Improved bounds on higher-order curvature theories of gravity through gravitational wave catalogs

While Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) has been extremely successful at describing our observations for the past 100 years, there are a variety of alternative theories of gravity that can help solve some open problems in physics. In this search for physics beyond GR, gravitational wave astronomy is proving to be an effective tool at constraining these other theories. In this talk, I will discuss a recent work we have published in which we combined information from multiple GW sources to place tight, robust constraints on a few specific theories of gravity that involve higher order corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action, Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet (EdGB) and dynamical Chern Simons (dCS) gravity. To begin, I will first outline the methods used to analyze the data from each source. From there, I will discuss the conclusions these analyses led us to, including a tighter constraint on EdGB. Finally, I will present how we attempted to fully understand the sources of error, like uncertainties in the waveform model both within and outside GR, and how these factors do not significantly impact our results.