Observational discrimination of Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity from general relativity

Abstract

Direct observations of neutron stars could tell us an imprint of modified gravity. However, it is generally difficult to resolve the degeneracy due to the uncertainties in equation of state (EOS) of neutron star matter and in gravitational theories. In this paper, we are successful to find the observational possibility to distinguish Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity (EiBI) from general relativity. We show that the radii of neutron stars with $0.5M_{sun}$ are strongly correlated with the neutron skin thickness of ${}^{208}$Pb independently of EOS, while this correlation depends on the coupling constant in EiBI. As a result, via the direct observations of radius of neutron star with $0.5M_{sun}$ and the measurements of neutron skin thickness of ${}^{208}$Pb by the terrestrial experiments, one could not only discriminate EiBI from general relativity but also estimate the coupling constant in EiBI.

accepted for publication in PRD

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Towards Understanding Astrophysical Effects of Nuclear Symmetry Energy
• Properties of an electrically charged black hole in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity
• On the maximum mass limit of neutron stars in scalar-tensor gravity
• Impact of the equation-of-state -- gravity degeneracy on constraining the nuclear symmetry energy from astrophysical observables
• Stellar oscillations in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity
• Kinetic theory of Jean Instability in Eddington-inspired Born-Infield gravity
• Stability and (quasi-)localization of gravitational fluctuations in Eddington-Inspired Born-Infeld brane system
• The Role of Baryon Structure in Neutron Stars
• Pulse profiles from a pulsar in scalar-tensor gravity
• Massive Hybrid Quark Stars with Strong Magnetic Field
• Neutron stars in the braneworld within the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity
• Born-Infeld gravity with a Brans-Dicke scalar
• Sensitivity of pulsar light curves to spacetime geometry and efficacy of analytic approximations