Search

We study the imprint of light scalar fields on gravitational waves from extreme mass-ratio inspirals-binary systems with a very large mass asymmetry. We first show that, to leading order in the mass ratio, any effects of the scalar on the waveform are captured fully by two parameters: the mass of the scalar and the scalar charge of the secondary compact object. We then use this theory-agnostic framework to show that the future observations by LISA will be able to simultaneously measure both of these parameters with enough accuracy to detect ultralight scalars.

It was recently shown that a scalar field suitably coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant G can undergo a spin-induced linear tachyonic instability near a Kerr black hole. This instability appears only once the dimensionless spin j is sufficiently large, that is, j≳0.5. A tachyonic instability is the hallmark of spontaneous scalarization. Focusing, for illustrative purposes, on a class of theories that do exhibit this instability, we show that stationary, rotating black hole solutions do indeed have scalar hair once the spin-induced instability threshold is exceeded, while black holes that lie below the threshold are described by the Kerr solution. Our results provide strong support for spin-induced black hole scalarization.

Black holes are unique among astrophysical sources: they are the simplest macroscopic objects in the Universe, and they are extraordinary in terms of their ability to convert energy into electromagnetic and gravitational radiation. Our capacity to probe their nature is limited by the sensitivity of our detectors. The LIGO/Virgo interferometers are the gravitational-wave equivalent of Galileo's telescope. The first few detections represent the beginning of a long journey of exploration. At the current pace of technological progress, it is reasonable to expect that the gravitational-wave detectors available in the 2035-2050s will be formidable tools to explore these fascinating objects in the cosmos, and space-based detectors with peak sensitivities in the mHz band represent one class of such tools. These detectors have a staggering discovery potential, and they will address fundamental open questions in physics and astronomy. Are astrophysical black holes adequately described by general relativity? Do we have empirical evidence for event horizons? Can black holes provide a glimpse into quantum gravity, or reveal a classical breakdown of Einstein's gravity? How and when did black holes form, and how do they grow? Are there new long-range interactions or fields in our Universe, potentially related to dark matter and dark energy or a more fundamental description of gravitation? Precision tests of black hole spacetimes with mHz-band gravitational-wave detectors will probe general relativity and fundamental physics in previously inaccessible regimes, and allow us to address some of these fundamental issues in our current understanding of nature., (© The Author(s) 2021.)

We study scalar fields in a black hole background and show that, when the scalar is suitably coupled to curvature, rapid rotation can induce a tachyonic instability. This instability, which is the hallmark of spontaneous scalarization in the linearized regime, is expected to be quenched by nonlinearities and endow the black hole with scalar hair. Hence, our results demonstrate the existence of a broad class of theories that share the same stationary black hole solutions with general relativity at low spins, but which exhibit black hole hair at sufficiently high spins (a/M≳0.5). This result has clear implications for tests of general relativity and the nature of black holes with gravitational and electromagnetic observations.

We study extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), during which a small body spirals into a supermassive black hole, in gravity theories with additional scalar fields. We first argue that no-hair theorems and the properties of known theories that manage to circumvent them introduce a drastic simplification to the problem: the effects of the scalar on supermassive black holes, if any, are mostly negligible for EMRIs in vast classes of theories. We then exploit this simplification to model the inspiral perturbatively and we demonstrate that the scalar charge of the small body leaves a significant imprint on gravitational wave emission. Although much higher precision is needed for waveform modeling, our results strongly suggest that this imprint is observable with Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, rendering EMRIs promising probes of scalar fields.

We identify a class of scalar-tensor theories with coupling between the scalar and the Gauss-Bonnet invariant that exhibit spontaneous scalarization for both black holes and compact stars. In particular, these theories formally admit all of the stationary solutions of general relativity, but these are not dynamically preferred if certain conditions are satisfied. Remarkably, black holes exhibit scalarization if their mass lies within one of many narrow bands. We find evidence that scalarization can occur in neutron stars as well.

