Motion of test bodies in theories with nonminimal coupling

TL;DR

This paper derives the equations of motion for test bodies in gravity theories with nonminimal coupling, enabling comparison with general relativity and other models through a multipole approach.

Contribution

It provides a systematic derivation of propagation equations for pole-dipole particles in theories with general curvature-matter coupling.

Findings

Derived equations of motion for test bodies with nonminimal coupling

Established a framework for comparing different gravity theories

Extended multipole method to complex coupling scenarios

Abstract

We derive the equations of motion of test bodies for a theory with nonminimal coupling by means of a multipole method. The propagation equations for pole-dipole particles are worked out for a gravity theory with a very general coupling between the curvature scalar and the matter fields. Our results allow for a systematic comparison with the equations of motion of general relativity and other gravity theories.