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We look for possible evidence of a non-minimal coupling (NMC) between dark matter (DM) and gravity using data from the X-COP compilation of galaxy clusters. We consider a theoretically motivated NMC that may dynamically arise from the collective behavior of the coarse-grained DM field (e.g., via Bose-Einstein condensation) with averaging/coherence length $\L_{\mathrm{nmc}}$. In the Newtonian limit, the NMC modifies the Poisson equation by a term $\L_{\mathrm{nmc}}^2 \nabla^2 \rho$ proportional to the Laplacian of the DM density itself. We show that this term when acting as a perturbation over the standard Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile of cold DM particles, can yield DM halo density profiles capable of correctly fitting galaxy clusters' pressure profiles with an accuracy comparable and in some cases even better than the standard cold DM NFW profile. We also show that the observed relation between the non-minimal coupling length scale and the virial mass found in Gandolfi et al., 2022 for Late Type Galaxies is consistent with the relation we find in the current work, suggesting that the previously determined power-law scaling law holds up to galaxy cluster mass scales., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

We illustrate that regular black holes and horizonless stars, typically considered as quite distinct families of black hole mimickers, are intimately intertwined. We show that any spherically symmetric regular black hole can be continuously deformed into a horizonless star under the mild conditions of non-negativity of gravitational energy (Misner--Sharp quasi-local mass), and an assumed linear relation between the latter and the Arnowitt--Deser--Misner (ADM) mass. We illustrate this general result by considering the family of geometries proposed by Hayward as the description of regular black holes, and we also describe the properties of the corresponding horizonless stars. The form of the associated effective stress-energy tensor shows that these horizonless stars can be identified as anisotropic gravastars with a soft surface and inner/outer light rings. We also construct dynamical geometries that could describe the evolution of regular black holes towards horizonless stars, and show that semiclassical physics contains the necessary ingredients to trigger the early stages of such dynamical evolution., Comment: 29 pages with references, 6 figures

Ongoing observations in the strong-field regime are in optimal agreement with general relativity, although current errors still leave room for small deviations from Einstein's theory. Here we summarise our recent results on superradiance of scalar and electromagnetic test fields in Kerr-like spacetimes, focusing mainly on the Konoplya--Zhidenko metric. We observe that, while for large deformations with respect to the Kerr case superradiance is suppressed, it can be nonetheless enhanced for small deformations. We also study the superradiant instability caused by massive scalar fields, and we provide a first estimate of the effect of the deformation on the instability timescale., Comment: Contribution to the 2021 Gravitation session of the 55th Rencontres de Moriond

The talks given in parallel session D4 at the 20th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (Warsaw 2013) are summarized., Comment: 15pp. To appear in the GR20 Proceedings issue of General Relativity and Gravitation

Violating Lorentz-invariance, and so implicitly permitting some form of superluminal communication, necessarily alters the notion of a black hole. Nevertheless, in both Einstein-��ther gravity, and Ho��ava-Lifshitz gravity, there is still a causally disconnected region in black-hole solutions; now being bounded by a "Universal horizon", which traps excitations of arbitrarily high velocities. To better understand the nature of these black holes, and their Universal horizons, we study ray trajectories in these spacetimes. We find evidence that Hawking radiation is associated with the Universal horizon, while the "lingering" of ray trajectories near the Killing horizon hints at reprocessing there. In doing this we solve an apparent discrepancy between the surface gravity of the Universal horizon and the associated temperature derived by tunneling method. These results advance the understanding of these exotic horizons, and provide hints for a full understanding of black-hole thermodynamics in Lorentz-violating theories., v1: 26 pages, 6 figures; v2: now 28 pages. This version accepted for publication in Physical Review D

