GW170817 event rules out general relativity in favor of vector gravity

Abstract

The observation of gravitational waves by the three LIGO-Virgo interferometers allows the examination of the polarization of gravitational waves. Here we analyze the binary neutron star event GW170817, whose source location and distance are determined precisely by concurrent electromagnetic observations. Applying a signal accumulation procedure to the LIGO-Virgo strain data, we find ratios of the signals detected by the three interferometers. We conclude that the signal ratios are inconsistent with the predictions of general relativity, but consistent with the recently proposed vector theory of gravity [Phys. Scr. 92, 125001 (2017)]. Moreover, we find that vector gravity yields a distance to the source in agreement with the astronomical observations. If our analysis is correct, Einstein's general theory of relativity is ruled out in favor of vector gravity at 99% confidence level and future gravitational wave detections by three or more observatories should confirm this conclusion with higher precision.