Modern observations of black holes and neutron stars in the galaxy provide ample opportunity for testing the predictions of general relativity in the strong-field regime, as discussed in the previous section. In several cases, astrophysical complications make such studies strongly dependent on model assumptions. This will be remedied in the near future, with the anticipated advances in the observational techniques and in the theoretical modeling of the various astrophysical phenomena. A second difficult hurdle, however, in performing quantitative tests of gravity with compact objects will be the lack of a parametric extension to general relativity, i.e., the equivalent of the PPN formalism, that is suitable for calculations in the strong-field regime.
In the past, bona fide tests of strong-field general relativity have been performed using particular parametric extensions to the Einstein–Hilbert action. This appears, a priori, to be a reasonable approach for a number of reasons. First, deriving the parametric field equations from a Lagrangian action ensures that fundamental symmetries and conservation laws are obeyed. Second, the parametric Lagrangian action can be used over the entire range of field strengths available to an observer and, therefore, even tests of general relativity in the weak-field limit (i.e., with the PPN formalism) can be translated into constraints on the parameters of the action. This is often important when strong-field tests lead to degenerate constraints between different parameters. Finally, phenomenological Lagrangian extensions can be motivated by ideas of quantum gravity and string theory and, potentially, help constrain the fundamental scales of such theories. There are, however, several issues that need to be settled before any such parametric extension of the Einstein–Hilbert action can become a useful theoretical framework for strong-field gravity tests (see also [154] and references therein).
First, gravity is highly non-linear and strong-field phenomena often show a non-perturbative dependence
on small changes to the theory. I will illustrate this with scalar-tensor theories that result from adding a
minimally coupled scalar field to the Ricci curvature in the action. Such fields have been studied for more
than 40 years in the form of Brans–Dicke gravity [180] and have been recently invoked as alternatives to a
cosmological constant for modeling the acceleration of the universe [121]. In the context of compact-object
astrophysics, constraints on the relative contribution of scalar fields coupled in different ways to the metric
have been obtained from observations of the orbital decay of double neutron stars [182
, 39
] and compact
X-ray binaries [182
, 125
]. More recently, similar constraints on scalar extensions to general relativity have
been placed using the observation of redshifted lines from an X-ray burster [43
] and of quasi-periodic
oscillations observed in accreting neutron stars [44
]. The oscillatory modes of neutron stars in such
theories and the prospect of constraining them using gravitational-wave signatures have also been
studied [152, 153].
The general form of the Lagrangian of a scalar-tensor theory is given, in the appropriate frame, by the
Bergmann–Wagoner action (see [180] for details)
Damour and Esposito-Farèse [39] considered a second-order parametric form
The study of Damour and Esposito-Farèse [39] revealed one of the main reasons that
necessitate careful theoretical studies of possible extensions of general relativity that are suitable for
strong-field tests. The order of a term added to the Lagrangian action of the gravitational field is not
necessarily a good estimate of the expected magnitude of the observable effects introduced by this
additional term. For example, because of the non-linear coupling between the scalar field and matter
introduced by the coupling function (23
), the deviation from general relativistic predictions
is not perturbative. For values of
less than about –6, it becomes energetically favorable
for neutron stars to become “scalarized”, with properties that differ significantly from their
general relativistic counterparts [39
]. Such non-perturbative effects make quantitative tests of
strong-field gravity possible even when the astrophysical complications are only marginally
understood.
A similar situation, albeit in the opposite regime, arises in an extended gravity theory in which a term
proportional to the inverse of the Ricci scalar curvature, , is added to the Einstein–Hilbert action in
order to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe [30]. Although one would expect that such an
addition can only affect gravitational fields that are extremely weak, it turns out that it also alters to zeroth
order the post-Newtonian parameter
and can, therefore, be excluded by simple solar-system
tests [33].
Second, Lagrangian extensions of general relativity often suffer from serious problems with instabilities.
This issue can be understood by considering a Lagrangian action that includes terms of second order in the
Ricci scalar, i.e., , as well as the terms of similar order that can be constructed with the Ricci and
Riemann tensors. For the sake of the argument, I will consider here the parametric Lagrangian
This second-order gravity theory has a number of unappealing properties (see discussion in [149, 150
]).
