Disformally coupled scalar fields and inspiralling trajectories

Philippe Brax, Anne-Christine Davis, and Adrien Kuntz
Phys. Rev. D 99, 124034 – Published 24 June 2019

Abstract

We show how a nearly massless scalar field conformally and disformally coupled to matter can affect the dynamics of two bodies in their inspiralling phase before merging. We discuss both the conservative dynamics, e.g., how the energy of the bound system is corrected by the conformal and disformal interactions, and the dissipative part where scalars and gravitons are emitted. The first disformal correction to the Einstein-Infeld-Hoffmann Lagrangian is obtained using both the Fokker method relying on the equations of motion and an Effective Field Theory approach using Feynman diagrams. This leads to a correction to the energy functional at the 2 post-Newotnian level for eccentric orbits, which vanishes for circular orbits up to the 7 post-Newtonian order. The dissipative power from the disformal interaction gives a correction to the monopole and quadrupole terms in the presence of a conformal coupling. Although this correction vanishes for circular orbits at leading order, this is not the case for elliptical orbits allowing us to derive a bound on the disformal coupling from the time drift of the period for the Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar, which is slightly stronger than the one from fifth force tests. We conclude that the prospect of observing disformal effects for inspiraling systems lies in the accurate monitoring of eccentric trajectories as expected for the LISA experiment.

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  • Received 26 March 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.124034

© 2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Philippe Brax1,*, Anne-Christine Davis2,†, and Adrien Kuntz3,‡

  • 1Institut de Physique Théorique, Université Paris-Saclay, CEA,CNRS, F-91191Gif sur Yvette, France
  • 2DAMTP, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England CB3 0WA, United Kingdom
  • 3CPT, Aix-Marseille University, Université de Toulon, CNRS, UMR 7332, Marseille 13288, France

  • *philippe.brax@cea.fr
  • a.c.davis@damtp.cam.ac.uk
  • adrien.kuntz@univ-amu.fr

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Issue

Vol. 99, Iss. 12 — 15 June 2019

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