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    Multimessenger lensing time delay as a probe of the graviton mass

    Elena Colangeli1,*, Charles Dalang1,2,3,†, and Tessa Baker1,‡

    • 1Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth PO1 3FX, United Kingdom
    • 2Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom
    • 3Institut Philippe Meyer, Département de Physique, École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Université PSL, Paris, France

    • *Contact author: elena.colangeli@port.ac.uk
    • †Contact author: charles.dalang@phys.ens.fr
    • ‡Contact author: tessa.baker@port.ac.uk

    Phys. Rev. D 113, 024067 – Published 30 January, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2rws-c489

    Abstract

    Gravitational lensing is a powerful probe of cosmology and astrophysics. With the prospect of the first strongly lensed gravitational waves on the horizon, we highlight an opportunity to test fundamental physics. In this work, we assume a nonzero mass for the graviton, which leads to gravitational waves following timelike geodesics instead of null geodesics. We derive standard gravitational lensing equations, such as the scattering angle, the time delay between different images, and the magnification, which normally rely on the assumption of null geodesics. We show that a single strongly lensed multimessenger event is enough to constrain the graviton mass to m<3×10−23  eV/c2. Notably this constraint is independent of the lens model, of the waveform model, and of cosmology. Additionally, we explore magnification of images and find that they offer at least 3 orders of magnitude weaker bounds than the time delay, and have a dependence on the correct modeling of the lens and cosmology.

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