Detecting a Tail Effect in Gravitational-Wave Experiments

Future gravitational-wave experiments looking at inspiralling compact binaries could achieve the detection of a very small effect of phase modulation induced by the tails of gravitational waves. Once a binary signal has been identified, further analysis of data will provide a measure of the total mass-energy M of the binary, which enters as a factor in this tail effect, by means of optimal signal processing. The detection of the effect will then consist in showing the compatibility of the measured values of M and of the other parameters depending on the two masses of the binary. This illustrates the high potentiality of gravitational-wave experiments for testing general relativity.