Improved constraints on higher-derivative effective field theory extensions of general relativity with GW230627_015337

Abstract

Gravitational-wave (GW) observations of binary black holes provide a powerful probe of general relativity (GR) in the strong-field regime. In effective field theory (EFT) extensions of GR, higher-curvature operators modify the binary dynamics and introduce corrections to the inspiral phase. In this work, we consider two parity-even cubic-curvature couplings and one quartic-curvature coupling, whose leading phase corrections enter at 5PN, 6PN, and 8PN order, respectively. We incorporate these corrections into the individual multipoles of the \texttt{SEOBNRv5HM\_ROM} waveform using the flexible theory-independent framework, allowing higher-order modes and the full inspiral-merger-ringdown signal to be used in the analysis. We first perform a Fisher-matrix analysis of 92 binary-black-hole events selected from a parent sample of 273 events in the public LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA catalogs. GW230627\_015337 provides the tightest forecast constraints on all three EFT couplings and is therefore selected for a full Bayesian analysis. The posterior distributions are consistent with GR, with all three couplings consistent with zero at 90\% credibility. The corresponding one-sided 90\% upper limits on the characteristic length scales are \(17.1\), \(11.1\), and \(18.3\,\mathrm{km}\). The log Bayes factors of the three EFT models relative to GR range from \(-5.49\) to \(-2.51\), favoring GR under the adopted priors. These bounds probe higher-curvature length scales at the level of \(10\)--\(20\,\mathrm{km}\) and are numerically tighter than representative previous inspiral and ringdown constraints, although differences in the models and analysis assumptions should be taken into account.