2017/10/31 by Fethi M. Ramazanoğlu, Fethi M Ramazanoğlu · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Classical mechanics #Computer science #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Gravitation #Gravitational wave #Instability #Mathematics #Observable #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Regularization (linguistics) #Scalar (mathematics) #Statistical physics #Tachyon #Theoretical physics #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.97.024008
published as Phys. Rev. D 97, 024008 (2018) · Updated version that reflects the changes in the published erratum. Conclusions are the same, but some of the missing terms in the equations are added. 6 pages
openalex publication_date 2018/01/08 · arxiv created 2019/04/13 · arxiv updated 2019/04/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We investigate instabilities and their regularization in theories of gravitation. Instabilities can be beneficial since their growth often leads to prominent observable signatures, which makes them especially relevant to relatively low signal-to-noise ratio measurements such as gravitational wave detections. An indefinitely growing instability usually renders a theory unphysical; hence, a desirable instability should also come with underlying physical machinery that stops the growth at finite values, i.e., regularization mechanisms. The prototypical gravity theory that presents such an instability is the spontaneous scalarization phenomena of scalar-tensor theories, which feature a tachyonic instability. We identify the regularization mechanisms in this theory and show that they can be utilized to regularize other instabilities as well. Namely, we present theories in which spontaneous growth is triggered by a ghost rather than a tachyon and numerically calculate stationary solutions of scalarized neutron stars in these theories. We speculate on the possibility of regularizing known divergent instabilities in certain gravity theories using our findings and discuss alternative theories of gravitation in which regularized instabilities may be present. Even though we study many specific examples, our main point is the recognition of regularized instabilities as a common theme and unifying mechanism in a vast array of gravity theories.