A number of different approaches to quantum gravity are at least partly phenomenologically characterized by their treatment of Lorentz symmetry, in particular whether the symmetry is exact or modified/broken at the smallest scales. For example, string theory generally preserves Lorentz symmetry while analog gravity and Lifshitz models break it at microscopic scales. In models with broken Lorentz symmetry there are a vast number of constraints on departures from Lorentz invariance that can be established with low energy experiments by employing the techniques of effective field theory in both the matter and gravitational sectors. We shall review here the low energy effective field theory approach to Lorentz breaking in these sectors and present various constraints provided by available observations., Comment: 48 pages. Chapter contribution to "Gravity: Where do we stand?", proceedings of the 2009 SIGRAV Graduate School in Contemporary Relativity and Gravitational Physics. Certain pedagogical parts overlap with http://arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:1203.4105

Analogue models of gravity have provided an experimentally realizable test field for our ideas on quantum field theory in curved spacetimes but they have also inspired the investigation of possible departures from exact Lorentz invariance at microscopic scales. In this role they have joined, and sometime anticipated, several quantum gravity models characterized by Lorentz breaking phenomenology. A crucial difference between these speculations and other ones associated to quantum gravity scenarios, is the possibility to carry out observational and experimental tests which have nowadays led to a broad range of constraints on departures from Lorentz invariance. We shall review here the effective field theory approach to Lorentz breaking in the matter sector, present the constraints provided by the available observations and finally discuss the implications of the persisting uncertainty on the composition of the ultra high energy cosmic rays for the constraints on the higher order, analogue gravity inspired, Lorentz violations., Comment: 47 pages, 4 figures. Lecture Notes for the IX SIGRAV School on "Analogue Gravity", Como (Italy), May 2011. V.3. Typo corrected, references added

Analogue spacetimes are powerful models for probing the fundamental physical aspects of geometry - while one is most typically interested in ultimately reproducing the pseudo-Riemannian geometries of interest in general relativity and cosmology, analogue models can also provide useful physical probes of more general geometries such as pseudo-Finsler spacetimes. In this chapter we shall see how a 2-component Bose-Einstein condensate can be used to model a specific class of pseudo-Finsler geometries, and after suitable tuning of parameters, both bi-metric pseudo-Riemannian geometries and standard single metric pseudo-Riemannian geometries, while independently allowing the quasi-particle excitations to exhibit a "mass". Furthermore, when extrapolated to extremely high energy the quasi-particles eventually leave the phononic regime and begin to act like free bosons. Thus this analogue spacetime exhibits an analogue of the "Lorentz violation" that is now commonly believed to occur at or near the Planck scale defined by the interplay between quantum physics and gravitational physics. In the 2-component Bose-Einstein analogue spacetime we will show that the mass generating mechanism for the quasi-particles is related to the size of the Lorentz violations. This relates the "mass hierarchy" to the so-called "naturalness problem". In short the analogue spacetime based on 2-component Bose-Einstein condensates exhibits a very rich mathematical and physical structure that can be used to investigate many issues of interest to the high-energy physics, cosmology, and general relativity communities., Comment: Chapter contributed to "Quantum Simulations via Analogues: From Phase Transitions to Black Holes", based on the COSLAB Dresden workshop, July 2005, to appear in the Springer "Lecture Notes in Physics" (LNP) series

Submitted on 9 Aug 2004 (v1), last revised 1 Sep 2004 (this version, v2).-- Contains 51 pages, 39 figures (23 colour figures, colour used to convey physics information). V2: Two references added, some additional discussion of maximal analytic extension, plus minor cosmetic changes., The so-called "analogue models of general relativity" provide a number of specific physical systems, well outside the traditional realm of general relativity, that nevertheless are well-described by the differential geometry of curved spacetime. Specifically, the propagation of acoustic disturbances in moving fluids are described by "effective metrics" that carry with them notions of "causal structure" as determined by an exchange of sound signals. These acoustic causal structures serve as specific examples of what can be done in the presence of a Lorentzian metric without having recourse to the Einstein equations of general relativity. (After all, the underlying fluid mechanics is governed by the equations of traditional hydrodynamics, not by the Einstein equations). In this article we take a careful look at what can be said about the causal structure of acoustic spacetimes, focusing on those containing sonic points or horizons, both with a view to seeing what is different from standard general relativity, and to seeing what the similarities might be., The research of Carlos Barceló is supported by the Education Council of the Junta de Andalucía (Spain). Matt Visser is supported by a Marsden grant administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

