Incompatibility of gravity theories with auxiliary fields with the standard model

Ventagli, Giulia; Pani, Paolo; Sotiriou, Thomas P.

Abstract

Theories of gravity with auxiliary fields are of particular interest since they are able to circumvent Lovelock’s theorem while avoiding the introduction of new degrees of freedom. This type of theories introduces derivatives of the stress-energy tensor in the modified Einstein equation. This peculiar structure of the field equations was shown to lead to spacetime singularities on the surface of stars. Here we focus on yet another problem afflicting gravity theories with auxiliary fields. We show that such theories can generically introduce parametrically large deviations to the Standard Model unless one severely constrains the parameters of the theory, preventing them to produce significant phenomenology at large scales. We first consider the specific case of Palatini f(R) gravity, to clarify the results previously obtained in Ref. [1]. We show that the matter fields satisfy the Standard Model field equations which reduce to those predicted by general relativity in the local frame only at tree level, whereas at higher orders in perturbation theory they are affected by corrections that percolate from the gravity sector regardless of the specific f(R) model considered. Finally, we show that this is a more general issue affecting theories with auxiliary fields connected to the same terms responsible for the appearance of surface singularities.

Citation

Ventagli, G., Pani, P., & Sotiriou, T. P. (2024). Incompatibility of gravity theories with auxiliary fields with the standard model. Physical Review D, 109(4), Article 044002. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.109.044002

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 19, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Feb 1, 2024
• Publication Date: Feb 15, 2024
• Deposit Date: Feb 26, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 26, 2024
• Journal: Physical Review D
• Print ISSN: 2470-0010
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0029
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 109
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 044002
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.109.044002
• Keywords: Alternative gravity theories
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/30667736
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.044002