Scintillation in scalar-tensor theories of gravity

Details Scintillation in scalar-tensor theories of gravity Scintillation in scalar-tensor theories of gravity

1998-11-26

arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9811090v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

8 pages; to appear in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Scientific paper

We study the scintillation produced by time-varying gravitational fields within scalar-tensor theories of gravity. The problem is treated in the geometrical optics approximation for a very distant light source emitting quasi plane monochromatic electromagnetic waves. We obtain a general formula giving the time dependence of the photon flux received by a freely falling observer. In the weak-field approximation, we show that the contribution to the scintillation effect due to the focusing of the light beam by a gravitational wave is of first order in the amplitude of the scalar perturbation. Thus scalar-tensor theories contrast with general relativity, which predicts that the only first-order effect is due to the spectral shift. Moreover, we find that the scintillation effects caused by the scalar field have a local character: they depend only on the value of the perturbation at the observer. This effect provides in principle a mean to detect the presence of a long range scalar field in the Universe, but its smallness constitutes a tremendous challenge for detection.

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