We propose a Lagrangian formulation for a varying $G$ Newtonian-like theory inspired by the Brans-Dicke gravity. Rather than imposing an {\it ad hoc} dependence for the gravitational coupling, as previously done in the literature, in our proposal the running of $G$ emerges naturally from the internal dynamical structure of the theory. We explore the features of the resulting gravitational field for static and spherically symmetric mass distributions as well as within the cosmological framework.
We discuss in detail the weak field limit of f(R,G) gravity taking into account analytic functions of the Ricci scalar R and the Gauss-Bonnet invariant G. Specifically, we develop, in metric formalism, the Newtonian, Post Newtonian and Parameterized Post Newtonian limits starting from general f(R, G) Lagrangian. The special cases of f(R) and f(G) gravities are considered. In the case of the Newtonian limit of f(R, G) gravity, a general solution in terms of Green's functions is achieved.
In this paper we show that there is a universal prediction for the Newtonian potential for an infinite derivative, ghost-free, quadratic curvature gravity. We show that in order to make such a theory ghost-free at a perturbative level, the Newtonian potential always falls-off as 1/r in the infrared limit, while at short distances the potential becomes non-singular. We provide examples which can potentially test the scale of gravitational non-locality up to 0.004 eV.
We study the parametrized post-Newtonian (PPN) limit of higher-derivative-torsion Modified Teleparallel Gravity. We start from the covariant formulation of modified Teleparallel Gravity by restoring the spin connection of the theory. Then, we perform the post-Newtonian expansion of the tetrad field around the Minkowski background and find the perturbed field equations. We compute the PPN metric for the higher-order Teleparallel Gravity theories which allows us to show that at the post-Newtonian limit this more general class of theories are fully conservative and indistinguishable from General …
The Newtonian regime of a recent nonlocal extension of general relativity (GR) is investigated. Nonlocality is introduced via a scalar "constitutive" kernel in a special case of the translational gauge theory of gravitation, namely, the teleparallel equivalent of GR. In this theory, the nonlocal aspect of gravity simulates dark matter. A nonlocal and nonlinear generalization of Poisson's equation of Newtonian gravitation is presented. The implications of nonlocality for the gravitational physics in the solar system are briefly studied.
We apply a recent argument of Verlinde to loop quantum gravity, to conclude that Newton's law of gravity emerges in an appropriate limit and setting. This is possible because the relationship between area and entropy is realized in loop quantum gravity when boundaries are imposed on a quantum spacetime.
A second gradient generalization of Newtonian gravity is presented within the framework of gradient field theory. Weak nonlocality is introduced via first and second gradients of the gravitational field strength in the Lagrangian density. Gradient generalizations of the Poisson equation of Newtonian gravitation for the gravitational potential and of the generalized Gauss law for the gravitational field strength are presented. Such a gradient modification of Newtonian gravity provides a straightforward regularization of Newtonian gravity removing the classical Newtonian singularities. Finite gr…
We present a recent result on the parameterized post-Newtonian (PPN) limit of Horndeski's gravity theory and its consistency with solar system observations.
We derive an action whose equations of motion contain the Poisson equation of Newtonian gravity. The construction requires a new notion of Newton--Cartan geometry based on an underlying symmetry algebra that differs from the usual Bargmann algebra. This geometry naturally arises in a covariant $1/c$ expansion of general relativity with $c$ the speed of light. By truncating this expansion at subleading order we obtain the field content and transformation rules of the fields that appear in the action of Newtonian gravity. The equations of motion generalize Newtonian gravity by allowing for the e…
In this paper we present an alternative cosmological extension of the three-dimensional extended Newtonian Chern-Simons gravity by switching on the torsion. The theory is obtained as a non-relativistic limit of an enhancement and $U(1)$-enlargement of the so-called teleparallel algebra and can be seen as the teleparallel analogue of the Newtonian gravity theory. The infinite-dimensional extension of our result is also explored through the Lie algebra expansion method. An infinite-dimensional torsional Galilean gravity model is presented which in the vanishing cosmological constant limit reprod…
In the present work we find novel Newtonian gravity models in three spacetime dimensions. We first present a Maxwellian version of the extended Newtonian gravity, which is obtained as the non-relativistic limit of a particular $U(1)$-enlargement of an enhanced Maxwell Chern-Simons gravity. We show that the extended Newtonian gravity appears as a particular sub-case. Then, the introduction of a cosmological constant to the Maxwellian extended Newtonian theory is also explored. To this purpose, we consider the non-relativistic limit of an enlarged symmetry. An alternative method to obtain our re…
Metric theories of gravity are studied, beginning with a general action that is quadratic in curvature and allows infinite inverse powers of the d'Alembertian operator, resulting in infrared non-local extensions of general relativity. The field equations are derived in full generality and their consistency is checked by verifying the Bianchi identities. The weak-field limit is computed and a straightforward algorithm is presented to infer the post-Newtonian corrections directly from the action. We then apply this to various infrared gravity models including non-local $Rf(R/ \Box)$ cosmology an…
Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) can be obtained by modifying the entropic formulation of gravity, this is achieved by considering the quantum statistical nature of the degrees of freedom on the holographic screen. Through this frame work, we find some constraints on a cosmological extension for MOND, with no additional auxiliary fields. The connections between MOND to conformal gravity and Rindler force gravity are examined. These two alternative gravity theories are subsequently considered as possible cosmological extensions of MOND.
