The effect of modified gravity on weak lensing

TL;DR

This paper investigates how modified gravity theories, especially scalar-tensor models including $f(R)$ gravity, influence weak lensing signals, revealing potential deviations from the standard $bLambda$CDM model that can be used for constraints.

Contribution

It demonstrates that large coupling scalar-tensor models significantly alter weak lensing spectra, providing a new way to test and constrain these theories.

Findings

Weak lensing spectra are notably affected by large coupling values.

The spectral index and amplitude differ from $bLambda$CDM predictions.

Weak lensing can effectively constrain scalar-tensor gravity models.

Abstract

We study the effect of modified gravity on weak lensing in a class of scalar-tensor theory that includes $f(R)$ gravity as a special case. These models are designed to satisfy local gravity constraints by having a large scalar-field mass in a region of high curvature. Matter density perturbations in these models are enhanced at small redshifts because of the presence of a coupling $Q$ that characterizes the strength between dark energy and non-relativistic matter. We compute a convergence power spectrum of weak lensing numerically and show that the spectral index and the amplitude of the spectrum in the linear regime can be significantly modified compared to the $\Lambda$CDM model for large values of $|Q|$ of the order of unity. Thus weak lensing provides a powerful tool to constrain such large coupling scalar-tensor models including $f(R)$ gravity.