- Accepted Paper
Distinguishability of magnetic massive black holes from environmental mimics with inspiral gravitational waves
Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 2 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q6f5-mstj
Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 2 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q6f5-mstj
Magnetic fields are a critical foundation for interpreting high-energy astrophysical phenomena across cosmic scales. In this work, we investigate the parametrized post-Einsteinian (ppE) waveform imprints induced by external magnetic fields around Kerr-Bertotti-Robinson (KBR) and Kerr-Bonnor-Melvin (KBM) black holes, to disentangle magnetic signatures from environmental effects in massive black hole binary gravitational wave signals. For a small compact object inspiraling into a massive KBR black hole, the leading-order magnetic correction enters at PN, with a spin-induced next-to-leading correction at PN. For a spinning KBM black hole, the leading magnetic correction appears at PN, alongside a spin-induced PN term. These leading ppE corrections show no intrinsic degeneracy with modified gravity effects, but closely resemble the gravitational pull from power-law matter distributions with indices and , respectively. Using a multi-event statistic to break this degeneracy, we find that robustly distinguishing magnetic effects from matter-induced pull is not uniformly efficient, especially for the KBR case. For the KBM scenario, a clear transition emerges at (): above this threshold, the magnetic signature can be reliably separated, while no efficient distinction is achievable below it. Our results highlight that future detections of anomalous or PN corrections may originate from either magnetic fields or dense matter environments, emphasizing the necessity of combining multi-event statistics and multi-messenger validation for robust gravitational wave astronomy tests.
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