Testing general scalar-tensor gravity and massive gravity with cluster lensing

TL;DR

This paper investigates how scalar-tensor and massive gravity theories affect galaxy cluster lensing, identifying observable signatures like convergence dips to test these modified gravity models.

Contribution

It provides a general framework for analyzing Vainshtein screening effects in scalar-tensor theories and applies it to massive gravity, linking theoretical predictions to lensing observations.

Findings

Scalar field derivatives can cause observable convergence dips.

Vainshtein screening impacts lensing signals at cluster scales.

Constraints on modified gravity parameters are derived from lensing data.

Abstract

We explore the possibility of testing modified gravity exhibiting the Vainshtein mechanism against observations of cluster lensing. We work in the most general scalar-tensor theory with second-order field equations (Horndeski's theory), and derive static and spherically symmetric solutions, for which the scalar field is screened below a certain radius. It is found that the essential structure of the problem in the most general case can be captured by the program of classifying Vainshtein solutions out of different solutions to a quintic equation, as has been performed in the context of massive gravity. The key effect on gravitational lensing is that the second derivative of the scalar field can substantially be large at the transition from screened to unscreened regions, leaving a dip in the convergence. This allows us to put observational constraints on parameters characterizing the general scalar-tensor modification of gravity. We demonstrate how this occurs in massive gravity as an example, and discuss its observational signatures in cluster lensing.