A way to constrain a graviton mass from astronomical observations
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.
Sources
- Nearly forgotten results in development of physical cosmology
- Generalization of the Fierz-Pauli Action
- Resummation of Massive Gravity
- Massive Gravity
- Tests of General Relativity with GWTC-3
- Testing General Relativity with stellar orbits around the supermassive black hole in our Galactic center
- Testing the gravitational theory with short-period stars around our Galactic Center
- Constraints on graviton mass from Schwarzschild precession in the orbits of S-stars around the Galactic Center
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