The present work investigates some exact solutions of the gravitational wave equation in some widely used cosmological spacetimes. The examples are taken from spatially flat and closed isotropic models as well as Kasner metric which is anisotropic. Various matter distributions are considered, from the standard dust or radiation distribution to exotic matters like that with an equation of state $P = - \frac{1}{3} ρ$. In almost all cases the frequency and amplitude of the wave are found to be decaying with evolution, except for a closed radiation universe where there is a resurgence of the waveform, consistent with the recollapse of the universe into the big crunch singularity.
We show that solitonic cosmological gravitational waves propagated through the Friedmann universe and generated by the inhomogeneities of the gravitational field near the Big Bang can be responsible for increase of cosmological distances.
The propagation of high-frequency gravitational waves can be analyzed using the geometrical optics approximation. In the case of large but finite frequencies, the geometrical optics approximation is no longer accurate, and polarization-dependent corrections at first order in wavelength modify the propagation of gravitational waves via a spin-orbit coupling mechanism. We present a covariant derivation from first principles of effective ray equations describing the propagation of polarized gravitational waves, up to first-order terms in wavelength, on arbitrary spacetime backgrounds. The effecti…
We study the propagation of a gravitational wave in an Ads spacetime. We find that, in presence of the cosmological constant, the graviton mass cannot be measured with higher precision than the square root of the cosmological constant.
We consider the evolution of a flat Friedmann-Roberstson-Walker Universe in a higher derivative theories, including $αR^{2}$ terms to the Einstein-Hilbert action in the presence of a variable gravitational and cosmological constants. We study here the evolution of the gravitational and cosmological constants in the presence of radiation and matter domination era of the universe. We present here new cosmological solutions which are physically interesting for model building.
We consider the propagation of gravitational waves generated by slow motion sources in Coulomb type potential due to the mass of the source. Then, the formula for gravitational waveform including tail is obtained in a straightforward manner by using the spherical Coulomb function. We discuss its relation with the formula in the previous work.
The paper gives an introduction to the gravitational radiation theory of isolated sources and to the propagation properties of light rays in radiative gravitational fields. It presents a theoretical study of the generation, propagation, back-reaction, and detection of gravitational waves from astrophysical sources. After reviewing the various quadrupole-moment laws for gravitational radiation in the Newtonian approximation, we show how to incorporate post-Newtonian corrections into the source multipole moments, the radiative multipole moments at infinity, and the back-reaction potentials. We f…
The optical medium analogy of a given spacetime was developed decades ago and has since then been widely applied to different gravitational contexts. Here we consider the case of a colliding gravitational wave spacetime, generalizing previous results concerning single gravitational pulses. Given the complexity of the nonlinear interaction of two gravitational waves in the framework of general relativity, typically leading to the formation of either horizons or singularities, the optical medium analogy proves helpful to simply capture some interesting effects of photon propagation.
We study the quantum propagation of particles in cosmological backgrounds, by considering a doublet of massive scalar fields propagating in an expanding universe, possibly filled with radiation. We focus on the dissipative effects related to the expansion rate. At first order, we recover the expected result that the decay rate is determined by the local temperature. Beyond linear order, the decay rate has an additional contribution governed by the expansion parameter. This latter contribution is present even for stable particles in the vacuum. Finally, we analyze the long time behaviour of the…
Any modification on gravity would affect not only gravitational wave (GW) generation but also GW propagation. Therefore, tests of general relativity (GR) with only GW generation or GW propagation will lead to an overestimate for deviations. Here we try to use one set of parameters to parameterize the modifications on both GW generation and GW propagation and then test GR with GW150914. In our simplest case, we find that graviton mass $μ<6.3\times10^{-23}{\rm eV/c^2}$ at $90\%$ C.L. and there are no deviations from GR at $90\%$ C.L..
Extremely high precision of near-future radio/optical interferometric observatories like SKA, Gaia, SIM and the unparalleled sensitivity of LIGO/LISA gravitational-wave detectors demands more deep theoretical treatment of relativistic effects in the propagation of electromagnetic signals through variable gravitational fields of the solar system, oscillating and precessing neutron stars, coalescing binary systems, exploding supernova, and colliding galaxies. Especially important for future gravitational-wave observatories is the problem of propagation of light rays in the field of multipolar gr…
We study the fate of gravitational collapse in presence of a cosmological constant. The junctions conditions between static and non-static space-times are deduced. Three apparent horizon are formed, but only two have physical significance, one of them being the black hole horizon and the other the cosmological horizon. The cosmological constant term slows down the collapse of matter, limiting also the size of the black hole.
