Working directly with a general Hamiltonian for the spacetime metric with the $3+1$ decomposition and keeping only the spatial covariance, we investigate the possibility of reducing the number of degrees of freedom by introducing an auxiliary constraint. The auxiliary constraint is considered as part of the definition of the theory. Through a general Hamiltonian analysis, we find the conditions for the Hamiltonian as well as for the auxiliary constraint, under which the theory propagates two tensorial degrees of freedom only. The class of theories satisfying these conditions can be viewed as a new construction for the type-II minimally modified gravity theories, which propagate the same degrees of freedom of but are not equivalent to general relativity in the vacuum. We also illustrate our formalism by a concrete example, and derive the dispersion relation for the gravitational waves, which can be constrained by observations.
Static, spherically symmetric solutions representing stars made of barotropic perfect fluid are studied in the context of two theories of type-II minimally modified gravity, VCDM and VCCDM. Both of these theories share the property that no additional degree of freedom is introduced in the gravity sector, and propagate only two gravitational waves besides matter fields, as in General Relativity (GR). We find that, on imposing physical boundary conditions on the Misner-Sharp mass of the system, the solutions in V(C)CDM exactly coincide with the ones in GR, namely they also satisfy the Tolman-Opp…
Minimally modified gravity is a class of models with only the two tensor degrees of freedom as in general relativity. Using the framework with auxiliary constraints these models can maintain a dynamical cosmological background. The form of the constraints is thereby restricted by the requirement of dynamical dark energy and the avoidance of a breakdown of perturbation theory. Studying the linear perturbations around the FLRW background the results are, however, quite insensitive to the details of the constraints leading to a modified effective gravitational constant or a non-vanishing sound sp…
Minimally modified gravity theories are modifications of general relativity with two local gravitational degrees of freedom in four dimensions. Their construction relies on the breaking of 4D diffeomorphism invariance keeping however the symmetry under 3D diffeomorphisms. Here, we construct these theories from a Hamiltonian point of view. We start with the phase space of general relativity in the ADM formalism. Then, we find the conditions that the Hamiltonian must satisfy for the theory to propagate (up to) two gravitational degrees of freedom with the assumptions that the lapse and the shift…
We investigate the Hamiltonian structure of a class of gravitational theories whose actions are linear in the lapse function. We derive the necessary and sufficient condition for a theory in this class to have two or less local physical degrees of freedom. As an application we then find several concrete examples of modified gravity theories in which the total number of local physical degrees of freedom in the gravity sector is two.
In the context of the recently proposed type-II minimally modified gravity theory, i.e. a metric theory of gravity with two local physical degrees of freedom that does not possess an Einstein frame, we study spherically symmetric vacuum solutions to explore the strong gravity regime. Despite the absence of extra degrees of freedom in the gravity sector, the vacuum solutions are locally different from the Schwarzschild or Schwarzschild-(A)dS metric in general and thus the Birkhoff theorem does not hold. The general solutions are parameterized by several free functions of time and admit regular …
We study the phenomenology of a class of minimally modified gravity theories called $f(\mathcal{H})$ theories, in which the usual general relativistic Hamiltonian constraint is replaced by a free function of it. After reviewing the construction of the theory and a consistent matter coupling, we analyze the dynamics of cosmology at the levels of both background and perturbations, and present a concrete example of the theory with a $3$-parameter family of the function $f$. Finally, we compare this example model to Planck data as well as some later-time probes, showing that such a realization of …
If one assumes a particular form of non-minimal coupling, called the conformal coupling, of a perfect fluid with gravity in the fluid-gravity Lagrangian then one gets modified Einstein field equation. In the modified Einstein equation, the effect of the non-minimal coupling does not vanish if one works with spacetimes for which the Ricci scalar vanishes. In the present work we use the Schwarzschild metric in the modified Einstein equation, in presence of non-minimal coupling with a fluid, and find out the energy-density and pressure of the fluid. In the present case the perfect fluid is part o…
