Gravitational wave polarizations in nonminimally coupled gravity

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Varela, Miguel Barroso, Bertolami, Orfeu
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Varela, Miguel Barroso
Bertolami, Orfeu
author_facet Varela, Miguel Barroso
Bertolami, Orfeu
contents The properties of metric perturbations are determined in the context of an expanding Universe governed by a modified theory of gravity with a non-minimal coupling between curvature and matter. We analyse the dynamics of the 6 components of a general helicity decomposition of the metric and stress-energy perturbations, consisting of scalar, vector and tensor sectors. The tensor polarisations are shown to still propagate luminally, in agreement with recent data from gravitational interferometry experiments, while their magnitude decays with an additional factor sourced by the nonminimal coupling. We show that the production of these modes is associated with a modified quadrupole formula at leading order. The vector perturbations still exhibit no radiative behaviour, although their temporal evolution is found to be modified, with spatial dependence remaining unaffected. We establish that the scalar perturbations can no longer be treated as identical. We investigate the scalar sector by writing the modified model as an equivalent two-field scalar-tensor theory and find the same scalar degrees of freedom as in previous literature. The different sectors are paired with the corresponding polarisation modes, which can be observationally measured by their effects on the relative motion of test particles, thus providing the possibility of testing the modified theory and constraining its parameters.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_07625
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Gravitational wave polarizations in nonminimally coupled gravity
Varela, Miguel Barroso
Bertolami, Orfeu
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
The properties of metric perturbations are determined in the context of an expanding Universe governed by a modified theory of gravity with a non-minimal coupling between curvature and matter. We analyse the dynamics of the 6 components of a general helicity decomposition of the metric and stress-energy perturbations, consisting of scalar, vector and tensor sectors. The tensor polarisations are shown to still propagate luminally, in agreement with recent data from gravitational interferometry experiments, while their magnitude decays with an additional factor sourced by the nonminimal coupling. We show that the production of these modes is associated with a modified quadrupole formula at leading order. The vector perturbations still exhibit no radiative behaviour, although their temporal evolution is found to be modified, with spatial dependence remaining unaffected. We establish that the scalar perturbations can no longer be treated as identical. We investigate the scalar sector by writing the modified model as an equivalent two-field scalar-tensor theory and find the same scalar degrees of freedom as in previous literature. The different sectors are paired with the corresponding polarisation modes, which can be observationally measured by their effects on the relative motion of test particles, thus providing the possibility of testing the modified theory and constraining its parameters.
title Gravitational wave polarizations in nonminimally coupled gravity
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.07625