Author(s)

Thomas L. Wilson

Johnson Space Center, NASA, Houston, TX, USA.

It is shown in Einstein gravity that the cosmological constant Λ introduces a graviton mass m_g into the theory, a result that will be derived from the Regge-Wheeler-Zerilli problem for a particle falling onto a Kottler-Schwarzschild mass with Λ ≠ 0. The value of mg is precisely the Spin-2 gauge line appearing on the Λ - m²_g phase diagram for Spin-2, the partially massless gauge lines introduced by Deser & Waldron in the m²_g, Λ) phase plane and described as the Higuchi bound m²_g= 2Λ/3. Note that this graviton is unitary with only four polarization degrees of freedom (helicities ±2, ±1, but not 0 because a scalar gauge symmetry removes it). The conclusion is drawn that Einstein gravity (EG, Λ ≠ 0) is a partially massless gravitation theory which has lost its helicity 0 due to a scalar gauge symmetry. That poses a challenge for gravitational wave antennas as to whether they can measure the loss of this gauge symmetry. Also, given the recent results measuring the Hubble constant H_o from LIGO-Virgo data, it is then shown that Λ can be determined from the LIGO results for the graviton mass m_g and H_o. This is yet another multi-messenger source for determining the three parameters Λ, m_g, and H_o in astrophysics and cosmology, at a time when there is much disparity in measurements of H_o.

Gravitation, General Relativity

Wilson, T. (2020) Determining the Cosmological Constant Using Gravitational Wave Observations. Journal of Modern Physics, 11, 1-8. doi: 10.4236/jmp.2020.111001.