The self-consistent matter coupling is found in a broad class of minimally modified gravity theories which was discovered recently. All constraints in the theories remain first class and thus a graviton has only 2 local degrees of freedom. The cosmological solution of one of the examples in this class, the so-called square root gravity, exhibits a singularity freeness at high energy limit. At low energy limit, the theory smoothly connects to GR. A general feature of the theories in this class, with the self-consistent matter coupling discovered in our current work, is the non-trivial interacti…
We propose a modified gravity theory that propagates only two local gravitational degrees of freedom and that does not have an Einstein frame. According to the classification in JCAP 01 (2019) 017 [arXiv:1810.01047 [gr-qc]], this is a type-II minimally modified gravity theory. The theory is characterized by the gravitational constant $G_{\rm N}$ and a function $V(ϕ)$ of a non-dynamical auxiliary field $ϕ$ that plays the role of dark energy. Once one fixes a homogeneous and isotropic cosmological background, the form of $V(ϕ)$ is determined and the theory no longer possesses a free parameter or…
We study cosmology in a class of minimally modified gravity (MMG) with two local gravitational degrees of freedom. We classify modified gravity theories into type-I and type-II: theories of type-I have an Einstein frame and can be recast by change of variables as general relativity (GR) with a non-minimal matter coupling, while theories of type-II have no Einstein frame. Considering a canonical transformation of the lapse, the 3-dimensional induced metric and their conjugate momenta we generate type-I MMG. We then show that phenomenological deviations from GR, such as the speed of gravitationa…
We propose a new cosmological framework in which the strength of the gravitational force acted on dark matter at late time can be weaker than that on the standard matter fields without introducing extra gravitational degrees of freedom. The framework integrates dark matter into a type-II minimally modified gravity that was recently proposed as a dark energy mimicker. The idea that makes such a framework possible consists of coupling a dark matter Lagrangian and a cosmological constant to the metric in a canonically transformed frame of general relativity (GR). On imposing a gauge fixing constr…
In a recent paper [1], it was introduced a new class of gravitational theories with two local degrees of freedom. The existence of these theories apparently challenges the distinctive role of general relativity as the unique non-linear theory of massless spin-2 particles. Here we perform a comprehensive analysis of these theories with the aim of (i) understanding whether or not these are actually equivalent to general relativity, and (ii) finding the root of the variance in case these are not. We have found that a broad set of seemingly different theories actually pass all the possible tests o…
We present the supersymmetric completion of the auxiliary vector modified polynomial $f(R)$ theories in their dual scalar-tensor theory formulation that interpolate between the auxiliary vector modified polynomial $f(R)$ theories and chaotic inflation with the power-law potential $V(ϕ) \propto ϕ^p$. The supersymmetrization is achieved in two steps: First, we introduce a superconformal theory for three chiral multiplets by choosing a conformal Kähler potential and a conformal superpotential. In the second step, we use one of the chiral multiplets to compensate for the superconformal symmetries …
We have investigated inflationary model constructed from minimally modified gravity (MMG) theories. The MMG theory in the form of $f({\bf H}) \propto {\bf H}^{1+p}$ gravity where, ${\bf H}$ is the Hamiltonian constraint in the Einstein gravity and $p$ is constant, has been studied. An inflation is difficult to be achieved in this theory of gravity unless an additional scalar field playing a role of inflaton is introduced in the model. We have found that the inflaton with exponential potential can drive inflation with graceful exist different from the case of Einstein gravity. The slow-roll par…
