Inspiral waveforms of charged compact binaries and observational constraints

Abstract

Electric charges carried by compact objects can affect binary dynamics and imprint characteristic signatures on gravitational-wave signals. We derive next-to-leading-order post-Newtonian frequency-domain waveforms for charged compact binaries in both the gravitational-quadrupole and electric-dipole dominated regimes, including electromagnetic corrections beyond leading-order electric-dipole radiation that reduce the degeneracy between the component charge-to-mass ratios. Using gravitational wave events from GWTC-5.0, we place constraints on the charge-to-mass ratio and mass of each component of the binary system.