Solving the initial conditions problem for modified gravity theories

TL;DR

This paper develops a method to solve initial data constraints in modified gravity theories, specifically Einstein scalar Gauss Bonnet, enabling broader numerical studies of these theories in various spacetime settings.

Contribution

It introduces a modified constraint-solving approach for scalar-tensor theories with higher derivatives, applicable to complex initial data in numerical relativity.

Findings

Solutions found for asymptotically flat and cosmological spacetimes.

Method effective even at couplings of order unity.

Applicable to a broad class of scalar-tensor theories.

Abstract

Modified gravity theories such as Einstein scalar Gauss Bonnet (EsGB) contain higher derivative terms in the spacetime curvature in their action, which results in modifications to the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints of the theory. In principle, such modifications may affect the principal part of the operator in the resulting elliptic equations, and so further complicate the already highly non-linear, coupled constraints that apply to the initial data in numerical relativity simulations of curved spacetimes. However, since these are effective field theories, we expect the additional curvature terms to be small, which motivates treating them simply as an additional source in the constraints, and iterating to find a solution to the full problem. In this work we implement and test a modification to the CTT/CTTK methods of solving the constraints for the case of the most general four derivative, parity invariant scalar-tensor theory, and show that solutions can be found in both asymptotically flat/black hole and periodic/cosmological spacetimes, even up to couplings of order unity in the theory. Such methods will allow for numerical investigations of a much broader class of initial data than has previously been possible in these theories, and should be straightforward to extend to similar models in the Horndeski class.