A method to set constraints on the parameters of extended theories of gravitation is presented. It is based on the comparison of two series expansions of any observable that depends on H(z). The first expansion is of the cosmographical type, while th
e second uses the dependence of H with z furnished by a given type of extended theory. When applied to f(R) theories together with the redshift drift, the method yields limits on the parameters of two examples (the theory of Hu and Sawicki (2007), and the exponential gravity introduced by Linder (2009)) that are compatible with or more stringent than the existing ones, as well as a limit for a previously unconstrained parameter.
The effects implied for the structure of compact objects by the modification of General Relativity produced by the generalization of the Lagrangian density to the form f(R)=R+alpha R^2, where R is the Ricci curvature scalar, have been recently explor
ed. It seems likely that this squared-gravity may allow heavier Neutron Stars (NSs) than GR. In addition, these objects can be useful to constrain free parameters of modified-gravity theories. The differences between alternative gravity theories is enhanced in the strong gravitational regime. In this regime, because of the complexity of the field equations, perturbative methods become a good choice to treat the problem. Following previous works in the field, we performed a numerical integration of the structure equations that describe NSs in f(R)-gravity, recovering their mass-radius relations, but focusing on particular features that arise from this approach in the profiles of the NS interior. We show that these profiles run in correlation with the second-order derivative of the analytic approximation to the Equation of State (EoS), which leads to regions where the enclosed mass decreases with the radius in a counter-intuitive way. We reproduce all computations with a simple polytropic EoS to separate zeroth-order modified gravity effects.