We study the post-Newtonian limit of a generalized dilaton gravity in which gravity is coupled to dilaton and eletromagnetic fields. The field equations are derived using the post-Newtonian scheme, and the approximate solution is presented for a point mass with electric and dilaton charges. The result indicates that the dilaton effect can be detected, in post-Newtonian level, using a charged test particle but not a neutral one. We have also checked that the approximate solution is indeed consistent with the weak field expansion of charged dilaton black hole solution in the harmonic coordinate.
We show how Newtonian gravity emerges on 4-dimensional non-commutative spacetime branes in Yang-Mills matrix models. Large matter clusters such as galaxies are embedded in large-scale harmonic deformations of the space-time brane, which screen gravity for long distances. On shorter scales, the local matter distribution reproduces Newtonian gravity via local deformations of the brane and its metric. The harmonic ``gravity bag'' acts as a halo with effective positive energy density. This leads in particular to a significant enhancement of the orbital velocities around galaxies at large distances…
Verlinde's heuristic argument for the interpretation of the standard Newtonian gravitational force as an entropic force is generalized by the introduction of a minimum temperature (or maximum wave length) for the microscopic degrees of freedom on the holographic screen. With the simplest possible setup, the resulting gravitational acceleration felt by a test mass m from a point mass M at a distance R is found to be of the form of the modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) as suggested by Milgrom. The corresponding MOND-type acceleration constant is proportional to the minimum temperature, which ca…
We compute quantum corrections for the gravitational potential obtained by including a derivative self-coupling in its classical dynamics as a toy model for analysing quantum gravity in the strong field regime. In particular, we focus on quantum corrections to the classical solutions in the vacuum outside localised matter sources.
In this letter, we first investigate the gravity localization and mass spectrum of gravity KK modes on de Sitter and Anti-de Sitter thick branes. Then, the effective Newtonian gravitational potentials for these bent branes are discussed by the two typical examples. The corrections of the Newtonian potential turns out to be $ΔU(r)\sim 1/r^{2}$ at small $r$ for both cases. These corrections are very different from that of the Randall-Sundrum brane model $ΔU(r)\sim 1/r^{3}$.
In this contribution, classes of shear-free cosmological dust models with irrotational fluid flows will be investigated in the context of scalar-tensor theories of gravity. In particular, the integrability conditions describing a consistent evolution of the linearised field equations of quasi-Newtonian universes are presented. We also derive the covariant density and velocity propagation equations of such models and analyse the corresponding solutions to these perturbation equations.
It has been suggested that the Newtonian gravitational force may emerge as an entropic force from a holographic microscopic theory. In this framework, the possibility is reconsidered that Newton's gravitational coupling constant G can be derived from the fundamental constants of the underlying microscopic theory.
We illustrate why a space-time structure as in General Relativity is not in contradiction with a dynamical origin of gravity from a scalar field. Further, we argue that the recently discovered gap-less mode of the singlet Higgs field represents the most natural dynamical agent of Newtonian gravity.
We prove that in the infinite speed-of-light limit (i.e., non-relativistic and subhorizon limits), the relativistic fully nonlinear cosmological perturbation equations in two gauge conditions, the zero-shear gauge and the uniform-expansion gauge, exactly reproduce the Newtonian hydrodynamic perturbation equations in the cosmological background; as a consequence, in the same two gauge conditions, the Newtonian hydrodynamic equations are exactly recovered in the Minkowsky background.
