Testing General Relativity with Gravitational Waves

Abstract

Gravitational-wave sources offer us unique testbeds for probing strong-field, dynamical, and nonlinear aspects of gravity. In this chapter, we give a brief overview of the current status and future prospects of testing general relativity with gravitational waves. In particular, we focus on three theory-agnostic tests (parameterized tests, inspiral-merger-ringdown consistency tests, and gravitational-wave propagation tests) and explain how one can apply such tests to example modified theories of gravity. We conclude by giving some open questions that need to be resolved to carry out more accurate tests of gravity with gravitational waves.