CosPA 2026 / ACGRG 13

Polarization Modes of Gravitational Waves

6 Jul 2026, 12:15

2m

Room E8 (Rātā / Engineering Core Building, University of Canterbury)

Poster Poster Sparklers

Speaker

Yu-Xiao Liu (Lanzhou University)

Description

We establish a unified parameterized framework for analyzing the polarization modes of gravitational waves in some general gravitational theories that satisfy the following conditions: (1) Spacetime is four-dimensional; (2) The theories satisfy the principle of least action; (3) The theories are generally covariant; (4) The action describing a free particle is $\int ds$. We find that the polarization modes of gravitational waves depend on the parameter space in the framework, and a theory may allow for up to all six polarization modes. We also find that the polarization modes of gravitational waves in some general theories have some interesting universal properties.