The cosmological background of gravitational waves can be tuned by the higher-order corrections to the gravitational Lagrangian. In particular, it can be shown that assuming $R^{1+ε}$, where $ε$ indicates a generic (eventually small) correction to the Hilbert-Einstein action in the Ricci scalar $R$, gives a parametric approach to control the evolution and the production mechanism of gravitational waves in the early Universe.
Exact electromagnetic wave solutions to Maxwell equations on anisotropic Bianchi I cosmological spacetime backgrounds are studied. The waves evolving on Bianchi I spacetimes exhibit birefringence (associated to linear polarization) and dispersion. The particular case of a vacuum--dominated anisotropic Universe, which reproduces a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe (for late times) while for earlier times it matches a Kasner Universe, is studied. The electromagnetic waves do not, in general, follow null geodesics. This produces a modification of the cosmological redshift, which is now dependen…
We analyze propagation equations for the polar modes of gravitational waves in cosmological space-times. We prove that polar gravitational waves must perturb the density and non-azimuthal components of the velocity of material medium of the Friedman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker spacetimes. Axial gravitational waves can influence only the azimuthal velocity, leading to local cosmological rotation. The whole gravitational dynamics reduces to the single "master equation" that has the same form for polar and axial modes. That allows us to conclude that the status of the Huygens principle is the same …
Gravitational waves are inevitably produced by second order terms in cosmological perturbation theory. Most notably, the so-called induced gravitational waves are a window to the small scales part of the primordial spectrum of fluctuations and a key counterpart to the primordial black hole scenario. However, semi-analytical solutions are only known for matter and radiation domination eras. In this paper, we present new analytic integral formulas for the induced gravitational waves on subhorizon scales in a general cosmological background with a constant equation of state. We also discuss appli…
Efforts are underway to improve the design and sensitivity of gravitational waves detectors, with the hope that the next generation of these detectors will observe a gravitational wave signal. Such a signal will not only provide information on dynamics in the strong gravity regime that characterizes potential sources of gravitational waves, but will also serve as a decisive test for alternative theories of gravitation that are consistent with all other current experimental observations. We study the linearized theory of the tensor-vector-scalar theory of gravity (TeVeS) with generalized vector…
We examine the recent statement by A. Dolgov and I. Novikov that superluminal propagation of light, which is induced by the quantum corrections to the photon propagation in gravitational field, permits non-causal signal propagation. For this purpose we examine the possibility of the existence of non-causal signals in the model case, when characteristic cone of the signal is outside the usual light cone in Minkowski space-time, as it take place in the case of the photon propagation in gravitation field with quantum corrections taking into account. In such model the signal propagates along invar…
We discuss whether an appropriately defined dimensionless scalar function might be an acceptable candidate for the gravitational entropy, by explicitly considering Szekeres and Bianchi type VI$_{h}$ models that admit an isotropic singularity. We also briefly discuss other possible gravitational entropy functions, including an appropriate measure of the velocity dependent Bel-Robinson tensor.
The 2+1-dimensional geodesic circularly symmetric solutions of Einstein-massless-scalar field equations with negative cosmological constant are found and their local and global properties are studied. It is found that one of them represents gravitational collapse where black holes are always formed.
In the middle of last century, Bondi and his coworkers proposed an out going boundary condition for the Einstein equations. Based on such boundary condition the authors theoretically solved the puzzle of the existence problem of gravitational wave. Currently many works on gravitational wave source modeling use Bondi's result to do the analysis including the gravitational wave calculation in numerical relativity. Recently more and more observations imply that the Einstein equations should be modified with an nonzero cosmological constant. In this work we use Bondi's original method to treat the…
An exact solution for the expansion of a flat universe with dark energy evolving according to a simple model is explored. The equation for weak primordial gravitational waves propagating in this universe is solved and explored; gravitational waves in a flat cosmology possessing both a "big bang" singularity and a "big rip" singularity can be described with confluent Heun functions. We develop approximation methods for confluent Heun equations in regimes of interest to gravitational wave astronomers and predict the diminution in gravitational wave amplitude in a universe with both a Big Bang an…
Consideration of vacuum polarization in quantum electrodynamics may affect the momentum dispersion relation for photons for a non-trivial background, due to appearance of curvature dependent terms in the effective action. We investigate the effect of a positive cosmological constant $Λ$ on this at one loop order for stationary $Λ$-vacuum spacetimes. To the best of our knowledge, so far it has been shown that $Λ$ affects the propagation in a time dependent black hole spacetime. Here we consider the static de Sitter cosmic string and the Kerr-de Sitter spacetime to show that there can be some no…
We investigate Isaacson's high-frequency gravitational waves which propagate in some relevant cosmological models, in particular the FRW spacetimes. Their time evolution in Fourier space is explicitly obtained for various metric forms of (anti--)de Sitter universe. Behaviour of high-frequency waves in the anisotropic Kasner spacetime is also described.
