Axion gravitodynamics, Lense-Thirring effect, and gravitational waves

Abstract

We investigate physical implications of a gravitational analog of axion electrodynamics with a parity-violating gravitoelectromagnetic theta term. This is related to the Nieh-Yan topological invariant in gravity with torsion, in contrast to the well-studied gravitational Chern-Simons term quadratic in curvature, coupled via a dynamical axionlike scalar field. Axion gravitodynamics is the corresponding linearized theory. We find that potentially observable effects are over 80 orders of magnitude stronger than for its Chern-Simons counterpart and could be in reach for detection by experiments in the near future. For a near-Earth scenario, we derive corrections to the Lense-Thirring effect and compare them to data from satellite-based experiments (Gravity Probe B). For gravitational waves, we find modified dispersion relations, derive the corresponding polarization-dependent modified group and phase velocities, and compare them to data from neutron star mergers (GW170817) to derive even stronger bounds.

arXiv commentMinor changes; now matches the published version

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Cited by in corpus (9)

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• Torsional birefringence in metric-affine Chern-Simons gravity: gravitational waves in late-time cosmology
• Effect of Torsion on Neutron Star Structure in Einstein-Cartan Gravity
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• Self-Excited Gravitational Instantons
• Dynamics and gravitational radiation of binaries with spin precession and eccentricity in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity