impact our result."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116149"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2022 Scott Perkins"],"dc:subject":["gravity","gravitational waves","tests of general relativity"],"dc:title":["Tests of fundamental physics with gravitational waves: Theory and application"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Physics"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:55Z"}