Using the Bondi-Sachs formalism, the problem of a gravitational wave source surrounded by a spherical dust shell is considered. Using linearized perturbation theory, the geometry is found in the regions: in the shell, exterior to the shell, and interior to the shell. It is found that the dust shell causes the gravitational wave to be modified both in magnitude and phase, but without any energy being transferred to or from the dust.
An analytical solution for the light trajectory in the near-zone of the gravitational field of one pointlike body in arbitrary slow-motion in the post-post-Newtonian approximation is presented in harmonic gauge. Expressions for total light deflection and time delay are given. The presented solution is a further step toward high-precision astrometry aiming at nano-arcsecond level of accuracy.
In this paper, we calculate the one-loop quantum cosmological corrections to the kink energy in the closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe in which the fluctuation potential $V^{\prime\prime}$ has a shape invariance property. We use the generalized zeta function regularization method to implement our setup for describing quantum kink-like states. It is conjectured that the corrections lead to the renormalized gravitational constant.
This paper investigates the propagation of polar gravitational waves in the spatially flat FRW universe consisting of a perfect fluid in the scenario of $R+2λT$ model of $f(R,T)$ gravity ($λ$ being the model parameter). The spatially flat universe model is perturbed via Regge-Wheeler perturbations inducing polar gravitational waves and the field equations are formulated for both unperturbed as well as perturbed spacetimes. We solve these field equations simultaneously for the perturbation parameters introduced in the metric, matter, and velocity in the radiation, as well as dark energy, domina…
Self-consistent system of nonlinear spinor field and Bianchi I (BI) gravitational one with time dependent gravitational constant ($G$) and cosmological constant ($Λ$) has been studied. The initial and the asymptotic behaviors of the field functions and the metric one have been thoroughly investigated. Given $Λ= Λ_0/τ^2$, with $τ= \sqrt{-g}$, $G$ has been estimated as a function of $τ$. The role of perfect fluid at the initial state of expansion and asymptotical isotropization process of the initailly anisotropic universe has been elucidated.
The solution of the null non-radial geodesic in a Schwarzschild-de Sitter background is revisited. The gravitational bending of a light ray is affected by the cosmological constant, in agreement with the findings of some previous investigations. The present study confirms that the leading correction term depends directly not only on the cosmological constant but also on the impact parameter and on the angular distance to the source. Using the resulting lens equation, the projected mass of the lens was estimated for several systems displaying Einstein rings. Corrections on masses due to the cos…
We present a set of equations describing the cosmological gravitational wave in a gravity theory with quadratic order gravitational coupling terms which naturally arise in quantum correction procedures. It is known that the gravitational wave equation in the gravity theories with a general $f(R)$ term in the action leads to a second order differential equation with the only correction factor appearing in the damping term. The case for a $R^{ab} R_{ab}$ term is completely different. The gravitational wave is described by a fourth order differential equation both in time and space. However, curi…
We consider the evolution of a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe, filled with a causal bulk viscous cosmological fluid, in the presence of variable gravitational and cosmological constants. The basic equation for the Hubble parameter, generalizing the evolution equation in the case of constant gravitational coupling and cosmological term, is derived, under the supplementary assumption that the total energy of the Universe is conserved. By assuming that the cosmological constant is proportional to the square of the Hubble parameter and a power law dependence of the bulk viscosity coeffic…
In the framework of 10-dimensional "Friedmann-Calabi-Yau" cosmology of superstring origin we show that the time variation of either Newton's gravitational constant or Yang-Mills one is unavoidable in the present epoch.
