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| VOLUME 103 (2016) | ISSUE 10 | PAGE 708 |
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On constraining the speed of gravitational waves following GW150914
D. Blas+, M. M. Ivanov*×°, I. Sawicki∇, S. Sibiryakov+*×
+Theoretical Physics Department, CERN, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland *FSB/IPHYS/LPPC, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland ×Institute for Nuclear Research of the RAS, 117312 Moscow, Russia °Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia ∇Départment de Physique Théorique and Center for Astroparticle Physics, Universitéde Genève, Quai E. Ansermet 24, CH-1211 Genève, Switzerland
Abstract
We point out that the observed time delay between the detection of the signal at the Hanford and Livingston LIGO sites from the gravitational wave event GW150914 places an upper bound on the speed of propagation of gravitational waves,  in the units of speed of
light. Combined with the lower bound from the absence of
gravitational Cherenkov losses by cosmic rays that rules out most of
subluminal velocities, this gives a model-independent double-sided
constraint  . We compare this result to
model-specific constraints from
pulsar timing and cosmology.
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