Dynamical formulation of ghost-free massive gravity
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
de Rham, Claudia
Kozuszek, Jan
Tolley, Andrew J
Wiseman, Toby
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We present a formulation of ghost-free massive gravity with flat reference metric that exhibits the full nonlinear constraint algebraically, in a way that can be directly implemented for numerical simulations. Motivated by the presence of higher order operators in the low-energy effective description of massive gravity, we show how the inclusion of higher-order gradient (dissipative) terms leads to a well-posed formulation of its dynamics. The formulation is presented for a generic combination of the minimal and quadratic mass terms (the phenomenologically interesting case) on any background. For concreteness, we then focus on the numerical evolution of the minimal model for spherically symmetric gravitational collapse of scalar field matter. This minimal model does not carry the relevant interactions to switch on an active Vainshtein mechanism, at least in spherical symmetry, thus we do not expect to recover usual general relativity behavior even for small graviton mass. Nonetheless we may ask what the outcome of matter collapse is for this gravitational theory. Starting with small initial data far away from the center, we follow the matter through a nonlinear regime as it falls towards the origin. For sufficiently weak data the matter disperses. However for larger data we generally find that the classical evolution breaks down resulting in the theory becoming infinitely strongly coupled without the presence of an apparent horizon shielding this behavior from an asymptotic observer.
Date Issued
2023-10-15
Date Acceptance
2023-10-03
Citation
Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, 2023, 108 (8)
ISSN
1550-7998
Publisher
American Physical Society
Journal / Book Title
Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume
108
Issue
8
Copyright Statement
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3 .
License URL
Identifier
10.1103/PhysRevD.108.084052
Subjects
Astronomy & Astrophysics
BRANE
CONSISTENCY
Physical Sciences
Physics
Physics, Particles & Fields
Science & Technology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
084052
Date Publish Online
2023-10-25