Is General Relativity the correct theory of gravitation? Can gravity be used to detect new fundamental fields? A recent Letter appearing in Nature Astronomy, authored by researchers of the GSSI, SISSA, the University of Nottingham, and La Sapienza of Rome, suggests that an answer to these questions may come from LISA, the space-based gravitational-wave (GW) detector which is expected to be launched by ESA/NASA in 2037.
LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), devoted to detect gravitational waves by astrophysical sources, will operate in a constellation of three satellites, orbiting around the Sun millions of kilometers far away from each other. LISA will observe gravitational waves emitted at low frequency, within a band not available to terrestrial interferometers due to environmental noise. The visible spectrum for LISA will allow to study new families of astrophysical sources, opening a new window on the evolution of compact objects in a large variety of environments of our Universe.
(Image by NASA: "An artist’s impression of the spacetime of an extreme-mass-ratio inspiral. A smaller black hole orbits around a supermassive blackhole")