• Accepted Paper

Distinguishability of magnetic massive black holes from environmental mimics with inspiral gravitational waves

Xulong Yuan and Xiangdong Zhang

Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 2 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q6f5-mstj

Abstract

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 −2 PN, with a spin-induced next-to-leading correction at −1.5 PN. For a spinning KBM black hole, the leading magnetic correction appears at −3 PN, alongside a spin-induced −1.5 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 γ=1 and γ=0, respectively. Using a multi-event statistic F 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 ρ0∼10−4kg/m3 (B∼104T): 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 −3 or −2 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.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation

If the author has provided any supplemental materials with this article they will be available upon publication of the version of record.

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation