arXiv subjects

Nils A. Nilsson

Publications and source records attributed to Nils A. Nilsson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Accelerating systems as probes of Lorentz violation

We investigate the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect in a local Lorentz-violating effective field theory, focusing on the quantum-field response of accelerated detectors. We canonically quantize a real scalar field exactly in the coefficients for Lorentz violation. The dispersion relation, Hamiltonian, and massless and massive Wightman functions are obtained. We determine the conditions under which the scalar dynamics preserves boost symmetry and distinguish these from the weaker conditions required for stationarity along a single accelerated worldline. The Wightman functions are used to construct the finite-time Unruh-DeWitt response for a uniformly accelerated detector. For generic coefficients the response is nonstationary and depends on both the duration and temporal location of the measurement. The spectrum, which is the resulting excitation rate as a function of the energy level difference in the detector, is obtained numerically. It shows discernable differences with the usual massive thermal spectrum for dimensionless coefficients on the order of $10^{-7}$. Experimental implications of the result are discussed. As an alternative viewpoint, we place Lorentz violation in the point-particle sector, derive the exact trajectory generated by a constant electric field, and study the proper-time Fourier response of a conventional scalar wave along the modified trajectory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2026

Global causality constraints in rotating scalar-tensor spacetimes

Modified gravity is often formulated as an effective field theory (EFT), where higher-order corrections parametrize departures from General Relativity. We argue that such corrections should be constrained by the global causal structure of curved spacetime, in addition to the usual flat-space requirements such as positivity and unitarity. We propose that within the domain of validity of the EFT, the onset of closed timelike curves should not happen in a parametrically more accessible region than in the corresponding GR background. We test this diagnostic in the quadratic k-essence sector of scalar-tensor gravity. For stationary and axisymmetric spacetimes, the invariant test for closed axial orbits is the sign of the azimuthal component of the metric $g_{φφ}$. We supplement this test by requiring a local time function in the space of Killing vectors. We apply these conditions to quadratic k-essence on Kerr--(A)dS backgrounds, with and without scalar charge. The zero-charge branch is exact Kerr--(A)dS, and we treat the charged branch perturbatively in scalar charge and in Hartle--Thorne slow rotation. Expanding for small spin $χ=a/(GM)\ll1$, frame dragging begins at $\mathcal O(χ)$, while the quadrupolar backreaction relevant for circular closed timelike curves enters at second order in both rotation and charge. We find that, in the truncation used here, any occurrence of $g_{φφ}<0$ also lies outside EFT control. A higher-order calculation or a fully nonlinear treatment is therefore needed. Finally, we discuss how quasinormal modes and black-hole echoes could probe such causal structure.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

A no-go theorem in bumblebee vector-tensor cosmology

Bumblebee models, a class of vector-tensor theories in which a vector field acquires a nonzero vacuum expectation value that spontaneously breaks spacetime symmetries, are ubiquitous in the literature. By constructing the most general bumblebee action from all diffeomorphism-invariant marginal operators together with a general potential, aiming to cover all the bumblebee models studied in the literature, we perform a complete linear perturbation analysis on a spatially flat FLRW background. We show that for generic marginal couplings, the scalar sector propagates extra degrees of freedom beyond the single scalar expected for a massive vector. Enforcing the correct number of propagating modes in a cosmological setup forces degeneracy relations between the marginal couplings, which in turn completely fix the potential at the background level and render the remaining scalar infinitely strongly coupled already at linear order of perturbations. We establish a no-go theorem stating that the following conditions cannot be simultaneously satisfied: (i) the most general marginal action, (ii) a homogeneous and isotropic background, (iii) no extra propagating degrees of freedom around a spatially flat FLRW background, and (iv) healthy cosmological perturbations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2026

Testing gravitational wave polarizations with LISA

In this paper we quantify the ability of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) to test the presence of non-tensorial polarizations as well as modifications to the tensor ones in gravitational waves emitted from massive black hole binaries. We employ the Parametrized Post-Einsteinian (PPE) formalism to model deviations from General Relativity (GR) for tensor, vector, and scalar polarizations. Our PPE parametrization is inspired by post-Newtonian waveforms from four modified gravity theories: Horndeski, Einstein-aether, Rosen's bimetric, and Lightman-Lee. We consistently implement these modifications across the inspiral, merger, and ringdown phases, ensuring proper waveform alignment and tapering. Subsequently, we perform Fisher forecasts to derive expected constraints on deviations from General Relativity and map these constraints to the parameter spaces of the four gravity theories. For tensor polarizations, LISA achieves constraints on amplitude modifications ranging between $\sim 10^{-4}-10^{-2}$ precision level, depending on the frequency evolution of the modifications, for systems with $10^5-10^7 {\, \rm M}_\odot$ at $z = 1$. We find that LISA can distinguish breathing and longitudinal scalar polarizations only for relatively light binaries with $M \lesssim 10^4 {\, \rm M}_\odot$, beyond which these modes become degenerate in the detector response. Importantly, constraints on vector polarizations are approximately 2-3 times more precise than for scalar polarizations. For both vector and scalar modes, amplitude measurements reach precisions ranging between $\sim 10^{-8}-10^{-2}$, depending on the frequency evolution of the modifications, for systems with $10^5-10^7 {\, \rm M}_\odot$ at $z = 1$. These results demonstrate LISA's potential to probe gravity in the strong-field regime via gravitational wave polarizations.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Bumblebee Gravity -- Lessons from Perturbation Theory