We study a large family of metric-affine theories with a projective symmetry, including non-minimally coupled matter fields which respect this invariance. The symmetry is straightforwardly realised by imposing that the connection only enters through the symmetric part of the Ricci tensor, even in the matter sector. We leave the connection completely free (including torsion) and obtain its general solution as the Levi-Civita connection of an auxiliary metric, showing that the torsion only appears as a projective mode. This result justifies the widely used condition of setting vanishing torsion …
We study the spherically symmetric collapse of a cloud of dust in VCDM, a class of gravitational theories with two local physical degrees of freedom. We find that the collapse corresponds to a particular foliation of the Oppenheimer-Snyder solution in general relativity (GR) which is endowed with a constant trace for the extrinsic curvature relative to the time $t$ constant foliation. For this solution, we find that the final state of the collapse leads to a static configuration with the lapse function vanishing at a radius inside the apparent horizon. Such a point is reached in an infinite ti…
Minimally modified gravity with Laplacian auxiliary constraints and an inflationary realization
The Institute for Fundamental Study (The Tah Poe Academia Institute), Naresuan University（那莱王大学基础研究所（塔波学术学院））；Center for Gravitational Physics and Quantum Information, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University（京都大学汤川理论物理中心引力物理与量子信息）
Most no-hair theorems involve the assumption that the scalar field is independent of time. Recently in [Phys. Rev. D90 (2014) 041501(R)] the existence of time-dependent scalar hair outside a stationary black hole in general relativity was ruled out. We generalize this work to modified gravities and non-minimally coupled scalar field with an additional assumption that the spacetime is axisymmetric. It is shown that in higher-order gravity such as metric $f(R)$ gravity the time-dependent scalar hair doesn't exist. While in Palatini $f(R)$ gravity and non-minimally coupled case the time-dependent…
It is well known that only the axial piece of the torsion couples minimally to fermions in a Riemann-Cartan geometry, while the other ones decouple. In this paper, we consider the Dirac field minimally coupled to a dynamical background with torsion and compute its contribution to the fermionic one-loop effective action. Such a contribution owns topological nature since it can be linked with topological invariants from Riemann-Cartan spaces, like Nieh-Yan and Chern-Simons terms. Furthermore, we propose a novel modified theory of gravity constructed by adding the aforementioned one-loop contribu…
Teleparallel theory of gravity and its modifications have been studied extensively in literature. However, gravitational waves has not been studied enough in the framework of teleparallelism. In the present study, we discuss gravitational waves in general theories of teleparallel gravity containing the torsion scalar $T$, the boundary term $B$ and a scalar field $ϕ$. The goal is to classify possible new polarizations generalizing results presented in Ref.[15]. We show that, if the boundary term is minimally coupled to the torsion scalar and the scalar field, gravitational waves have the same p…
Joint Constraints on Neutrinos and Dynamical Dark Energy in Minimally Modified Gravity
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul（南里奥格兰德联邦大学）；Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais（国家空间研究所）；Presidency University（总统大学）；Durban University of Technology（德班理工大学）；Liaoning Normal University（辽宁师范大学）
General relativity admits a plethora of exact compact object solutions. The augmentation of Einstein's action with non-minimal coupling terms leads to modified theories with rich structure, which, in turn, provide non-trivial solutions with intriguing phenomenology. Thus, assessing their viability under generic fluctuations is of utmost importance for gravity theories. We consider static and spherically-symmetric solutions of a Horndeski subclass which includes a massless scalar field non-minimally coupled to the Einstein tensor. Such theory possesses second-order field equations and admits an…
We study observational constraints on the modified symmetric teleparallel gravity, the non-metricity $f(Q)$ gravity, which reproduces background expansion of the universe. For this purpose, we use Hubble measurements, Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), 1048 Pantheon supernovae type Ia data sample which integrate SuperNova Legacy Survey (SNLS), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), Hubble Space Telescope (HST) survey, Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS1). We confront our cosmological model against observational samples to set constraints on the parameters using Marko…
