Gravitational tensor and scalar modes in $f(Q,B)$ non-metric gravity

TL;DR

This paper analyzes gravitational waves in the $f(Q,B)$ non-metric gravity theory, revealing the presence of standard tensor modes and a massive scalar mode, with implications for gravitational wave polarization and degrees of freedom.

Contribution

It demonstrates that $f(Q,B)$ gravity predicts three gravitational wave polarization modes, including a massive scalar mode, extending previous $f(Q)$ and $f(R)$ gravity results.

Findings

Standard plus and cross tensor modes are present.

A massive scalar polarization mode exists with transverse polarization.

Three degrees of freedom propagate in the linearized theory.

Abstract

We investigate gravitational waves generated in $f(Q,B)$ non-metric gravity, i.e., a theory of gravity described by a non-metric compatible connection, free of torsion and curvature. It is an extension of symmetric teleparallel gravity, equipped with a boundary term $B$. This theory exhibits gravitational waves regardless of the gauge adopted: they are the standard massless tensors plus a massive scalar gravitational wave like in the case of $f(R)$ gravity. It is precisely the boundary term $B$ that generates the massive scalar mode with an effective mass $m_{B}$ associated to a Klein-Gordon equation in the linearized boundary term. As in $f(Q)$ gravity also in $f(Q,B)$ non-metric gravity, a free test particle follows a geodesic motion due to the covariant conservation with respect to the Levi-Civita connection of the energy and momentum densities on shell. Therefore, in $f(Q,B)$ gravity, the proper acceleration between two neighboring worldlines traveled by two free point-like particle is governed by a first-order geodesic deviation equation in the metric perturbation $h_{\mu\nu}$. Thanks to this approximate linear equation, $f(Q,B)$ non-metric gravity shows three polarization modes: two massless transverse tensor radiation modes, with helicity equal to 2, reproducing the standard plus and cross modes, exactly as in General Relativity, and an additional massive scalar wave mode with transverse polarization of zero helicity. We obtain the same result both by considering the coincidence gauge and by leaving the gauge free. In summary, three degrees of freedom propagate in the $f(Q,B)$ linearized theory with amplitudes $\tilde{h}^{(+)}$ and $\tilde{h}^{(\times)}$ for tensor modes and amplitude $\tilde{h}^{(s)}$ for the scalar mode. Specifically, both $f(Q,B)$ and $f(R)$ gravity involve the same massive transverse scalar perturbation.