No Arabic abstract
We consider the AQUAL theory - a theory of modified gravity capable of resolving the missing mass problem - and study its predictions for micro gravity tests at the gravitational saddle points of the Solar system. We report that the AQUAL model enhances the gravity at the sub-micrometer ranges around the gravitational saddle points in a way that so far has been unnoticed. This enhancement can be measured. We, therefore, call for moving toward implementing micrometer gravity tests within the Solar gravitational saddle points.
We analyze the propagation of high-frequency gravitational waves (GW) in scalar-tensor theories of gravity, with the aim of examining properties of cosmological distances as inferred from GW measurements. By using symmetry principles, we first determine the most general structure of the GW linearized equations and of the GW energy momentum tensor, assuming that GW move with the speed of light. Modified gravity effects are encoded in a small number of parameters, and we study the conditions for ensuring graviton number conservation in our covariant set-up. We then apply our general findings to the case of GW propagating through a perturbed cosmological space-time, deriving the expressions for the GW luminosity distance $d_L^{({rm GW})}$ and the GW angular distance $d_A^{({rm GW})}$. We prove for the first time the validity of Etherington reciprocity law $d_L^{({rm GW})},=,(1+z)^2,d_A^{({rm GW})}$ for a perturbed universe within a scalar-tensor framework. We find that besides the GW luminosity distance, also the GW angular distance can be modified with respect to General Relativity. We discuss implications of this result for gravitational lensing, focussing on time-delays of lensed GW and lensed photons emitted simultaneously during a multimessenger event. We explicitly show how modified gravity effects compensate between different coefficients in the GW time-delay formula: lensed GW arrive at the same time as their lensed electromagnetic counterparts, in agreement with causality constraints.
The discovery of gravitational waves, which are ripples of space-time itself, opened a new window to test general relativity, because it predicts that there are only plus and cross polarizations for gravitational waves. For alternative theories of gravity, there may be up to six polarizations. The measurement of the polarization is one of the major scientific goals for future gravitational wave detectors. To evaluate the capability of the detector, we need to use the frequency dependent response functions averaged over the source direction and polarization angle. We derive the full analytical formulas of the averaged response functions for all six possible polarizations and present their asymptotic behaviors based on these analytical formulas. Compared with the numerical simulation, the full analytical formulas are more efficient and valid for any equal-arm interferometric gravitational wave detector without optical cavities in the arms and for a time-delay-interferometry Michelson combination.
We consider the space-condensate inflation model to study the primordial gravitational waves generated in the early Universe. We calculate the energy spectrum of gravitational waves induced by the space-condensate inflation model for full frequency range with assumption that the phase transition between two consecutive regimes to be abrupt during evolution of the Universe. The suppression of energy spectrum is found in our model for the decreasing frequency of gravitational waves depending on the model parameter. To realize the suppression of energy spectrum of the primordial gravitational waves, we study an existence of the early phase transition during inflation for the space-condensate inflation model.
We investigate the behavior of null geodesics near future null infinity in asymptotically flat spacetimes. In particular, we focus on the asymptotic behavior of null geodesics that correspond to worldlines of photons initially emitted in the directions tangential to the constant radial surfaces in the Bondi coordinates. The analysis is performed for general dimensions, and the difference between the four-dimensional cases and the higher-dimensional cases is stressed. In four dimensions, some assumptions are required to guarantee the null geodesics to reach future null infinity, in addition to the conditions of asymptotic flatness. Without these assumptions, gravitational waves may prevent photons from reaching null infinity. In higher dimensions, by contrast, such assumptions are not necessary, and gravitational waves do not affect the asymptotic behavior of null geodesics.
We numerically study spherical gravitational collapse in shift symmetric Einstein dilaton Gauss Bonnet (EdGB) gravity. We find evidence that there are open sets of initial data for which the character of the system of equations changes from hyperbolic to elliptic type in a compact region of the spacetime. In these cases evolution of the system, treated as a hyperbolic initial boundary value problem, leads to the equations of motion becoming ill-posed when the elliptic region forms. No singularities or discontinuities are encountered on the corresponding effective Cauchy horizon. Therefore it is conceivable that a well-posed formulation of EdGB gravity (at least within spherical symmetry) may be possible if the equations are appropriately treated as mixed-type.