Jeremy Sakstein

Implications of the Neutron Star Merger GW170817 for Cosmological Scalar-Tensor Theories

The LIGO and VIRGO Collaborations have recently announced the detection of gravitational waves from a neutron star-neutron star merger (GW170817) and the simultaneous measurement of an optical counterpart (the γ-ray burst GRB 170817A). The close arrival time of the gravitational and electromagnetic waves limits the difference in speed of photons and gravitons to be less than about 1 part in 10^{15}. This has three important implications for cosmological scalar-tensor gravity theories that are often touted as dark energy candidates and alternatives to the Λ cold dark matter model. First, for the most general scalar-tensor theories-beyond Horndeski models-three of the five parameters appearing in the effective theory of dark energy can now be severely constrained on astrophysical scales; we present the results of combining the new gravity wave results with galaxy cluster observations. Second, the combination with the lack of strong equivalence principle violations exhibited by the supermassive black hole in M87 constrains the quartic galileon model to be cosmologically irrelevant. Finally, we derive a new bound on the disformal coupling to photons that implies that such couplings are irrelevant for the cosmic evolution of the field.

Modified Gravity Makes Galaxies Brighter

We investigate the effect of modifed gravity with screening mechanisms, such as the chameleon or symmetron models, upon the structure of main sequence stars. We find that unscreened stars can be significantly more luminous and ephemeral than their screened doppelgangers. By embedding these stars into dwarf galaxies, which can be unscreened for values of the parameters not yet ruled out observationally, we show that the cumulative effect of their increased luminosity can enhance the total galactic luminosity. We estimate this enhancement and find that it can be considerable given model parameters that are still under experimental scrutiny. By looking for systematic offsets between screened dwarf galaxies in clusters and unscreened galaxies in voids, these effects could form the basis of an independent observational test that can potentially lower the current experimental bounds on the model independent parameters of these theories by and order of magnitude or more.

Astrophysical probes of the Vainshtein mechanism: stars and galaxies

Ghost-free theories beyond the Horndeski class exhibit a partial breaking of the Vainshtein mechanism inside nonrelativistic sources of finite extent. We exploit this breaking to identify new and novel astrophysical probes of these theories. Nonrelativistic objects feel a gravitational force that is weaker than that predicted by general relativity. The new equation of hydrostatic equilibrium is derived and solved to predict the modified behavior of stars. It is found that main-sequence stars are dimmer and cooler than their general relativity counterparts but the red giant phase is largely indistinguishable. The rotation curves and lensing potential of Milky Way–like galaxies are calculated. The circular velocities are smaller than predicted by general relativity at fixed radius and the lensing mass is smaller than the dynamical mass. We discuss potential astrophysical probes of these theories and identify strong lensing as a particularly promising candidate.

Disformal theories of gravity: from the solar system to cosmology

This paper is concerned with theories of gravity that contain a scalar coupled both conformally and disformally to matter through the metric. By systematically deriving the non-relativistic limit, it is shown that no new non-linear screening mechanisms are present beyond the Vainshtein mechanism and chameleon-like screening. If one includes the cosmological expansion of the universe, disformal effects that are usually taken to be absent can be present in the solar system. When the conformal factor is absent, fifth-forces can be screened on all scales when the cosmological field is slowly-rolling. We investigate the cosmology of these models and use local tests of gravity to place new constraints on the disformal coupling and find

Relativistic Stars in Beyond Horndeski Theories

\mathcal{M}>\mathcal{O}(\textrm{eV})

Towards viable cosmological models of disformal theories of gravity

, which is not competitive with laboratory tests. Finally, we discuss the future prospects for testing these theories and the implications for other theories of modified gravity. In particular, the Vainshtein radius of solar system objects can be altered from the static prediction when cosmological time-derivatives are non-negligible.

Disformal Gravity Theories: A Jordan Frame Analysis

This work studies relativistic stars in beyond Horndeski scalar-tensor theories that exhibit a breaking of the Vainshtein mechanism inside matter, focusing on a model based on the quartic beyond Horndeski Lagrangian. We self-consistently derive the scalar field profile for static spherically symmetric objects in asymptotically de Sitter space-time and show that the Vainshtein breaking branch of the solutions is the physical branch thereby resolving several ambiguities with non-relativistic frameworks. The geometry outside the star is shown to be exactly Schwarzschild-de Sitter and therefore the PPN parameter

Astrophysical tests of modified gravity

\beta_{\rm PPN}=1

Testing gravity using dwarf stars

, confirming that the external screening works at the post-Newtonian level. The Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) equations are derived and a new lower bound on the Vainshtein breaking parameter

Stellar Oscillations in Modified Gravity

\Upsilon_1>-4/9