f(R) gravity constraints from gravitational waves

Abstract

The recent LIGO observation sparked interest in the field of gravity wave signals. Besides the gravity wave observation the LIGO collaboration used the inspiraling black hole pair to constrain the graviton mass. Unlike general relativity, $f(R)$ theories have a characteristic non-zero mass graviton. We apply the constraint on the graviton mass to viable $f(R)$ models to find the effects on model parameters. We find it possible to constrain the parameter space with the gravity wave based observations. We make a case study for the popular Hu-Sawicki model and find a parameter bracket. The result generalizes to other $f(R)$ theories and can be used to contain the parameter space.