Constraints on $f(R)$ theories of gravity from GW170817

TL;DR

This paper derives a new, model-independent constraint on $f(R)$ gravity theories using gravitational wave data from GW170817, providing bounds that are competitive with other astrophysical and cosmological tests.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, direct observational bound on $f(R)$ theories from gravitational wave signals, incorporating chameleon screening effects and constraining popular dark energy models.

Findings

Established a bound |f'(R_0) - 1| < 3×10^{-3} from GW170817.

Compared the new bound with previous Solar-System and cosmological constraints.

Constrained parameter space of Hu-Sawicki, Starobinsky, and Tsujikawa $f(R)$ models.

Abstract

A novel constraint on $f(R)$ theories of gravity is obtained from the gravitational wave signal emitted from the binary neutron star merger event GW170817. The $f(R)$ theories possess an additional massive scalar degree of freedom apart from the massless spin-2 modes. The corresponding scalar field contributes an additional attractive, short-ranged "fifth" force affecting the gravitational wave radiation process. We realize that chameleon screening is necessary to conform with the observation. A model independent bound $\vert f'(R_0) -1\vert < 3\times 10^{-3}$ has been obtained, where the prime denotes the derivative with respect $R$ and $R_0$ is the curvature of our Universe at present. Though we use the nonrelativistic approximations and obtain an order of magnitude estimate of the bound, it comes from direct observations of gravitational waves and thus it is worth noting. This bound is stronger/equivalent compared to some earlier other bounds such as from the Cassini mission in the Solar-System, Supernova monopole radiation, the observed CMB spectrum, galaxy cluster density profile, etc., although it is weaker than best current constraints ($\vert f'(R_0) -1\vert \lesssim 10^{-6}$) from cosmology. Using the bound obtained, we also constrain the parameter space in the $f(R)$ theories of dark energy like Hu-Sawicki, Starobinsky, and Tsujikawa models.