Strong Field Tests of General Relativity with Gravitational-Wave Observations

The general theory of relativity (GR) has been a tremendously successful theory of gravity in explaining the current astronomical observations and laboratory experiments. However, there is a general consensus that GR is at best incomplete, representing an approximation to a more complete theory that resolves some or all of its problems. Thus, despite GR's enormous success it has been routinely tested across varying strengths of the gravitational field, relativistic speeds, curvatures, and both linear and nonlinear gravitational regimes. Ten years ago, the first direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs) provided us with an unprecedented opportunity to test GR in regimes of large velocity and high nonlinearity simultaneously. Since then, we have made significant progress. In this talk, I will present the status of tests of GR with GWs, the lessons learned, and the future directions of this research. I will also discuss the challenges that may arise as GW detectors become more sensitive in the future. Although no evidence of GR violation has been found, it is time for the GW community to come together and prepare to address any potential GR violations whether true or false that may appear in GW data.