We hereby derive the Newtonian metric potentials for the fourth-derivative gravity including the one-loop logarithm quantum corrections. It is explicitly shown that the behavior of the modified Newtonian potential near the origin is improved respect to the classical one, but this is not enough to remove the curvature singularity in $r=0$. Our result is grounded on a rigorous proof based on numerical and analytic computations.
A class of non-Markoffian nonunitary models for Newtonian gravity is characterized as following from some rather natural hypotheses. One of such models was previously obtained as the Newtonian limit of a classically stable version of higher derivative gravity. They give rise to a mass threshold around $10^{11}$ proton masses for gravity induced localization, to a breaking of linearity and to the possible identification of thermodynamic and von Neumann entropies.
We present a three dimensional non-relativistic model of gravity that is invariant under the central extension of the symmetry group that leaves the recently constructed Newtonian gravity action invariant. We show that the model arises from the contraction of a bi-metric model that is the sum of the Einstein gravity in Lorentzian and the Euclidean signatures. We also present the supersymmetric completion of this action which provides one of the very few examples of an action for non-relativistic supergravity.
There is a conjecture that renormalizable higher-derivative gravity has a finite classical potential at the origin. In this work we show clearly that the scale-invariant gravity (SIG) satisfies the conjecture. This gravity produces the better-behaved $1/k^4$ UV behavior as needed for renormalizability. It turns out that the SIG has the linear classical potential of $V\propto r$ and it is a UV complete theory.
We report here on a line of work that has played a key role in formally establishing and going beyond the state of the art in the effective field theory (EFT) approach and in post-Newtonian (PN) gravity. We also outline here how this comprehensive framework in fact forms the outset of a prospective rich research program, building on the public Feynman and PN technology developed.
We show that any analytic $f(R)$-gravity model, in the metric approach, presents a weak field limit where the standard Newtonian potential is corrected by a Yukawa-like term. This general result has never been pointed out but often derived for some particular theories. This means that only $f(R)=R$ allows to recover the standard Newton potential while this is not the case for other relativistic theories of gravity. Some considerations on the physical consequences of such a general solution are addressed.
The Parametrized Post-Newtonian expansion of gravitational theories with a scalar field coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant is performed and confrontation of such theories with Solar system experiments is discussed.
In this paper, we study static post-Newtonian limits in non-projectable Hořava-Lifshitz gravity with an extra U(1) symmetry. After obtaining all static spherical solutions in the infrared, we apply them to the solar system tests, and obtain the Eddington-Robertson-Schiff parameters in terms of the coupling constants of the theory. These parameters are well consistent with observations for the physically viable coupling constants. In contrast to the projectable case, this consistence is achieved without taking the gauge field and Newtonian prepotential as part of the metric.
Newtonian gravity and special relativity combine to produce a gravitomagnetic precession of an orbiting gyroscope that is one fourth as large as predicted by General Relativity. The geodetic effect is the same in both cases.
In this article we calculate the post-Newtonian limit of a general class of scalar-nonmetricity theories of gravity. The action is assumed to be a free function of the nonmetricity scalar, the kinetic term of the scalar field, two derivative couplings and the scalar field itself. We use the parametrized post-Newtonian formalism to solve the arising field equations for the case of a massless scalar field in order to compare several subclasses of this theory to solar system observations. In particular, we find several classes of theories which are indistinguishable from general relativity on the…
We present in detail an Effective Field Theory (EFT) formulation for the essential case of spinning objects as the components of inspiralling compact binaries. We review its implementation, carried out in a series of works in recent years, which leveled the high post-Newtonian (PN) accuracy in the spinning sector to that, recently attained in the non-spinning sector. We note a public package, "EFTofPNG", that we recently created for high precision computation in the EFT of PN Gravity, which covers all sectors, and includes an observables pipeline.
We present an elementary derivation of the planetary advance of the perihelion for a general spherically symmetric line element in the post- newtonian approximation.
In this article we derive the post-Newtonian limit of a class of teleparallel theories of gravity, where the action is a free function $L(T,X,Y,ϕ)$ of the Torsion scalar $T$ and scalar quantities $X$ and $Y$ built from the dynamical scalar field $ϕ$. We restrict the analysis to a massless scalar field in order to use the parameterized post-Newtonian formalism without modifications, such as introducing an effective gravitational constant which depends on the distance between the interacting masses. In particular the results show a class of fully-conservative theories of gravity, where the only …
It turns out that the infinite derivative gravity (IDG) is ghost-free and renormalizable when one chooses the exponential of an entire function. For this IDG case, the corresponding Newtonian potential generated from the delta function is non-singular at the origin. However, we will explicitly show that the source generating this non-singular potential is given not by the delta-function due to the point-like source of mass, but by the Gaussian mass distribution. This explains clearly why the IDG with the exponential of an entire function yields the finite potential at the origin.