In this paper we show that the baryon-to-photon ratio $η$ is in general not conserved before decoupling in non-minimally coupled theories of gravity. We use big-bang nucleosynthesis and cosmic microwave background limits on the baryon-to-photon ratio $η$ to derive new constraints on modified gravity theories with a universal non-minimal coupling between matter and curvature, showing that they rule out a specific class of models previously considered in the literature as a substitute for the dark matter. We also compare these new constraints with the ones obtained from the COBE-FIRAS limits on …
$Λ_{\rm s}$CDM cosmology from a type-II minimally modified gravity
Istanbul Technical University（伊斯坦布尔理工大学）；Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University（京都大学汤川理论物理研究所）；University of Sheffield（谢菲尔德大学）；Plaksha University（普拉克斯哈大学）；Indira Gandhi University（英迪拉甘地大学）；Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul（南里奥格兰德联邦大学）；Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais（国家空间研究院）；Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México（墨西哥国立自治大学）
本文提出$Λ_{\ m s}$VCDM模型，通过平滑AdS到dS转变过程，解决宇宙学张力问题，并探讨不同过渡历史对背景和扰动演化的影响。
In this work, in the framework of dynamical system analysis, we focus on the study of the accelerated expansion of the Universe of $f(Q)$ gravity theory where $Q$ be the non-metricity that describes the gravitational interaction. We consider the linear form of $f(Q)$ gravity i.e. $f(Q)=-α_{1}Q-α_{2}$ where $α_{1}$ and $α_{2}$ are constants. We consider an interaction between dark matter (DM) and dark energy (DE) in $f(Q)$ gravity. To reduce the modified Friedmann equations to an autonomous system of first-order ordinary differential equations, we introduce some dimensionless new variables. The…
We study the quantum evolution of the early universe, its semi-classical analogue together with inflationary regime, in view of a generalized modified theory of gravity. The action is built by supplementing the non-minimally coupled scalar-tensor theory of gravity with scalar curvature squared term and a Gauss-Bonnet-dilatonic coupled term. It is generalized, since all the parameters are treated as arbitrary functions of the scalar field. It is interesting to explore the fact that instead of considering additional flow parameters, an effective potential serves the purpose of finding inflationa…
We study a model of quintessential inflation constructed in $R^2$ modified gravity with a non-minimally coupled scalar field, in the Palatini formalism. Our non-minimal inflaton field is characterised by a simple exponential potential. We find that successful quintessential inflation can be achieved with no fine-tuning on the model parameters. Predictions on the characteristics of dark energy will be tested by observations in the near future, while contrast with existing observations provides insights on the modified gravity background, such as the value of the non-minimal coupling and its run…
In today's scenario, going beyond Einstein's theory of gravity leads us to some more complete and modified gravity theories. One of them is the $f(R,T)$ gravity in which $ R $ is the Ricci scalar, and $ T $ is the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. Using a well-motivated linear $f(R,T)$ gravity model with a single parameter, we studied the strong energy condition (SEC), the weak energy condition (WEC), the null energy condition (NEC), and the dominant energy condition (DEC) under the simplest non-minimal matter geometry coupling with a perfect fluid distribution. The model parameter is const…
In the current framework of Einstein's equations in general relativity (GR), gravity is described by the spacetime curvature. However, there are other descriptions where the origin of gravity can be understood through torsion and non-metricity $Q$. In this work, we discuss a modified theory of gravity namely $f(Q)$ gravity, which considers a non-linear extension of $Q$. In particular, we study the case where it is non-minimally coupled to matter. Motivated by the recent success of Chaplygin gas models in the explanation of dark energy, we assume a pressureless baryonic matter and a generalized…
It is well known that one cannot apply a conformal transformation to $f(T)$ gravity to obtain a minimally coupled scalar field model, and thus no Einstein frame exists for $f(T)$ gravity. Furthermore nonminimally coupled "teleparallel dark energy models" are not conformally equivalent to $f(T)$ gravity. However, it can be shown that $f(T)$ gravity is conformally equivalent to a teleparallel phantom scalar field model with a nonminimal coupling to a boundary term only. In this work, we extend this analysis by considering a recently studied extended class of models, known as $f(T,B)$ gravity, wh…