The most general action for a scalar field coupled to gravity that leads to second-order field equations for both the metric and the scalar--Horndeski's theory--is considered, with the extra assumption that the scalar satisfies shift symmetry. We show that in such theories, the scalar field is forced to have a nontrivial configuration in black hole spacetimes, unless one carefully tunes away a linear coupling with the Gauss-Bonnet invariant. Hence, black holes for generic theories in this class will have hair. This contradicts a recent no-hair theorem which seems to have overlooked the presence of this coupling.

We uncover two mechanisms that can render Kerr black holes unstable in scalar-tensor gravity, both associated with the presence of matter in the vicinity of the black hole and the fact that this introduces an effective mass for the scalar. Our results highlight the importance of understanding the structure of spacetime in realistic, astrophysical black holes in scalar-tensor theories.

Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity was recently proposed as an alternative to general relativity that offers a resolution of spacetime singularities. The theory differs from Einstein's gravity only inside matter due to nondynamical degrees of freedom, and it is compatible with all current observations. We show that the theory is reminiscent of Palatini f(R) gravity and that it shares the same pathologies, such as curvature singularities at the surface of polytropic stars and unacceptable Newtonian limit. This casts serious doubt on its viability.

We consider slowly rotating, stationary, axisymmetric black holes in the infrared limit of Hořava-Lifshitz gravity. We show that such solutions do not exist, provided that they are regular everywhere apart from the central singularity. This has profound implications for the viability of the theory, considering the astrophysical evidence for the existence of black holes with nonzero spin.

Hořava-Lifshitz gravity models contain higher-order operators suppressed by a characteristic scale, which is required to be parametrically smaller than the Planck scale. We show that recomputed synchrotron radiation constraints from the Crab Nebula suffice to exclude the possibility that this scale is of the same order of magnitude as the Lorentz breaking scale in the matter sector. This highlights the need for a mechanism that suppresses the percolation of Lorentz violation in the matter sector and is effective for higher-order operators as well.

Hawking has proven that black holes which are stationary as the end point of gravitational collapse in Brans-Dicke theory (without a potential) are no different than in general relativity. We extend this proof to the much more general class of scalar-tensor and f(R) gravity theories, without assuming any symmetries apart from stationarity.

We explore the ultraviolet continuum regime of causal dynamical triangulations, as probed by the flow of the spectral dimension. We set up a framework in which one can find continuum theories that can in principle fully reproduce the behavior of the latter in this regime. In particular, we show that, in 2 + 1 dimensions, Hořava-Lifshitz gravity can mimic the flow of the spectral dimension in causal dynamical triangulations to high accuracy and over a wide range of scales. This seems to provide evidence for an important connection between the two theories.

It has recently been pointed out that particles falling freely from rest at infinity outside a Kerr black hole can in principle collide with an arbitrarily high center of mass energy in the limiting case of maximal black hole spin. Here we aim to elucidate the mechanism for this fascinating result, and to point out its practical limitations, which imply that ultraenergetic collisions cannot occur near black holes in nature.

It has long been known that a maximally spinning black hole cannot be overspun by tossing in a test body. Here we show that if instead the black hole starts out with below maximal spin, then indeed overspinning can be achieved. We find that requirements on the size and internal structure of the test body can be met if the body carries in orbital but not spin angular momentum. Our analysis neglects radiative and self-force effects, which may prevent the overspinning.

Horava's "Lifschitz point gravity" has many desirable features, but in its original incarnation one is forced to accept a nonzero cosmological constant of the wrong sign to be compatible with observation. We develop an extension of Horava's model that abandons "detailed balance" and regains parity invariance, and in 3+1 dimensions exhibit all five marginal (renormalizable) and four relevant (super-renormalizable) operators, as determined by power counting. We also consider the classical limit of this theory, evaluate the Hamiltonian and supermomentum constraints, and extract the classical equations of motion in a form similar to the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner formulation of general relativity. This puts the model in a framework amenable to developing detailed precision tests.