In this paper, we systematically study spherically symmetric static spacetimes in the framework of Einstein-aether theory, and pay particular attention to the existence of black holes (BHs). In the present studies we first clarify several subtle issues. In particular, we find that, out of the five non-trivial field equations, only three are independent, so the problem is well-posed, as now generically there are only three unknown functions, {$F(r), B(r), A(r)$, where $F$ and $B$ are metric coefficients, and $A$ describes the aether field.} In addition, the two second-order differential equations for $A$ and $F$ are independent of $B$, and once they are found, $B$ is given simply by an algebraic expression of $F,\; A$ and their derivatives. To simplify the problem further, we explore the symmetry of field redefinitions, and work first with the redefined metric and aether field, and then obtain the physical ones by the inverse transformations. These clarifications significantly simplify the computational labor, which is important, as the problem is highly involved mathematically. In fact, it is exactly because of these, we find various numerical BH solutions with an accuracy that is at least two orders higher than previous ones. More important, these BH solutions are the only ones that satisfy the self-consistent conditions and meantime are consistent with all the observational constraints obtained so far. The locations of universal horizons are also identified, together with several other observationally interesting quantities, such as the innermost stable circular orbits (ISCO), the ISCO frequency, and the maximum redshift $z_{max}$ of a photon emitted by a source orbiting the ISCO. All of these quantities are found to be quite close to their relativistic limits.
We study spherically symmetric spacetimes in Einstein-aether theory in three different coordinate systems, the isotropic, Painlevè-Gullstrand, and Schwarzschild coordinates, in which the aether is always comoving, and present both time-dependent and time-independent exact vacuum solutions. In particular, in the isotropic coordinates we find a class of exact static solutions characterized by a single parameter $c_{14}$ in closed forms, which satisfies all the current observational constraints of the theory, and reduces to the Schwarzschild vacuum black hole solution in the decoupling limit ($c_…
We investigate the field equations in the Einstein-aether theory for static spherically symmetric spacetimes and a perfect fluid source and subsequently with the addition of a scalar field (with an exponential self-interacting potential). We introduce more appropriate dynamical variables that facilitate the study of the equilibrium points of the resulting dynamical system and, in addition, we discuss the dynamics at infinity. We study the qualitative properties of the models with a particular interest in their asymptotic behaviour and whether they admit singularities. We also present a number …
Einstein-aether theory is general relativity coupled to a dynamical, unit timelike vector. If this vector is restricted in the action to be hypersurface orthogonal, the theory is identical to the IR limit of the extension of Horava gravity proposed by Blas, Pujolàs and Sibiryakov. Hypersurface orthogonal solutions of Einstein-aether theory are solutions to the IR limit of this theory, hence numerous results already obtained for Einstein-aether theory carry over.
By using of the Euler-Lagrange equations, we find a static spherically symmetric solution in the Einstein-aether theory with the coupling constants restricted. The solution is similar to the Reissner-Nordstrom solution in that it has an inner Cauchy horizon and an outer black hole event horizon. But a remarkable difference from the Reissner-Nordstrom solution is that it is not asymptotically flat but approaches a two dimensional sphere. The resulting electric potential is regular in the whole spacetime except for the curvature singularity. On the other hand, the magnetic potential is divergent…
We numerically study the gravitational collapse of a massless scalar field with spherical symmetry in Einstein-aether theory, and show that apparent, spin-0 and dynamical universal horizons (dUHs) can be all formed. The spacetime and the aether field are well-behaved and regular, including regions nearby these horizons (but away from the center of spherical symmetry). The spacetime outside the apparent and spin-0 horizons settles down to a static configuration, and some of such resulting static black holes were already found numerically in the literature. On the other hand, the proper distance…
Einstein-aether theory is general relativity coupled to a dynamical unit timelike vector field. A brief review of current theoretical understanding and observational constraints on the four coupling parameters of the theory is given.
A recent paper studies a modification of Einstein-aether theory in which the aether vector is restricted, at the level of the action, to be the gradient of a scalar. In this comment we note that this scalar version of Einstein-aether theory is equivalent to the projectable version of the IR limit of Hořava gravity when the potential for the scalar is constant. This provides a generally covariant formulation for projectable Hořava gravity.
We establish a nonlinear version of the SU(N) symmetric theory, which describes self-consistently the interaction between the gravitational, gauge, vector and pseudoscalar (axion) fields. In the context of this theory the SU(N) symmetric multiplet of vector fields is associated with the color aether, the decay of which in the early Universe produced the canonic dynamic aether and the axionic dark matter. The SU(N) symmetric Yang-Mills field, associated with the color aether, forms the source, which transfers the energy of the decaying color aether to the axion field. The nonlinear modification…
We present exact solutions in Einstein-aether theory in a static spherically symmetric background space with a spacelike aether field, as a difference with the usual selection of timelike aether field. We assume a coupling between the scalar field and the aether field introduced in the aether coefficients. The exact spacetimes describe hairy black hole solutions for which the limits of the Schwarzschild, de-Sitter Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordström metrics are recovered.
In the framework of the Einstein-Maxwell-aether theory, we present two new classes of exact charged black hole solutions, which are asymptotically flat and possess the universal as well as Killing horizons. We also construct the Smarr formulas, and calculate the temperatures of the horizons, using the Smarr mass-area relation. We find that, in contrast to the neutral case, such obtained temperature is not proportional to its surface gravity at any of the two kinds of the horizons. Einstein-Maxwell-aether black holes with the cosmological constant and their topological cousins are also given.
We use a dynamical systems analysis to investigate the future behaviour of Einstein-Aether cosmological models with a scalar field coupling to the expansion of the aether and a non-interacting perfect fluid. The stability of the equilibrium solutions are analysed and the results are compared with the standard inflationary cosmological solutions and previously studied cosmological Einstein-Aether models.
The exact static spherically symmetric solutions for pure-aether theory and Einstein-aether theory are presented. It is shown that both theories can deliver the Schwarzschild metric, but only the Einstein-aether theory contains solutions with "almost-Schwarzschild" metrics that satisfy Einstein's experiments. Two specific solutions are of special interest: one in pure-aether theory that derives the attractive nature of gravitation as a result of Minskowski signature of the metric, and one - the Jacobson solution- of Einstein-aether theory with "almost-Schwarzschild" metric and non-zero Ricci t…
Energy positivity is established for a class of solutions to Einstein-aether theory and the IR limit of Hořava gravity within a certain range of coupling parameters. The class consists of solutions where the aether 4-vector is divergence free on a spacelike surface to which it is orthogonal (which implies that the surface is maximal). In particular, this result holds for spherically symmetric solutions at a moment of time symmetry.
We show how to derive several families of accelerating universe solutions to an Einstein-Aether gravity theory. These solutions provide possible descriptions of inflationary behaviour in the early universe and late-time cosmological acceleration.
In this paper, we systematically study spacetimes of gravitational plane waves in Einstein-aether theory. Due to the presence of the timelike aether vector field, now the problem in general becomes overdetermined. In particular, for the linearly polarized plane waves, there are five independent vacuum Einstein-aether field equations for three unknown functions. Therefore, solutions exist only for particular choices of the four free parameters $c_{i}$'s of the theory. We find that there exist eight cases, in two of which any form of gravitational plane waves can exist, similar to that in genera…
We show that the Einstein-aether theory of Jacobson and Mattingly (J&M) can be understood in the framework of the metric-affine (gauge theory of) gravity (MAG). We achieve this by relating the aether vector field of J&M to certain post-Riemannian nonmetricity pieces contained in an independent linear connection of spacetime. Then, for the aether, a corresponding geometrical curvature-square Lagrangian with a massive piece can be formulated straightforwardly. We find an exact spherically symmetric solution of our model.
We reconsider spherically symmetric black hole solutions in Einstein-Aether theory with the condition that this theory has identical PPN parameters as those for general relativity, which is the main difference from the previous research. In contrast with previous study, we allow superluminal propagation of a spin-0 Aether-gravity wave mode. As a result, we obtain black holes having a spin-0 "horizon" inside an event horizon. We allow a singularity at a spin-0 "horizon" since it is concealed by the event horizon. If we allow such a configuration, the kinetic term of the Aether field can be larg…
We study gravitational waves emitted by a binary system of non-spinning bodies in a quasi-circular inspiral within the framework of Einstein-aether theory. In particular, we compute explicitly and analytically the expressions for the time-domain and frequency-domain waveforms, gravitational wave polarizations, and response functions for both ground- and space-based detectors in the post-Newtonian approximation. We find that, when going beyond leading-order in the post-Newtonian approximation, the non-Einsteinian polarization modes contain terms that depend on both the first and the second harm…
In Einstein-Aether theory, we study the stability of black holes against odd-parity perturbations on a spherically symmetric and static background. For odd-parity modes, there are two dynamical degrees of freedom arising from the tensor gravitational sector and Aether vector field. We derive general conditions under which neither ghosts nor Laplacian instabilities are present for these dynamical fields. We apply these results to concrete black hole solutions known in the literature and show that some of those solutions can be excluded by the violation of stability conditions. The exact Schwarz…
This paper reviews the theory, phenomenology, and observational constraints on the coupling parameters of Einstein-aether gravity, i.e. General Relativity coupled to a dynamical unit timelike vector field. A discussion of open questions concerning both phenomenology and fundamental issues is included.
We consider an Einstein-aether type Lorentz-violating theory of gravity in which the aether vector field $V_{μ}$ is represented as the gradient of a scalar field $ϕ$, $V_{μ}=\nabla _{μ}ϕ$. A self interacting potential for the scalar aether field is considered, as well as the possibility of a coupling between the hydrodynamic matter flux and the aether field, with the imposition of the timelike nature of the aether vector. The gravitational field equations and the equation of motion of the scalar field are derived by varying the action with respect to the metric and $ϕ$. In the absence of matte…
We propose accurate calculations of quasinormal modes of black holes in the Einstein-aether theory, which were previously considered in the literature, partially, with insufficient accuracy. We also show that the arbitrarily long-lived modes, quasiresonances, are allowed in the Einstein-aether theory as well and demonstrate that the asymptotic tails, unlike quasinormal frequencies, are indistinguishable from those in the Einstein theory.
We investigate spherically symmetric cosmological models in Einstein-aether theory with a tilted (non-comoving) perfect fluid source. We use a 1+3 frame formalism and adopt the comoving aether gauge to derive the evolution equations, which form a well-posed system of first order partial differential equations in two variables. We then introduce normalized variables. The formalism is particularly well-suited for numerical computations and the study of the qualitative properties of the models, which are also solutions of Horava gravity. We study the local stability of the equilibrium points of t…
The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the constant-roll inflationary scenario with anisotropic conditions concerning the Einstein-aether Scalar-tensor cosmology in noncommutative phase space. We first introduce an Einstein-aether scalar-tensor cosmological model. In this structure, one can introduce an aether field with aether coefficients in the action integral of scalar-tensor. It will be a function of the scalar field, which is, in fact, a kind of extender of the Lorentz-violating theories. Hence, we present the point-like Lagrangian, which represents the field equations of th…
We study how the dynamical vector degree of freedom in modified gravity affects the CMB B-mode polarization in terms of the Einstein-aether theory. In this theory, vector perturbations can be generated from inflation, which can grow on superhorizon scales in the subsequent epochs and thereby leaves imprints on the CMB B-mode polarization. We derive the linear perturbation equations in a covariant formalism, and compute the CMB B-mode polarization using the CAMB code modified so as to incorporate the effect of the aether vector field. We find that the amplitude of the B-mode signal from the aet…
We discuss the set of constraints for Einstein-aether theories, comparing the flat background case with what is expected when the gravitational fields are dynamic. We note potential pathologies occurring in the weak gravitational field limit for some of the Einstein-aether theories.
We present, for the first time, the quantization process for the Einstein-aether scalar field cosmology. We consider a cosmological theory proposed as a Lorentz violating inflationary model, where the aether and scalar fields interact through the assumption that the aether action constants are ultra-local functions of the scalar field. For this specific theory there is a valid minisuperspace description which we use to quantize. For a particular relation between the two free functions entering the reduced Lagrangian the solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation as also the generic classical solu…
Aether theory is introduced to implement the violation of the Lorentz invariance in general relativity. For this purpose a unit timelike vector field introduced to theory in addition to the metric tensor. Aether theory contains four free parameters which satisfy some inequalities in order that the theory to be consistent with the observations. We show that the G{\" o}del type of metrics of general relativity are also exact solutions of the Einstein-aether theory. The only field equations are the 3-dimensional Maxwell field equations and the parameters are left free except $c_{1}-c_{3}=1$.
We perform numerical simulations of gravitational collapse in Einstein-aether theory. We find that under certain conditions, the collapse results in the temporary formation of a white hole horizon.
The Noether charge method for defining the Hamiltonian of a diffeomorphism-invariant field theory is applied to "Einstein-aether" theory, in which gravity couples to a dynamical, timelike, unit-norm vector field. Using the method, expressions are obtained for the total energy, momentum, and angular momentum of an Einstein-aether space-time. The method is also used to discuss the mechanics of Einstein-aether black holes. The derivation of Wald, and Iyer and Wald, of the first law of black hole thermodynamics fails for this theory, because the unit vector is necessarily singular at the bifurcati…
We study the impact of modifying the vector sector of gravity on the CMB polarization. We employ the Einstein-aether theory as a concrete example. The Einstein-aether theory admits dynamical vector perturbations generated during inflation, leaving imprints on the CMB polarization. We derive the perturbation equations of the aether vector field in covariant formalism and compute the CMB B-mode polarization using the modified CAMB code. It is found that the amplitude of the B-mode signal from the aether field can surpass the one from the inflationary gravitational waves. The shape of the spectru…
We consider an Einstein-aether scalar field cosmological model where the aether and the scalar field are interacting. The model of our consideration consists the two different interacting models proposed in the literature by Kanno et al. and by Donnelly et al. We perform an extended analysis for the cosmological evolution as it is provided by the field equations by using methods from dynamical systems; specifically, we determine the stationary points and we perform the stability analysis of those exact solutions.
In the present work we analyze all the possible spherically symmetric exterior vacuum solutions allowed by the Einstein-Aether theory with static aether. We show that there are four classes of solutions corresponding to different values of a combination of the free parameters, $c_{14}=c_1+c_4$, which are: $ 0 < c_{14}<2$, $c_{14} < 0$, $c_{14}=2$ and $c_{14}=0$. We present explicit analytical solutions for $c_{14}=3/2, 16/9, 48/25, -16, 2$ and $0$. The first case has some pathological behavior, while the rest have all singularities at $r=0$ and are asymptotically flat spacetimes. For the solut…
We briefly describe the modified Friedmann equations for Einstein-Aether gravity theory and we find the effective density and pressure. The purpose of our present work is to reconstruction of Einstein-Aether Gravity from other modified gravities like $f(T)$, $f(R)$, $f(G)$, $f(R,T)$ and $f(R,G)$ and check its viability. The scale factor is chosen in power law form. The free function $F(K)$ for Einstein-Aether gravity (where $K$ is proportional to $H^{2}$) have been found in terms for $K$ by the correspondence between Einstein-Aether gravity and other modified gravities and the nature of $F(K)$…
It was previously proved that the Gödel-type metrics with flat three-dimensional background metric solve exactly the field equations of the Einstein-Aether theory in four dimensions. We generalize this result by showing that the stationary Gödel-type metrics with nonflat background in $D$ dimensions solve exactly the field equations of the Einstein-Aether theory. The reduced field equations are the $(D-1)$-dimensional Euclidean Ricci-flat and the $(D-1)$-dimensional source-free Maxwell equations, and the parameters of the theory are left free except $c_{1}-c_{3}=1$. We give a method to produce…
We show that Hořava gravity can be obtained from Einstein-aether theory in the limit that the twist coupling constant goes to infinity, while holding fixed the expansion, shear and acceleration couplings. This limit helps to clarify the relation between the two theories, and allows Hořava results to be obtained from Einstein-aether ones. The limit is illustrated with several examples, including rotating black hole equations, PPN parameters, and radiation rates from binary systems.
