Constraining the Schwarzschild-de Sitter Solution in Models of Modified Gravity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how future radio-tracking data from the New Horizons mission could significantly tighten constraints on the effective cosmological constant in various modified gravity theories, improving current bounds by one to two orders of magnitude.

Contribution

It demonstrates the potential of the New Horizons mission data to constrain parameters of several modified gravity models, including $f(R)$, $f(T)$, dRGT massive gravity, and Hořava-Lifshitz gravity.

Findings

New Horizons data could improve bounds on the cosmological constant by 10-100 times.

Constraints are particularly effective in the outskirts of the Solar System at about 40 au.

The study compares potential improvements over existing planetary orbital dynamics bounds.

Abstract

The Schwarzschild-de Sitter (SdS) solution exists in the large majority of modified gravity theories, as expected, and in particular the effective cosmological constant is determined by the specific parameters of the given theory. We explore the possibility to use future extended radio-tracking data from the currently ongoing New Horizons mission in the outskirts peripheries of the Solar System, at about 40 au, in order to constrain this effective cosmological constant, and thus to impose constrain on each scenario's parameters. We investigate some of the recently most studied modified gravities, namely $f(R)$ and $f(T)$ theories, dRGT massive gravity, and Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity, and we show that New Horizons mission may bring an improvement of one-two orders of magnitude with respect to the present bounds from planetary orbital dynamics.