Graviton mass from X-COP galaxy clusters

Abstract

The concept of massive graviton has long been the subject of extensive studies underlying most theories of modified gravity. When the graviton is given a mass, it is a generic feature that, in the weak-field limit, Newtonian potential gets modified by the Yukawa term. This opens up a possibility to constrain the graviton mass (or, equivalently, its Compton wavelength) based on dynamical properties of objects at different astrophysical scales, e.g. galaxy cluster scale. In this paper we address this question with X–COP galaxy cluster sample, where total masses up to certain radii were measured by using X-ray data from XMM-Newton telescope combined with Sunyaev-Zel'dovich data from Planck satellite. Our constraint for graviton mass of about mg<(4.99−6.79)×10−29eV (at 95% C.L.) is one of the most stringent available bounds. First assessments of mg<1.2×10−22eV made by LIGO/Virgo collaboration are complementary to ours since they are based on modified dispersion relation for gravitons. Synergy between gravitational wave domain and dynamical tests of the Yukawa term would be very promising in the nearest future.