Scalar charges and pulsar-timing observables in the presence of nonminimally coupled scalar fields

2019/03/31 by Raissa F. P. Mendes, Túlio Ottoni, Tulio Ottoni
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Binary pulsar #Classical mechanics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Coupling (piping) #Coupling parameter #General relativity #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Millisecond pulsar #Neutron star #Observable #Physics #Pulsar #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar field #Theoretical physics #gr-qc

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.99.124003

published as Phys. Rev. D 99, 124003 (2019) · 12 pages, 6 figures

openalex publication_date 2019/06/06 · arxiv created 2019/06/18 · arxiv updated 2019/06/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Pulsar-timing has become a celebrated tool for probing modifications to general relativity in the strong-field surroundings of neutron stars. Here we investigate whether scalar-tensor theories that incorporate a nonminimally coupled scalar degree of freedom may pass pulsar-timing tests, by computing the scalar charges entering such observables. In particular we show that for positive values of the nonminimal coupling \ensuremathξ, pulsar-timing constraints may be evaded even in the presence of spontaneous scalarization.

Citations

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