These proceedings summarise some recent efforts in understanding a class of vector-tensor theories known as {\it bumblebee} models, which spontaneously break local Lorentz and diffeomorphism invariance. Using cosmological perturbation theory on an FLRW background, we find that for non-minimal coupling to gravity, the theory contains a ghost mode unless degeneracy conditions are imposed, after which the model becomes a subset of generalised Proca theory, and the potential is then completely fixed by the background equations. We find a constraint on the bumblebee field from the speed of tensor modes on the order of $10^{-15}$. We go further to show that scalar perturbations do not propagate at the linear level, indicating that the theory is pathological around dynamical cosmological backgrounds, a result which is independent of the form of the potential.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Primordial observables of explicit diffeomorphism violation in gravity

We investigate the potential for current and future gravitational-wave detectors to observe imprints of explicit diffeomorphism violation in primordial signals. Starting from a simple model with known effects, we derive the strain amplitude and power spectrum for primordial gravitational waves, both of which are affected by the symmetry breaking. Through this, we directly find predictions for the tensor spectral index and tensor-to-scalar which are different from general relativity. By considering the known sensitivity curves for NANOGrav, SKA, THEIA, $μ$-ARES, ASTROD-GW, LISA, BBO, DECIGO, CE, AION-km, AEDGE, ET, and aLIGO, we place observability limits on the parameters controlling the diffeomorphism violation. For instance, we find that aLIGO could observe signals for $s_{00} \lesssim -0.1$, while more sensitive future detectors like LISA and DECIGO could probe violations as small as $s_{00} \approx -5 \times 10^{-4}$ and $-3 \times 10^{-3}$, respectively. Finally, we consider the existing constraints on the number of relativistic degrees of freedom $ΔN_{\rm eff}$ which is tightly constrained by Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and we find that $ΔN_{\rm eff}$ only weakly depends on the symmetry breaking but places a lower bound on the coefficients which is consistent with available bounds from the speed of gravitational waves.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Perturbative black-hole and horizon solutions in gravity with explicit spacetime-symmetry breaking

In this paper, we present static and spherically symmetric vacuum solutions to the mass-dimension $d\leq 4$ action of an effective-field theory, choosing the diffeomorphism symmetry to be broken explicitly. By using the reduced-action method with a Schwarzschild seed-solution, we find static and spherically symmetric black hole solutions to the field equations to linear order in the symmetry-breaking coefficients, which are consistent solutions to the modified Einstein equations at the same order. Using several ansätze for the symmetry-breaking coefficient we classify the allowed solutions, and we compute standard consequences and observables, including horizons, thermodynamics, photon geodesics, and perihelion precession. We find that the horizon structure of some of our solutions are similar to the Reissner-Nordström case, and that several of them exhibit physical singularities at $r=2M$. We note in particular that introducing more than one non-zero coefficient for spacetime-symmetry breaking coefficient leads to a solution with three horizons; the aim is to obtain observables that can be confronted to black holes observational data.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Gravitational-wave generation in the presence of Lorentz invariance violation

We solve the wave equation for gravitational waves emitted by compact objects systems using the Multipolar Post-Minkowskian (MPM) method, and in the presence of Lorentz invariance violating terms. We select a Lorentz-violating extension of General Relativity in the pure gravity sector, directly taken from the Standard Model Extension (SME) formalism, and derive the wave equation for metric perturbation from the modified Einstein equation. We solve it with the MPM method and compute the gauge-invariant Riemann tensor components governing the geodesic deviation. Finally we compare the leading order term of the perturbative scheme in the small SME coefficients, with the leading order of the General Relativity. We outline the benefits and difficulties of this method. All the results are given as functionals of a set of general PM moments that can be matched to the physical properties of the source. These results are a first step toward putting state-of-the-art constraints on symmetries violations with new gravitational wave detectors like LISA.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

You shall not pass! -- explicit diffeomorphism violation "no-go" constraints and discontinuities

This paper collects several results in the study of the explicit symmetry-breaking limit of the effective-field theory (EFT) description of diffeomorphism and local Lorentz-symmetry breaking, where we generalize a subset of the EFT framework (the ``minimal" sector). It is well known that no-go constraints may arise in cases of explicit symmetry-breaking in curved spacetime as a consequence of the Bianchi identities; we show in this work that certain terms in the action can be countenanced and used to cancel would-be no-go constraints, at least in the linearized gravity limit. Nonetheless, we go on to find more potential issues, and we show that one particular explicit breaking subset of the EFT, while evading direct no-go constraints, results in a discontinuity - unsuppressed additional polarizations for gravitational waves. In a general treatment of the explicit breaking EFT, but confined to linearized gravity, we explicitly show the existence of an extra degree of freedom, independent of coordinates. We find extra polarizations of gravitational waves in the solutions, with a scalar mode unsuppressed by any coefficient, which could render these cases ruled out by observations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Induced Cosmological Anisotropies and CMB Anomalies by a non-Abelian Gauge-Gravity Interaction

We present a non-abelian cousin of the model presented in \cite{Lee:2022rtz} which induces cosmological anisotropies on top of standard FLRW geometry. This is in some sense doing a cosmological mean field approximation, where the mean field cosmological model under consideration would be the standard FLRW, and the induced anisotropies are small perturbative corrections on top of it. Here we mostly focus on the non-abelian $SU(2)$ gauge fields coupled to the gravity to generate the anisotropies, which can be a viable model for the axion-like particle (ALP) dark sector. The induced anisotropies are consequences of the non-trivial back-reaction of the gauge fields on the gravity sector, and by a clever choice of the parametrization, one can generate the Bianchi model we have studied in this note. We also show that the anisotropies influence the Sachs-Wolfe effect and we discuss the implications.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Dynamical dark energy from spacetime-symmetry breaking -- late-time behaviour and phantom crossing

We investigate the late-time cosmological dynamics in a simple case of explicit spacetime-symmetry breaking. By expanding in a small symmetry-breaking coefficient we are able to write the Friedmann equations as $Λ$CDM + dynamical dark energy, which we show contains logarithmic dependence of the scale factor. We find that the dark energy equation of state displays divergencies and phantom behaviour for certain values of the symmetry-breaking coefficient, where the NEC is also broken. We discuss the adiabatic sound speed of dark energy and compare the model to current constraints using the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder parametrisation. Remarkably, although the constraints on the same symmetry-breaking coefficient from e.g. gravitational-wave propagation are orders of magnitude stronger than what we obtain in this paper, we are able to cut those constraints, which are more or less symmetric around zero, in half by showing that same coefficient must be negative (or zero) if one wishes to keep the NEC intact.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Classical radiation fields for scalar, electromagnetic, and gravitational waves with spacetime-symmetry breaking

An effective field theory framework is used to investigate some Lorentz-violating effects on the generation of electromagnetic and gravitational waves, complementing previous work on propagation. Specifically we find solutions to a modified, anisotropic wave equation, sourced by charge or fluid matter. We derive the radiation fields for scalars, classical electromagnetic radiation, and partial results for gravitational radiation. For gravitational waves, the results show longitudinal and breathing polarizations proportional to coefficients for spacetime-symmetry breaking.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Induced cosmological anisotropy by a gauge-gravity interaction

We present a simple model which generates cosmological anisotropies on top of standard FLRW geometry. This is in some sense reminiscent of the mean field approximation, where the mean field cosmological model under consideration would be the standard FLRW, and the anisotropy is a small perturbative correction on top of it. Using a supergravity-inspired model, we confirm that the stable fixed point of our model corresponds to standard FLRW cosmology. We use a Bianchi VII$_0$-type model supplemented with a scalar and $U(1)$ gauge fields, and we show that the anisotropies of the geometry are generated by the non-trivial interaction between the gravity sector and the $U(1)$ gauge sector. Studying the attractor flow, we show that the anisotropies are present at early times (high redshift) and decay asymptotically to an FLRW attractor fixed point. With such a mechanism, observations of non-isotropy are not contradictory to FLRW geometry or indeed the $Λ$CDM model. Such models could in principle shed some insights on the present cosmological tensions.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Spacetime-symmetry breaking effects in gravitational-wave generation at the first post-Newtonian order

