Binary mergers in bootstrapped Newtonian gravity: Mass gap and black hole area law

We study binary mergers in bootstrapped Newtonian gravity, where higher-order couplings are added to the non-relativistic Lagrangian for the Newtonian potential. In this theory, the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) mass differs from both the proper mass of Newtonian gravity and the proper mass of general relativity, which affects the interpretation of astrophysical and cosmological events. The aforementioned difference particularly provides important phenomenological constraints for the mass of the emitted matter and the compactness of the final object after the merger. The interpretation of the GW150914 signal in this theory also shows that LIGO’s findings do not violate the mass gap, contrary to usual claims. We indeed find that typical stellar black hole masses can fit LIGO’s data for a considerable range of compactness values. We calculate the black hole entropy in this context, which leads to a generalised black hole area law. Non-linear effects are found to effectively change only the gravitational strength via the renormalisation of Newton’s constant in this case.