Testing post-Newtonian theory with gravitational wave observations

Abstract

The Laser Interferometric Space Antenna (LISA) will observe supermassive black hole binary mergers with an amplitude signal-to-noise ratio of several thousand. We investigate the extent to which such observations afford high-precision tests of Einstein's gravity. We show that LISA provides a unique opportunity to probe the nonlinear structure of post-Newtonian theory both in the context of general relativity and its alternatives.