Disformal Theories of Gravity: From the Solar System to Cosmology

Abstract

This paper is concerned with theories of gravity that contain a scalar coupled both conformally and disformally to matter through the metric. By systematically deriving the non-relativistic limit, it is shown that no new non-linear screening mechanisms are present beyond the Vainshtein mechanism and chameleon-like screening. If one includes the cosmological expansion of the universe, disformal effects that are usually taken to be absent can be present in the solar system. When the conformal factor is absent, fifth-forces can be screened on all scales when the cosmological field is slowly-rolling. We investigate the cosmology of these models and use local tests of gravity to place new constraints on the disformal coupling and find $\mathcal{M}>\mathcal{O}(\text{eV})$, which is not competitive with laboratory tests. Finally, we discuss the future prospects for testing these theories and the implications for other theories of modified gravity. In particular, the Vainshtein radius of solar system objects can be altered from the static prediction when cosmological time-derivatives are non-negligible.

References and footnotes added. Typo in equation (3.23) fixed; constraints and figures updated accordingly. Results unchanged. 31 pages, six figures

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• Testing coupled dark energy models with their cosmological background evolution
• Towards Strong Field Tests of Beyond Horndeski Gravity Theories
• Towards Viable Cosmological Models of Disformal Theories of Gravity
• Shaken, not stirred: kinetic mixing in scalar-tensor theories of gravity
• Probing the imprints of generalized interacting dark energy on the growth of perturbations
• Spin-orbit effects for compact binaries in scalar-tensor gravity
• Stellar Pulsations in Beyond Horndeski Gravity Theories
• Equivalence of cosmological observables in conformally related scalar tensor theories
• Emergent Gravity as the Eraser of Anomalous Gauge Boson Masses, and QFT-GR Concord
• Quasi-normal modes of black holes in scalar-tensor theories with non-minimal derivative couplings
• Disformally Coupled Scalar Fields and Inspiralling Trajectories
• Induced geometry from disformal transformation
• Spin precession as a new window into disformal scalar fields
• Potential-driven Inflation with Disformal Coupling to Gravity
• Disformal invariance of continuous media with linear equation of state