In the framework of axionic extension of the Einstein-aether theory we establish the model, which describes a stiff regulation of the behavior of axionic dark matter by the dynamic aether. The aether realizes this procedure via the modified Higgs potential, designed for modeling of nonlinear self-interaction of pseudoscalar (axion) field; the modification of this potential is that its minima are not fixed, and their positions and depths depend now on the square of the covariant derivative of the aether velocity four-vector. Exact solutions to the master equations, modified correspondingly, are…
Exact and analytic solutions in Einstein-Aether scalar field theory with Kantowski-Sachs background space are determined. The theory of point symmetries is applied to determine the functional form of the unknown functions which defines the gravitational model. Conservation laws are applied to reduce the order of the field equations and write the analytic solution. Moreover, in order to understand the physical behaviour of the cosmological model a detailed analysis of the asymptotic behaviour for the gravitational field equations is performed.
We study gravitational collapse of a spherically symmetric scalar field in Einstein-aether theory (general relativity coupled to a dynamical unit timelike vector field). The initial value formulation is developed, and numerical simulations are performed. The collapse produces regular, stationary black holes, as long as the aether coupling constants are not too large. For larger couplings a finite area singularity occurs. These results are shown to be consistent with the stationary solutions found previously.
In this paper, we will analyse the cosmological models in Einstein-aether gravity, which is a modified theory of gravity in which a time-like vector field breaks the Lorentz symmetry. We will use this formalism to analyse different cosmological models with different behavior of the scale factor. In this analysis, we will use a certain functional dependence of the dark energy on the Hubble parameter. It will be demonstrated that the aether vector field has a non-trivial effect on these cosmological models. We will also perform the \emph{Om} diagnostic in Einstein-aether gravity. Thus, we will f…
We review the status of "Einstein-Aether theory", a generally covariant theory of gravity coupled to a dynamical, unit timelike vector field that breaks local Lorentz symmetry. Aspects of waves, stars, black holes, and cosmology are discussed, together with theoretical and observational constraints. Open questions are stressed.
We investigate the existence of analytic solutions for the field equations in the Einstein-æther theory for a static spherically symmetric spacetime and provide a detailed dynamical system analysis of the field equations. In particular, we investigate if the gravitational field equations in the Einstein-æther model in the static spherically symmetric spacetime possesses the Painlevè property, so that an analytic explicit integration can be performed. We find that analytic solutions can be presented in terms of Laurent expansion only when the matter source consists of a perfect fluid with linea…
The local Lorentz violation (LV) in gravity sector should show itself in derivation of the characteristic quasinormal modes (QNMs) of black hole mergers from their general relativity case. In this paper, I study QNMs of the gravitational field perturbations to Einstein-aether black holes and, at first compare them to those in Schwarzschild black hole, and then some other known LV gravity theories. By comparing to Schwarzschild black hole, the first kind aether black holes have larger damping rate and the second ones have lower damping rate. And they all have smaller real oscillation frequency …
We compare the initial value formulation of the low-energy limit of (non-projectable) Horava gravity to that of Einstein-aether theory when the aether is assumed to be hypersurface orthogonal at the level of the field equations. This comparison clearly highlights a crucial difference in the causal structure of the two theories at the non-perturbative level: in Horava gravity evolution equations include an elliptic equation that is not a constraint relating initial data but needs to be imposed on each slice of the foliation. This feature is absent in Einstein-aether theory. We discuss its physi…
We study the primordial perturbations generated during a stage of single-field inflation in Einstein-aether theories. Quantum fluctuations of the inflaton and aether fields seed long wavelength adiabatic and isocurvature scalar perturbations, as well as transverse vector perturbations. Geometrically, the isocurvature mode is the potential for the velocity field of the aether with respect to matter. For a certain range of parameters, this mode may lead to a sizable random velocity of the aether within the observable universe. The adiabatic mode corresponds to curvature perturbations of co-movin…
The extended Einstein-Maxwell-aether-axion model describes internal interactions inside the system, which contains gravitational, electromagnetic fields, the dynamic unit vector field describing the velocity of an aether, and the pseudoscalar field associated with the axionic dark matter. The specific feature of this model is that the axion field controls the dynamics of the aether through the guiding functions incorporated into the Jacobson's constitutive tensor. Depending on the state of the axion field these guiding functions can control and switch on or switch off the influence of accelera…
We consider a pp-wave symmetric model in the framework of the Einstein-Maxwell-aether-axion theory. Exact solutions to the equations of axion electrodynamics are obtained for the model, in which pseudoscalar, electric and magnetic fields were constant before the arrival of a gravitational pp-wave. We show that dynamo-optical interactions, i.e. couplings of the electromagnetic field to a dynamic unit vector field, attributed to the velocity of a cosmic substratum (aether, vacuum, dark fluid...), provide the response of axionically active electrodynamic system to display anomalous behavior.