Newtonian limit of Extended Theories of Gravity (in particular, higher--order and scalar--tensor theories) is theoretically discussed taking into account recent observational and experimental results.
It is shown that, contrary to previous claims, a scalar tensor theory of Brans-Dicke type provides a relativistic generalization of Newtonian gravity in 2+1 dimensions. The theory is metric and test particles follow the space-time geodesics. The static isotropic solution is studied in vacuum and in regions filled with an incompressible perfect fluid. It is shown that the solutions can be consistently matched at the matter vacuum interface, and that the Newtonian behavior is recovered in the weak field regime.
In this comment we point out some problems with the approach used in the paper "Newtonian limit of String-Dilaton Gravity" in the attempt to explain the properties of a weak field approximation for gravity theories.
We consider a recently proposed class of extended teleparallel theories of gravity, which entail a scalar field which is non-minimally coupled to the torsion of a flat, metric-compatible connection. This class of scalar-torsion theories of gravity is constructed in analogy to and as a direct extension of the well-studied class of scalar-curvature gravity theories, and has various common features, such as the conformal frame freedom. For this class we determine the parametrized post-Newtonian limit, both for a massive and a massless scalar field. In the massive case, we determine the effective …
We present the new interpretation of scalar field for the Brans-Dicke theory. This interpretation is obtained by considering a fixed spacetime structure of manifold.
We present a new approximation to include fully general relativistic pressure and velocity in Newtonian hydrodynamics. The energy conservation, momentum conservation and two Poisson's equations are consistently derived from Einstein's gravity in the zero-shear gauge assuming weak gravity and action-at-a-distance limit. The equations show proper special relativity limit in the absence of gravity. Our approximation is complementary to the post-Newtonian approximation and the equations are valid in fully nonlinear situations.
We compute the parametrized post-Newtonian parameter $γ$ in the case of a static point source for multiscalar-tensor gravity with completely general nonderivative couplings and potential in the Jordan frame. Similarly to the single massive field case $γ$ depends exponentially on the distance from the source and is determined by the length of a vector of non-minimal coupling in the space of scalar fields and its orientation relative to the mass eigenvectors. Using data from the Cassini tracking experiment, we estimate bounds on a general theory with two scalar fields. Our formalism can be utili…
Numerical N-body simulations of large scale structure formation in the universe are based on Newtonian gravity. However, according to our current understanding, the most correct theory of gravity is general relativity. It is therefore important to understand which degrees of freedom and which features are lost when the relativistic universe is approximated, or rather replaced, by a Newtonian one. This is the main purpose of our investigation. We first define Newtonian cosmology and we give an overview on general relativity, both in its standard and covariant formulations. We show how the two t…
It was proposed that if a higher-derivative gravity is renormalizable, it implies necessarily a finite Newtonian potential at the origin, but the reverse of this statement is not true. Here we show that the reverse is true when taking into account the vDVZ discontinuity which states that the theory obtained from massive one by taking zero mass limit is not equivalent to the theory obtained in the zero mass case. The surviving degree of freedom in the zero mass limit is an extra scalar which does not affect the light bending angle, but affects the Newtonian potential. This asserts that in order…
Bootstrapped Newtonian gravity is a non-linear version of Newton's law which can be lifted to a fully geometric theory of gravity starting from a modified potential. Here, we study geodesics in the bootstrapped Newtonian effective metric in vacuum and obtain bounds on a free parameter from Solar System data and S-star orbits near our Galaxy centre. These bounds make vacuum bootstrapped Newtonian gravity experimentally indistinguishable from General Relativity.
We describe a wide class of inhomogeneous relativistic solutions that are well approximated on cosmological scales by solutions of Newtonian gravity. Error estimates measuring the difference between the Newtonian and relativistic solutions are given. The solutions presented here unambiguously demonstrate that it is possible for Newtonian gravity to provide a good approximation to General Relativity on cosmological scales.