If quantum gravity violates Lorentz symmetry, the prospects for observational guidance in understanding quantum gravity improve considerably. This article briefly reviews previous work on Lorentz violation (LV) and discusses aspects of the effective field theory framework for parametrizing LV effects. Current observational constraints on LV are then summarized, focusing on effects in QED at order E/M_Planck., Comment: 16 pages, Expanded version of a lecture by T. Jacobson, to be published in Particle Physics and the Universe, Proceedings of the 9th Adriatic Meeting, eds. J.Trampetic and J.Wess (Springer-Verlag, 2004)

In this article we carefully distinguish the notion of bi-refringence (a polarization-dependent doubling in photon propagation speeds) from that of bi-metricity (where the two photon polarizations ``see'' two distinct metrics). We emphasise that these notions are logically distinct, though there are special symmetries in ordinary (3+1)-dimensional nonlinear electrodynamics which imply the stronger condition of bi-metricity. To illustrate this phenomenon we investigate a generalized version of (3+1)-dimensional nonlinear electrodynamics, which permits the inclusion of arbitrary inhomogeneities and background fields. [For example dielectrics (a la Gordon), conductors (a la Casimir), and gravitational fields (a la Landau--Lifshitz).] It is easy to demonstrate that the generalized theory is bi-refringent: In (3+1) dimensions the Fresnel equation, the relationship between frequency and wavenumber, is always quartic. It is somewhat harder to show that in some cases (eg, ordinary nonlinear electrodynamics) the quartic factorizes into two quadratics thus providing a bi-metric theory. Sometimes the quartic is a perfect square, implying a single unique effective metric. We investigate the generality of this factorization process., Comment: Revtex 4; 10 pages in double-column format; contribution to the Festschrift in honour of Professor Mario Novello

To help focus ideas regarding possible routes to the breakdown of Lorentz invariance, it is extremely useful to explore concrete physical models that exhibit similar phenomena. In particular, acoustics in Bose--Einstein condensates has the interesting property that at low-momentum the phonon dispersion relation can be written in a ``relativistic'' form exhibiting an approximate ``Lorentz invariance''. Indeed all of low-momentum phonon physics in this system can be reformulated in terms of relativistic curved-space quantum field theory. In contrast, high-momentum phonon physics probes regions where the dispersion relation departs from the relativistic form and thus violates Lorentz invariance. This model provides a road-map of at least one route to broken Lorentz invariance. Since the underlying theory is manifestly physical this type of breaking automatically avoids unphysical features such as causality violations. This model hints at the type of dispersion relation that might be expected at ultra-high energies, close to the Planck scale, where quantum gravity effects are suspected to possibly break ordinary Lorentz invariance., Comment: Presented at CPT01; the Second Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry; Bloomington, Indiana; 15--18 Aug 2001. 6 pages. Uses sprocl.sty (World Scientific style file; Latex 209)

In [hep-th/0009173] Milton has presented a brief review of some interesting aspects of the theory of the Casimir effect. This comment is aimed at correcting some imprecise statements in that work with respect to the relevance of the Casimir effect for explaining the phenomenon of sonoluminescence., Comment: Two pages comment, uses ReV_TeX 3

A possible way to capture the effects of quantum gravity in spacetime at a mesoscopic scale, for relatively low energies, is through an energy dependent metric, such that particles with different energies probe different spacetimes. In this context, a clear connection between a geometrical approach and modifications of the special relativistic kinematics has been shown in the last few years. In this work, we focus on the geometrical interpretation of the relativistic deformed kinematics present in the framework of doubly special relativity, where a relativity principle is present. In this setting, we study the effects of a momentum dependence of the metric for a uniformly accelerated observer. We show how the local Rindler wedge description gets affected by the proposed observer dependent metric, while the local Rindler causal structure is not, leading to a standard local causal horizon thermodynamic description. For the proposed modified metric, we can reproduce the derivation of Einstein's equations as the equations of state for the thermal Rindler wedge. The conservation of the Einstein tensor leads to the same privileged momentum basis obtained in other works of some of the present authors, so supporting its relevance., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures