Gravitational waves travel at the speed of light
Multimessenger observations, particularly from binary neutron star mergers such as GW170817, have empirically confirmed that gravitational waves travel at the speed of light.
The retrieved literature consistently supports the consensus that gravitational waves travel at the speed of light, validated by multimessenger observations like GW170817.
A. E. Romano. Constraining the effective field theory of dark energy with multimessenger astronomy. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.084086
Discusses constraining the propagation speed of gravitational waves using multimessenger astronomy.
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R. Poggiani. GW170817: A Short Review of the First Multimessenger Event in Gravitational Astronomy. 2025. https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies13050112
Notes that joint gravitational and electromagnetic observations from events like GW170817 have been used to estimate the speed of gravitational waves.
L. Iampieri, S. Mastrogiovanni, F. Pannarale. Measuring the speed of gravity and the cosmic expansion with time delays between gravity and light from binary neutron stars. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.023533
Proposes methodologies utilizing time delays between gravitational waves and gamma-ray bursts to constrain the speed of gravity.
J. Moffat. LIGO/Virgo Listens to Neutron Stars. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190650728.003.0008
States that observations from neutron star mergers provide an extremely accurate determination that the speed of gravitational waves matches the speed of light.
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