We discuss the propagation of gravitational waves in a recently discussed class of theories containing N >= 2 metric tensors and a corresponding number of standard model copies. Using the formalism of gauge-invariant linear perturbation theory we show that all gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light. We then employ the Newman-Penrose formalism to show that two to six polarizations of gravitational waves may exist, depending on the parameters entering the equations of motion. This corresponds to E(2) representations N_2, N_3, III_5 and II_6. We finally apply our general discussion t…
We study cosmological gravitational waves generated during inflation under the influence of a decaying cosmological "constant", in the Transverse-Traceless (TT) gauge. In our approach we consider a non-perturbative contribution of the dynamical cosmological "constant" to the tensor modes. As an application of the model we study the well-known cases $Λ(t)=σH^2$ and $Λ(t) =\vartheta H$. The spectrum of gravitational waves for the first case results scale invariant at the end of inflation, whereas for the second case scale invariance is not achieved, leaving this to new proposals of the form: $Λ(…
We present a spectral algorithm for solving the full nonlinear vacuum Einstein field equations in the Bondi framework. Developed within the Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC), we demonstrate spectral characteristic evolution as a technical precursor to Cauchy Characteristic Extraction (CCE), a rigorous method for obtaining gauge-invariant gravitational waveforms from existing and future astrophysical simulations. We demonstrate the new algorithm's stability, convergence, and agreement with existing evolution methods. We explain how an innovative spectral approach enables a two orders of magnitude i…
Disturbing of a spacetime geometry may result in the appearance of an oscillating and damped radiation - the so-called quasinormal modes. Their periods of oscillations and damping coefficients carry unique information about the mass and the angular momentum, that would allow one to identify the source of the gravitational field. In this talk we present recent bounds on the diffused energy, applicable to the Schwarzschild spacetime, that give also rough estimates of the energy of excited quasinormal modes.
The gravitational lensing of gravitational waves might cause beat patterns detectable by interferometers. The feature of this kind of signal is the existence of the beat pattern in the early inspiral phase, followed by a seemingly randomly changing profile. After the strain peaks for the first time, the signal takes the usual waveform and the strain peaks for the second time. Once this signal is detected, the actual magnification factors can be obtained, so the true luminosity distance of the binary system is known. If the lens can be described by a point mass or a singular isothermal sphere, …
In this paper we have investigated an LRS Bianchi I anisotropic cosmological model of the universe by taking time varying $G$ and $Λ$ in the presence of bulk viscous fluid source described by full causal non-equilibrium thermodynamics. We obtain a cosmological constant as a decreasing function of time and for $m, n > 0$, the value of cosmological ``constant'' for this model is found to be small and positive which is supported by the results from recent supernovae observations.
We deal with a dynamical mechanism in which a large cosmological constant, as suggested by inflationary scenarios, decays due to expansion of the universe. This mechanism has its origin in the gravitational coupling of the vacuum density. We assume that the vacuum couples anomalously to gravity that is the metric tensor that appears the gravitational part is not the same as that appears the matter part as suggested by weak equivalence principle. Instead, the two metric tensors are taken to be conformally related. We show that this provides a dynamical mechanism which works during expansion of …
In testing gravity a model-independent way, one of crucial tests is measuring the propagation speed of a gravitational wave (GW). In general relativity, a GW propagates with the speed of light, while in the alternative theories of gravity the propagation speed could deviate from the speed of light due to the modification of gravity or spacetime structure at a quantum level. Previously we proposed the method measuring the GW speed by directly comparing the arrival times between a GW and a photon from the binary merger of neutron stars or neutron star and black hole, assuming that it is associat…
We show that the stochastic background of gravitational waves, produced in the early cosmological epochs, strictly depends on the assumed theory of gravity. In particular, the specific form of the function f(R), where R is the Ricci scalar, is related to the evolution and the production mechanism of gravitational waves. Using a neural network algorithm which only requires non-Gaussian nature and independence of the input signals we conclude that, in order to detect a CSB signal, the interferometric sensitivity of detector like VIRGO will be improved.
In this paper, we show the equivalence between a classical static scalar field theory and the (closed) de Sitter cosmological model whose potential represents shape invariance property. Based on this equivalence, we calculate the one-loop quantum cosmological correction to the ground state energy of the kink-like solution in the (closed) de Sitter cosmological model in which the fluctuation potential $V^{\prime\prime}$ has a shape invariance property. It is shown that this type of correction, which yields a renormalized mass in the case of scalar field theory, may be {\it interpreted} as a ren…
A technique is given to derive the well known Bell-Szekeres solution of the Einstein-Maxwell vacuum field equations describing the space-time and the Maxwell field following the head-on collision of two homogeneous, plane, electromagnetic shock waves. The analogue of this technique is then utilized to construct the space-time model of the gravitational field following the head-on collision of two homogeneous, plane, gravitational shock waves. The latter collision, which is followed by a pair of impulsive gravitational waves and a pair of light like shells traveling away from each other, provid…
We analyze the propagation of gravitational waves (GWs) in an asymptotically de-Sitter space by expanding the perturbation around Minkowski and introducing the effects of the Cosmological Constant ($Λ$), first as an additional source (de-Donder gauge) and after as a gauge effect ($Λ$-gauge). In both cases the inclusion of the Cosmological Constant $Λ$ impedes the detection of a gravitational wave at a distance larger than $L_{crit}=(6\sqrt{2}πf \hat{h}/\sqrt{5})r_Λ^2$, where $r_Λ=\frac{1}{\sqrtΛ}$ and f and $\hat{h}$ are the frequency and strain of the wave respectively. We demonstrate that $L…
The direct detection of gravitational waves by ground-based interferometers opened an unprecedented channel to probe alternative theories of gravitation. Several theories predict a dispersion of the gravitational waves during their propagation, distorting the signals observed by LIGO and Virgo compared to their predictions from general relativity. Such dispersion could induce a modification of the luminosity distance inferred with gravitational radiation with regards to electromagnetic radiation. By analysing two multimessenger events, we set constraints on a large class of proposed theories, …
We present a space--time model of the collision of two homogeneous, plane impulsive gravitational waves (each having a delta function profile) propagating in a vacuum before collision and for which the post collision space--time has constant curvature. The profiles of the incoming waves are $k\,δ(u)$ and $l\,δ(v)$ where $k, l$ are real constants and $u=0, v=0$ are intersecting null hypersurfaces. The cosmological constant $Λ$ in the post collision region of the space--time is given by $Λ=-6\,k\,l$.
The stability of the cosmological event horizons (CEHs) of a class of non-static global cosmic strings is studied against perturbations of gravitational waves and massless scalar field. It is found that the perturbations of gravitational waves always turn the CEHs into non-scalar weak spacetime curvature singularities, while the ones of massless scalar field turn the CEHs either into non-scalar weak singularities or into scalar ones depending on the particular cases considered. The perturbations of test massless scalar field is also studied, and it is found that they do not always give the cor…
In the study of covariant wave equations, linear gravity manifests itself through the metric deviation $γ_{μν}$ and a two-point vector potential $K_λ$ itself constructed from $γ_{μν}$ and its derivatives. The simultaneous presence of the two gravitational potentials is non contradictory. Particles also assume the character of quasiparticles and $K_λ$ carries information about the matter with which it interacts. We consider the influence of $K_λ$ on the dispersion relations of the particles involved, the particles' motion, quantum tunneling through a horizon, radiation, energy-momentum dissipat…
We show how to derive the equations of light propagation in the gravitational field of uniformly moving mass monopoles without formulating and integrating the differential equations of light propagation in that field. The well-known equations of light propagation in the gravitational field of a motionless mass monopole are combined with a suitable Lorentz transformation. The possibility to generalize this technique for the more complicated case of uniformly moving body of arbitrary multipole structure is discussed.
The propagation of gravitational waves is explored in the cosmological context. It is explicitly demonstrated that the propagation of gravitational waves could be influenced by the medium. It is shown that in the thermal radiation, the propagation of gravitational waves in general relativity is different from that in the scalar-tensor theory. The propagation of gravitational waves is investigated in the uniform magnetic field. As a result, it is found that cosmic magnetic fields could influence on the propagation of gravitational waves to non-negligible extent. The corresponding estimation for…
The propagation of gravitational waves on the background of a nonperturbative vacuum of a spinor field is considered. It is shown that there are several distinctive features in comparison with the propagation of plane gravitational waves through empty space: there exists the fixed phase difference between the $h_{yy,zz}$ and $h_{yz}$ components of the wave; the phase and group velocities of gravitational waves are not equal to the velocity of light; the group velocity is always less than the velocity of light; under some conditions the gravitational waves are either damped or absent; for given…
The extremely high precision of current astronomical observations demands a much better theoretical treatment of relativistic effects in the propagation of electromagnetic signals through variable gravitational fields of isolated astronomical systems emitting gravitational waves. This paper presents a consistent approach giving a complete and exhaustive solution of this problem in the first post-Minkowskian approximation of general relativity.
We investigate the propagation of the gravitational waves in a cosmological background. Based on the framework of spatially covariant gravity, we derive the general quadratic action for the gravitational waves. The spatial derivatives of the extrinsic curvature and the parity-violating terms are systematically introduced. Special attention is paid to the propagation speed of the gravitational waves. We find that it is possible to make the two polarization modes propagate in the same speed, which may differ from that of the light, in the presence of parity-violating terms in the action. In part…
In this paper we shall investigate the propagation of gravitational waves in a flat Friedman-Robertson-Walker background, in the context of a string motivated corrected Einstein gravity. Particularly, we shall consider a misalignment axion Einstein gravity in the presence of a string originating Chern-Simons coupling of the axion field to the Chern-Pontryagin density in four dimensions. We shall focus our study on the propagation of the gravitational waves, and we shall investigate whether there exists any difference in the propagation of the polarization states of the gravitational waves. As …