Current searches for signals of departures from the fundamental symmetries of General Relativity using gravitational waves are largely dominated by propagation effects like dispersion and birefringence from highly dynamic sources such as coalescing binary-black holes and neutron stars. In this paper we take steps towards probing the nature of spacetime symmetries in the {\it generation-stage} of gravitational waves; by using a generic effective-field theory, we solve the modified Einstein equations order-by-order (in the coefficients for the symmetry breaking) for a generic source, and we write down the the first Post-Newtonian corrections, which includes contributions from the spacetime-symmetry breaking terms. Choosing as the source a system of point particles allows us to write down a simple toy solution explicitly, and we see that in contrast to General Relativity, the monopolar and dipolar contributions are non-vanishing. We comment on the detectability of such signals by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) space mission, which has high signal-to-noise galactic binaries (which can be modelled as point particles) well inside its predicted sensitivity band, sources which are inaccessible for current ground-based detectors, and we also discuss the possibility of going beyond the quadrupole formula and the first Post-Newtonian order, which would reveal effects which could be probed by ground-based detectors observing coalescence events.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Reexamining aspects of spacetime-symmetry breaking with CMB polarization

The linear polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is highly sensitive to parity-violating physics at the surface of last scattering, which might cause mixing of E and B modes, an effect known as {\it cosmic birefringence}. This has until recently been problematic to detect due to its degeneracy with the instrument polarization miscalibration angle. Recently, a possible detection of a non-zero cosmic-birefringence angle was reported at $β={0.35^\circ}\pm 0.14^\circ$, where the miscalibration angle was simultaneously determined and subtracted from the analysis. Starting from this claim, we exploit a simple map of $β$ to the coupling constant of a parity-violating term in a generic effective-field theory for Lorentz and CPT violation. We show that the reported constraint on $β$ is consistent with current one-sided upper bounds from CMB studies of spacetime-symmetry breaking, and we discuss the implications and interpretation of this detection.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

On the energy flow of $λ$ in Hořava-Lifshitz cosmology

Hořava-Lifshitz gravity has been proposed as a ghost-free quantum gravity model candidate with an anisotropic UV-scaling between space and time. We present here a cosmological background analysis of two different formulations of the theory, with particular focus on the running of the parameter $λ$. Using a large dataset consisting of Cosmic Microwave Background data from {\it Planck}, Pantheon+ supernovae catalogue, SH0ES Cepheid variable stars, Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), Cosmic Chronometers, and gamma-ray bursts (GRB), we arrive at new bounds on the cosmological parameters, in particular $λ$, which describes deviation from classical general relativity. For the detailed balance scenario we arrive at the bound $λ=1.02726\pm0.00012$, and for beyond detailed balance the limit reads $λ=0.9949^{+0.0045}_{-0.0046}$. We also study the influence of different data sets and priors, and we find that removing low-redshift data generally moves $λ$ closer towards UV values, whilst simultaneously widening the error bars. In the detailed balance scenario, this effect is more noticeable, and $λ$ takes on values that are significantly below unity, which corresponds to the infrared limit of the theory.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

A New Test of Dynamical Dark Energy Models and Cosmic Tensions in Hořava Gravity

Horava gravity has been proposed as a renormalizable, higher-derivative, Lorentz-violating quantum gravity model without ghost problems. A Horava gravity based dark energy (HDE) model for dynamical dark energy has been also proposed earlier by identifying all the extra (gravitational) contributions from the Lorentz-violating terms as an effective energy-momentum tensor in Einstein equation. We consider a complete CMB, BAO, and SNe Ia data test of the HDE model by considering general perturbations over the background perfect HDE fluid. Except from BAO, we obtain the preference of non-flat universes for all other data-set combinations. We obtain a positive result on the cosmic tensions between the Hubble constant H0 and the cosmic shear S8, because we have a shift of H0 towards a higher value, though not enough for resolving the H0 tension, but the value of S8 is unaltered. This is in contrast to a rather decreasing H0 but increasing S8 in a non-flat LCDM. For all other parameters, like Omega_m and Omega_Lambda, we obtain quite comparable results with those of LCDM for all data sets, especially with BAO, so that our results are close to a cosmic concordance between the datasets, contrary to the standard non-flat LCDM. We also obtain some undesirable features, like an almost null result on Omegak, which gives back the flat LCDM, if we do not predetermine the sign of Omegak, but we propose several promising ways for improvements by generalizing our analysis.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Explicit spacetime-symmetry breaking and the dynamics of primordial fields

We study the effects of explicit spacetime-symmetry breaking on primordial tensor fluctuations using an effective-field theory for Lorentz/CPT violation. We find that the graviton is still massless, but that the propagation speed of tensor modes is modified, and we obtain a constraint on the coefficient determining the symmetry breaking on the order of $10^{-15}$ from the recent measurements of the speed of gravity. Due to the symmetry breaking, the de-Sitter phase is modified, and during this inflationary epoch, the power spectrum assumes a slow oscillation around the general-relativity limit; further, we find that the primordial tensor power spectrum retains its scale invariance, but that the amplitude is modified. We also find that the modes which become subhorizon during radiation domination acquire a phase shift proportional to the coefficient for Lorentz violation.

gr-qc↗