No Arabic abstract
It is shown that extensions to General Relativity, which introduce a strongly coupled scalar field, can be viable if the interaction has a non-conformal form. Such disformal coupling depends upon the gradients of the scalar field. Thus, if the field is locally static and smooth, the coupling becomes invisible in the solar system: this is the disformal screening mechanism. A cosmological model is considered where the disformal coupling triggers the onset of accelerated expansion after a scaling matter era, giving a good fit to a wide range of observational data. Moreover, the interaction leaves signatures in the formation of large-scale structure that can be used to probe such couplings.
Recent cosmological data for very large distances challenge the validity of the standard cosmological model. Motivated by the observed spatial flatness the accelerating expansion and the various anisotropies with preferred axes in the universe we examine the consequences of the simple hypothesis that the three-dimensional space has a global R^2 X S^1 topology. We take the radius of the compactification to be the observed cosmological scale beyond which the accelerated expansion starts. We derive the induced corrections to the Newtons gravitational potential and we find that for distances smaller than the S^1-radius the leading 1/r-term is corrected by convergent power series of multipole form in the polar angle making explicit the induced anisotropy by the compactified third dimension. On the other hand, for distances larger than the compactification scale the asymptotic behavior of the potential exhibits a logarithmic dependence with exponentially small corrections. The change of Newtons force from 1/r^2 to 1/r behavior implies a weakening of the deceleration for the expanding universe. Such topologies can also be created locally by standard Newtonian axially symmetric mass distributions with periodicity along the symmetry axis. In such cases we can use our results to obtain measurable modifications of Newtonian orbits for small distances and flat rotation spectra, for large distances at the galactic level.
We construct a generalization of the standard $Lambda$CDM model, wherein we simultaneously replace the spatially flat Robertson-Walker metric with its simplest anisotropic generalization (LRS Bianchi I metric), and couple the cold dark matter to the gravity in accordance with the energy-momentum squared gravity (EMSG) of the form $f(T_{mu u}T^{mu u})propto T_{mu u}T^{mu u}$. These two modifications -- namely, two new stiff fluid-like terms of different nature -- can mutually cancel out, i.e., the shear scalar can be screened completely, and reproduce mathematically exactly the same Friedmann equation of the standard $Lambda$CDM model. This evades the BBN limits on the anisotropy, and thereby provides an opportunity to manipulate the cosmic microwave background quadrupole temperature fluctuation at the desired amount. We further discuss the consequences of the model on the very early times and far future of the Universe. This study presents also an example of that the EMSG of the form $f(T_{mu u}T^{mu u})propto T_{mu u}T^{mu u}$, as well as similar type other constructions, is not necessarily relevant only to very early Universe but may even be considered in the context of a major problem of the current cosmology related to the present-day Universe, the so-called $H_0$ problem.
The recent discovery of gravitational waves marks the culmination of a sequence of successful tests of the general theory of relativity (GR) since its formulation in 1915. Yet these tests remain confined to the scale of stellar systems or the strong gravity regime. A departure from GR on larger, cosmological scales has been advocated by the proponents of modified gravity theories as an alternative to the Cosmological Constant to account for the observed cosmic expansion history. While indistinguishable in these terms by construction, such models on the other hand yield distinct values for the linear growth rate of density perturbations and, as a consequence, for the associated galaxy peculiar velocity field. Measurements of the resulting anisotropy of galaxy clustering, when spectroscopic redshifts are used to derive distances, have thus been proposed as a powerful probe of the validity of GR on cosmological scales. However, despite significant effort in modelling such redshift space distortions, systematic errors remain comparable to current statistical uncertainties. Here, we present the results of a different forward-modelling approach, which fully exploits the sensitivity of the galaxy velocity field to modifications of GR. We use state-of-the-art, high-resolution N-body simulations of a standard GR and a compelling f(R) model, one of GRs simplest variants, to build simulated catalogues of stellar-mass-selected galaxies through a robust match to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey observations. We find that, well within the uncertainty of this technique, f(R) fails to reproduce the observed redshift-space clustering on scales 1-10 Mpc/h. Instead, the standard LCDM GR model agrees impressively well with the data. This result provides a strong confirmation, on cosmological scales, of the robustness of Einsteins general theory of relativity.
We present an upgraded version of textsc{MG-MAMPOSSt}, an extension of the textsc{MAMPOSSt} algorithm that performs Bayesian fits of models of mass and velocity anisotropy profiles to the distribution of tracers in projected phase space, to handle modified gravity models and constrain their parameters. The new version implements two distinct types of gravity modifications, namely general chameleon and Vainshtein screening, and is further equipped with a Monte-Carlo-Markov-Chain module for an efficient parameter space exploration. The program is complemented by the textsc{ClusterGEN} code, capable of producing mock galaxy clusters under the assumption of spherical symmetry, dynamical equilibrium, and Gaussian local velocity distribution functions as in textsc{MAMPOSSt}. We demonstrate the potential of the method by analysing a set of synthetic, isolated spherically-symmetric dark matter haloes, focusing on the statistical degeneracies between model parameters. Assuming the availability of additional lensing-like information, we forecast the constraints on the modified gravity parameters for the two models presented, as expected from joint lensing+internal kinematics analyses, in view of upcoming galaxy cluster surveys. In Vainshtein screening, we forecast the weak lensing effect through the estimation of the full convergence-shear profile. For chameleon screening, we constrain the allowed region in the space of the two free parameters of the model, further focusing on the $f(mathcal{R})$ subclass to obtain realistic bounds on the background field $|f_{mathcal{R}0}|$. Our analysis demonstrates the complementarity of internal kinematics and lensing probes for constraining modified gravity theories, and how the bounds on Vainshtein-screened theories improve through the combination of the two probes.
We construct black hole solutions in four-dimensional quadratic gravity, supported by a scalar field conformally coupled to quadratic terms in the curvature. The conformal matter Lagrangian is constructed with powers of traces of a conformally covariant tensor, which is defined in terms of the metric and a scalar field, and has the symmetries of the Riemann tensor. We find exact, neutral and charged, topological black hole solutions of this theory when the Weyl squared term is absent from the action functional. Including terms beyond quadratic order on the conformally covariant tensor, allows to have asymptotically de Sitter solutions, with a potential that is bounded from below. For generic values of the couplings we also show that static black hole solutions must have a constant Ricci scalar, and provide an analysis of the possible asymptotic behavior of both, the metric as well as the scalar field in the asymptotically AdS case, when the solutions match those of general relativity in vacuum at infinity. In this frame, the spacetime fulfils standard asymptotically AdS boundary conditions, and in spite of the non-standard couplings between the curvature and the scalar field, there is a family of black hole solutions in AdS that can be interpreted as localized objects. We also provide further comments on the extension of these results to higher dimensions.