Understanding the formation and evolution of the stellar-mass binary black holes discovered by LIGO and Virgo is a challenge that spans many areas of astrophysics, from stellar evolution, dynamics and accretion disks, to possible exotic early universe processes. Over the final years of their lives, stellar-mass binaries radiate gravitational waves that are first observable by spacebased detectors (such as LISA) and then ground-based instruments (such as LIGO, Virgo and the next generation observatories Cosmic Explorer and the Einstein Telescope). Using state-of-the-art waveform models and parameter-estimation pipelines for both ground-and space-based observations, we show that (the expected handful of) these multiband observations will allow at least percentlevel measurements of all 17 parameters that describe the binary, the possible identification of a likely host galaxy, and the forewarning of the merger days in advance allowing telescopes at multiple wavelengths to search for any electromagnetic signature associated to it. Multiband sources will therefore be a gold mine for astrophysics, but we also show that they could be less useful as laboratories for fundamental tests of general relativity than has been previously suggested.1 The title of this letter intentionally mirrors "The last three minutes" by Cutler et al.[11] -a seminal study that set the stage for GW studies of compact binaries with ground-based detectors.
We compare Mercury’s precession test in standard general relativity, Brans–Dicke theories (BD), and Palatini $$f({\mathcal {R}})$$
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-theories. We avoid post-Newtonian approximation and compute exact precession in these theories. We show that the well-known mathematical equivalence between Palatini $$f({\mathcal {R}})$$
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-theories and a specific subset of BD theories does not extend to a really physical equivalence among theories since equivalent models still allow a different incompatible precession for Mercury depending on the solution one chooses. As a result one cannot use BD equivalence to rule out Palatini $$f({\mathcal {R}})$$
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-theories. On the contrary, we directly discuss that Palatini $$f({\mathcal {R}})$$
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-theories can (and specific models do) easily pass Solar System tests as Mercury’s precession.
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