We show how Newtonian gravity with effective (actually observed) masses, obeying the mass-energy relation of special relativity, can explain all observations used to test General relativity. Dynamics of a gravitationally coupled binary system is considered in detail, and the effective masses of constituents are determined. Interpreting our results in terms of motion in a curved space-time background, we are led, using the Lagrangian formalism, to consider the exponential metric as a natural space-time metric of Newtonian gravity.
We compare the Vinti integral of the classic celestial mechanics with a conserved Carter-like integral of motion for an axially-symmetric body in the Newtonian theory that has been recently found by Clifford Will. We demonstrate that the integrals are identical. It sheds new light on the Newtonian limit of the Kerr geometry.
We consider the Newtonian limit of modified theories of gravity that include inverse powers of the curvature in the action in order to explain the cosmic acceleration. It has been shown that the simplest models of this kind are in conflict with observations at the solar system level. In this letter we point out that when one adds to the action inverse powers of curvature invariants that do not vanish for the Schwarzschild geometry one generically recovers an acceptable Newtonian limit at small distances. Gravity is however modified at large distances. We compute the first correction to the New…
We consider the newly proposed Bahamonde-Dialektopoulos-Levi Said (BDLS) theory, that is the Horndeski analog in the teleparallel framework and thus contains a non-minimally coupled scalar field, including higher order derivatives, that leads however to second order field equations both for the tetrad and the scalar field. This theory was mostly constructed to revive those models that were severely constrained in the scalar-tensor version of the theory from the GW170817, but includes also much richer phenomenology because of the nature of the torsion tensor. For this theory we determine the pa…
We investigate the integrability conditions of a class of shear-free perfect-fluid cosmological models within the framework of anisotropic fluid sources, applying our results to f(R) dark energy models. Generalising earlier general relativistic results for time-like geodesics, we extend the potential and acceleration terms of the quasi-Newtonian formulation of integrable dust cosmological models about a linearized Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker background and derive the equations that describe their dynamical evolutions. We show that in general, models with an anisotropic fluid source are…
We consider the post-Newtonian limit of a general class of bimetric theories of gravity, in which both metrics are dynamical. The established parameterised post-Newtonian approach is followed as closely as possible, although new potentials are found that do not exist within the standard frame-work. It is found that these theories can evade solar system tests of post-Newtonian gravity remarkably well. We show that perturbations about Minkowski space in these theories contain both massless and massive degrees of freedom, and that in general there are two different types of massive mode, each wit…
Nonlocal terms in the Einstein Hilbert(EH) action appears as IR corrections in effective theory of quantum gravity. Here we have considered such an action keeping the terms which are quadratic in Ricci Scalar. We obtain the solution for a spherical symmetric. We conduct an analysis for linearised gravity action and find the Newtonian potentials of linearized gravity action and count the degrees of freedom. Finally we reproduce the results for few known examples found in literature.
Recently, a strong debate has been pursued about the Newtonian limit (i.e. small velocity and weak field) of fourth order gravity models. According to some authors, the Newtonian limit of $f(R)$-gravity is equivalent to the one of Brans-Dicke gravity with $ω_{BD} = 0$, so that the PPN parameters of these models turn out to be ill defined. In this paper, we carefully discuss this point considering that fourth order gravity models are dynamically equivalent to the O'Hanlon Lagrangian. This is a special case of scalar-tensor gravity characterized only by self-interaction potential and that, in th…
We discuss the parameterized post-Newtonian (PPN) limit of Horndeski's theory of gravity, also known under the name generalized G-inflation or $\text{G}^2$-inflation, which is the most general scalar-tensor theory of gravity with at most second order field equations in four dimensions. We derive conditions on the action for the validity of the post-Newtonian limit. For the most general class of theories consistent with these conditions we calculate the PPN parameters $γ(r)$ and $β(r)$, which in general depend on the interaction distance $r$ between the gravitating mass and the test mass. For a…
We consider the Newtonian limit of the theory based on the Lagrangian L = R + \sum a_k R \Box^k R. The gravitational potential of a point mass turns out to be a combination of Newtonian and Yukawa terms. For sixth-order gravity the coefficients are calculated explicitly. For the general case one gets as a result: The the potential is always unbounded near the origin.
We study the weak-field limit of string-dilaton gravity and derive corrections to the Newtonian potential which strength directly depends on the self interaction potential and the nonminimal coupling of the dilaton scalar field. We discuss also possible astrophysical applications of the results, in particular the flat rotation curves of spiral galaxies.
