Gravitational wave polarization modes and stability analysis in Weyl geometry gravity

TL;DR

This paper analyzes gravitational wave modes and stability in Weyl geometry gravity, revealing standard tensor modes, a non-polarization vector sector, and a scalar mode with superluminal propagation and ghost instability.

Contribution

It provides a detailed polarization and stability analysis of gravitational waves in Weyl geometry gravity, highlighting unique scalar mode properties and instabilities.

Findings

Tensor modes propagate at light speed.

Vector sector has no polarization modes.

Scalar mode exhibits superluminal speed and ghost instability.

Abstract

We investigate the gravitational wave polarization modes and stability in Weyl geometry gravity within a Minkowski background. Our results indicate that the tensor sector consists of two standard modes propagating at the speed of light. Although the vector sector possesses a dynamical degree of freedom, it generates no polarization modes. The scalar sector, in contrast, features a mixture mode of breathing and longitudinal modes associated with a single scalar degree of freedom. This degree of freedom exhibits superluminal propagation and intrinsic amplitude decay, both driven by the background Weyl gauge field. We further discuss the observational detectability of this scalar mode. Our stability analysis reveals that, while the tensor and vector sectors are free from ghost and Laplacian instabilities, the scalar sector suffers from an Ostrogradsky ghost instability. These findings clarify the unique gravitational wave propagation characteristics in Weyl geometry gravity and provide theoretical foundations for testing the theory through future multi-messenger observations.