Standard Sirens as a Novel Probe of Dark Energy

Abstract

Cosmological models with a dynamical dark energy field typically lead to a modified propagation of gravitational waves via an effectively time-varying gravitational coupling G(t). The local variation of this coupling between the time of emission and detection can be probed with standard sirens. Here we discuss the role that lunar laser ranging (LLR) and binary pulsar constraints play in the prospects of constraining G(t) with standard sirens. In particular, we argue that LLR constrains the matter-matter gravitational coupling G_{N}(t), whereas binary pulsars and standard sirens constrain the quadratic kinetic gravity self-interaction G_{gw}(t). Generically, these two couplings could be different in alternative cosmological models, in which case LLR constraints are irrelevant for standard sirens. We use the Hulse-Taylor pulsar data and show that observations are highly insensitive to time variations of G_{gw}(t) yet highly sensitive to G_{N}(t). We thus conclude that future gravitational waves data will become the best probe to test G_{gw}(t), and will hence provide novel constraints on dynamical dark energy models.