Classically, a high-order gravity theory requires more than two boundary conditions, which is a
fact that appears to be incompatible with all other physical theories. Quantum mechanically,
second-order gravity theories lead to unstable vacuum solutions. Both these phenomena could be
artifacts of the possibility that the action (25
) may arise as a low-energy expansion of a non-local
Lagrangian that is fundamentally of second order [149
, 150
]. Phenomenologically speaking,
these problems can be overcome by requiring the field equations to be of second order, when
extremizing the action. This procedure leads to a generalized, high-order gravity theory that remains
consistent with classical expectations and is stable quantum-mechanically (according to the
procedure outlined in [149, 150]), but requires a different than usual derivation of the field
equations [45].
Even if we neglect these issues, the terms proportional to and
lead to field equations with
solutions that suffer from the Ostrogradski instability [184]. And even if these terms are dropped and only
actions that are generic functions of the Ricci scalar alone are considered, then the resulting solutions for
the expansion of the universe [49] and for spherically symmetric stars [144], can be violently unstable,
depending on the sign of the second-order term.
A potential resolution to several of these problems in theories with high-order terms in the action
appears to be offered by the Palatini formalism. In this approach, the field equations are derived by
extremizing the action under variations in the metric and the connection, which is considered as an
independent field [155]. For the simple Einstein–Hilbert action, both approaches are equivalent and give rise
to the equations of general relativity; when the action has non-linear terms in , the two approaches
diverge. Unfortunately, the Palatini formalism leads to equations that cannot handle, in general, the
transition across the surface layer of a star to the matter-free space outside it, and is, therefore, not a viable
alternative [6].
Finally, it is crucial that we identify the astrophysical phenomena that can be used in testing
particular aspects of strong-field gravity. For example, in the case of the classical tests of general
relativity, it is easy to show that the deflection of light during a solar eclipse and the Shapiro
time delay depend on one (and the same) component of the metric of the Sun (i.e., on the
PPN parameter ). Therefore, they do not provide independent tests of general relativity (as
long as we accept the validity of the equivalence principle). On the other hand, the perihelion
precession of Mercury and the gravitational redshift depend on the other component of the metric
(i.e., on the PPN parameter
) and, therefore, provide complementary tests of the theory.
Understanding such degeneracies is an important component of performing tests of gravity
theories.
In the case of strong gravitational fields, this issue can be illustrated again by studying the high-order
Lagrangian action (25) in the metric formalism (see also [27]). In principle, as the strength of the
gravitational field increases, the terms that are of second-order in the Ricci scalar become more important
and, therefore, affect the observable properties of neutron stars and black holes. However, because of the
Gauss–Bonnet identity,
When the spacetime is isotropic and homogeneous, as in the case of tests using the cosmic evolution of the scale factor, an additional identity is satisfied, i.e.,
This implies that, for cosmological tests, the predictions of the theory described by the Lagrangian action (25 The parameters and
can be independently constrained using observations of spacetimes that
are strongly curved but not isotropic and homogeneous, such as those found in the vicinities of black holes
and neutron stars. Measuring the properties of neutron stars, such as their radii, maximum masses and
maximum spins, which require the solution of the field equations in the presence of matter, will provide
independent constraints on the combination of parameters
and
. However, one can
show that in the absence of matter, the external spacetime of a black hole, as given by the solution to
Einstein’s field equation, is also one (but not necessarily the only) solution of the parametric field equation
that arises from the Lagrangian action (25
). As a result, tests that involve black holes will probably be
inadequate in distinguishing between the particular theory described by Equation (25
) and general
relativity [130
].
This is, in fact, a general problem of using astrophysical observations of black holes to test general
relativity in the strong-field regime. The Kerr solution is not unique to general relativity [130]. For example,
there is strong analytical [165, 13, 71] and numerical evidence [142] that, in Brans–Dicke scalar-tensor
gravity theories, the end product of the collapse of a stellar configuration is a black hole described by the
same Kerr solution as in Einstein’s theory. The same appears to be true in several other theories generated
by adding additional degrees of freedom to Einstein’s gravity; the only vacuum solutions that are
astrophysically relevant are those described by the Kerr metric [130]. Until a counter-example is discovered,
studies of the strong gravitational fields found in the vicinities of black holes can be performed only within
phenomenological frameworks, such as those involving multipole expansions of the Schwarzschild and Kerr
metrics [138, 35, 66].
To date, it has only been possible to test quantitatively the predictions of general relativity in the strong-field regime using observations of neutron stars, as I will discuss in the following section. In all cases, the general relativistic predictions were contrasted to those of scalar-tensor gravity, with Einstein’s theory passing all the tests with flying colors.
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