Constraining the cosmological evolution of post-Newtonian parameters with gravitational wave signals from compact binary inspirals

Abstract Gravitational waves from compact binary inspirals offer a new opportunity to constrain the cosmological time dependence of gravitational coupling parameters, due to the high precision of the observations themselves as well as the significant cosmological redshifts at which such systems exist. We calculate theory-independent equations of motion for compact objects in a binary system, implementing a new approach to sensitivities, and subsequently determine the gravitational wave signal that one should expect to measure from their inspiral. Expressions for the wave phase and amplitude are derived in terms of post-Newtonian gravitational coupling parameters, radiative flux parameters, and compact body sensitivities. These results complement recent attempts to gain theory-independent constraints on the time-evolution of gravitational coupling parameters from cosmological probes, and represent a new opportunity to constrain modified gravity with gravitational wave data.