The Vainshtein mechanism beyond the quasi-static approximation

TL;DR

This study investigates the validity of the quasi-static approximation in the Vainshtein mechanism within modified gravity theories by solving full time and space evolution, confirming its general reliability but identifying potential instabilities in specific models.

Contribution

The paper explicitly checks the quasi-static approximation for the Vainshtein mechanism by solving full evolution equations, revealing its stability and limitations in certain models.

Findings

Vainshtein solution is a stable attractor under various initial conditions.

Quasi-static approximation is generally accurate where it exists.

Deep voids in the Cubic Galileon model exhibit true instabilities at late times.

Abstract

Theories of modified gravity, in both the linear and fully non-linear regime, are often studied under the assumption that the evolution of the new (often scalar) degree of freedom present in the theory is quasi-static. This approximation significantly simplifies the study of the theory, and one often has good reason to believe that it should hold. Nevertheless it is a crucial assumption that should be explicitly checked whenever possible. In this paper we do so for the Vainshtein mechanism. By solving for the full spatial and time evolution of the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati and the Cubic Galileon model, in a spherical symmetric spacetime, we are able to demonstrate that the Vainshtein solution is a stable attractor and forms no matter what initial conditions we take for the scalar field. Furthermore,the quasi-static approximation is also found to be a very good approximation whenever it exists. For the best-fit Cubic Galileon model, however, we find that for deep voids at late times, the numerical solution blows up at the same time as the quasi-static solution ceases to exist. We argue that this phenomenon is a true instability of the model.