Local Lorentz invariance violation can be realized by introducing extra tensor fields in the action that couple to matter. If the Lorentz violation is rotationally invariant in some frame, then it is characterized by an ``aether'', i.e. a unit timelike vector field. General covariance requires that the aether field be dynamical. In this paper we study the linearized theory of such an aether coupled to gravity and find the speeds and polarizations of all the wave modes in terms of the four constants appearing in the most general action at second order in derivatives. We find that in addition to…
In this paper, we carry out a systematic analysis of the theoretical and observational constraints on the dimensionless coupling constants $c_i$ ($i=1,2,3,4$) of the Einstein-aether theory, taking into account the events GW170817 and GRB 170817A. The combination of these events restricts the deviation of the speed $c_T$ of the spin-2 graviton to the range, $- 3\times 10^{-15} < c_T -1 < 7\times 10^{-16}$, which for the Einstein-aether theory implies $\left|c_{13}\right| \le 10^{-15}$ with $c_{ij} \equiv c_{i} + c_{j}$. The rest of the constraints are divided into two groups: those on the ($c_1…
We study the Einstein-aether theory in Weyl integrable geometry. The scalar field which defines the Weyl affine connection is introduced in the gravitational field equation. We end up with an Einstein-aether scalar field model where the interaction between the scalar field and the aether field has a geometric origin. The scalar field plays a significant role in the evolution of the gravitational field equations. We focus our study on the case of homogeneous and isotropic background spacetimes and study their dynamical evolution for various cosmological models.
We analyze the observational and theoretical constraints on ``Einstein-aether theory", a generally covariant theory of gravity coupled to a dynamical, unit, timelike vector field that breaks local Lorentz symmetry. The results of a computation of the remaining post-Newtonian parameters are reported. These are combined with other results to determine the joint post-Newtonian, vacuum-Cerenkov, nucleosynthesis, stability, and positive-energy constraints. All of these constraints are satisfied by parameters in a large two-dimensional region in the four-dimensional parameter space defining the theo…
We extend the Einstein-aether theory to take into account the interaction between a pseudoscalar field, which describes the axionic dark matter, and a time-like dynamic unit vector field, which characterizes the velocity of the aether motion. The Lagrangian of the Einstein-aether-axion theory includes cross-terms based on the axion field and its gradient four-vector, on the covariant derivative of the aether velocity four-vector, and on the Riemann tensor and its convolutions. We follow the principles of the Effective Field theory, and include into the Lagrangian of interactions all possible t…
We consider a Lorentz violating scalar field cosmological model given by the modified Einstein-aether theory defined in Weyl integrable geometry. The existence of exact and analytic solutions is investigated for the case of a spatially flat Friedmann--Lema\^ıtre--Robertson--Walker background space. We show that the theory admits cosmological solutions of special interests. In addition, we prove that the cosmological field equations admit the Lewis invariant as a second conservation law, which indicates the integrability of the field equations.
We study analytically quantum tunneling of relativistic and non-relativistic particles at both Killing and universal horizons of Einstein-Maxwell-aether black holes, after high-order curvature corrections are taken into account, for which the dispersion relation of the particles becomes nonlinear. Our results at the Killing horizons confirm the previous ones, i.e., at high frequencies the corresponding radiation remains thermal and the nonlinearity of the dispersion does not alter the Hawking radiation significantly. In contrary, non-relativistic particles are created at universal horizons and…
