arXiv subjects

Shinji Tsujikawa

Publications and source records attributed to Shinji Tsujikawa.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

Tidal Love Numbers of Neutron Stars in Horndeski Theories

Precision measurements of the gravitational wave signal from compact binary inspirals allow us to constrain the internal structure of those objects via physical parameters such as the tidal Love numbers. In scalar-tensor theories, one typically finds new types of Love numbers that are usually not considered or simply absent in General Relativity, which further allows us to constrain deviations from General Relativity. Building upon previous results, we present the linear perturbation equations necessary to calculate static and even-parity tidal Love numbers in Horndeski theories, the most general scalar-tensor theories with second-order field equations of motion. We further focus on the quadrupolar Love numbers and demonstrate how these can be extracted from the asymptotic expansion of the perturbation fields. We find that there is a potential ambiguity in extracting the Love numbers in this way, which we resolve by performing supplementary calculations in the effective field theory framework. We show that, in the case of scalar-tensor theories, the tidal Love numbers are not directly given by the $1/r^3$ term in the asymptotic expansion of the perturbation fields, as there is an additional contribution to this term independent of the Love numbers. We calculate such a contribution for a minimally coupled scalar field and also for the Damour-Esposito-Farèse model. For the latter, we find that the Love numbers can differ by $\mathcal{O}(1 \sim 10)\,\%$, if this additional contribution is not taken into account.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Strong coupling and instabilities in singularity-free inflation from an infinite sum of curvature corrections

Four-dimensional gravitational theories derived from an infinite sum of Lovelock curvature invariants, combined with a conformal rescaling of the metric, are equivalent to a subclass of shift-symmetric Horndeski theories that possess a single scalar degree of freedom. Under the assumption of a homogeneous and isotropic cosmological background, the theory admits an inflationary solution that replaces the Big Bang singularity. This can be achieved by a solution where the Hubble expansion rate $H$ is equal to the time derivative of the scalar field $\dotϕ$. We show that the solution $H=\dotϕ$ suffers from a strong coupling problem, characterized by the vanishing kinetic term of linear scalar perturbations at all times. Consequently, nonlinear scalar perturbations remain uncontrolled from the onset of inflation throughout the subsequent cosmological evolution. Moreover, tensor perturbations are generally subject to Laplacian instabilities during inflation. This instability in the tensor sector also persists under background initial conditions where $H \neq \dotϕ$. In the latter case, both the coefficient of the kinetic term for scalar perturbations and the scalar sound speed diverge at the onset of inflation. Thus, the dominance of inhomogeneities in this theory renders the homogeneous background solution illegitimate.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Greybody factors of charged black holes with axion hair

We study the greybody factor of charged hairy black holes (BHs) that arise due to the presence of an axion coupled to the electromagnetic field. Specifically, we consider spin-0 and spin-1 test particles propagating in the background of BHs with axion hair, where the spacetime geometry is modified compared to that of the Reissner-Nordstrom (RN) BH. In contrast to the RN solution, with a given total BH charge, the effective potential for test particles depends on the ratio of electric to magnetic charges. In other words, charged BHs with axion hair breaks the electric-magnetic duality present in the RN solution. We compute the transmission coefficient of test particles plunging into the charged hairy BH and find that the deviation from the RN solution is particularly evident for higher multipole moments. Precise measurements of greybody factors can thus serve as probes for the possible existence of axions coupled to the electromagnetic field, as well as potential signatures of magnetic monopoles.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Forecast constraints on the axion-photon coupling from interstellar medium heating

In interstellar media characterized by a nonrelativistic plasma of electrons and heavy ions, we study the effect of axion dark matter coupled to photons on the dynamics of an electric field. In particular, we assume the presence of a background magnetic field aligned in a specific direction. We show that there is an energy transfer from the oscillating axion field to photons and then to the plasma induced by forced resonance. This resonance is most prominent for the axion mass $m_ϕ$ equivalent to the plasma frequency $ω_p$. Requiring that the heating rate of the interstellar medium caused by the energy transfer does not exceed the observed astrophysical cooling rate, we place forecast constraints on the axion-photon coupling $g$ for several different amplitudes of the background magnetic field $B_0$. By choosing a typical value $B_0=10^{-6}$ G, we find that, for the resonance mass $m_ϕ=ω_p$, the upper limit of $g$ can be stronger than those derived from other measurements in the literature. With increased values of $B_0$, it is possible to put more stringent constraints on $g$ for a wider range of the axion mass away from the resonance point.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Instability of nonsingular black holes in nonlinear electrodynamics

We show that nonsingular black holes realized in nonlinear electrodynamics are always prone to Laplacian instability around the center because of a negative squared sound speed in the angular direction. This is the case for both electric and magnetic BHs, where the instability of one of the vector-field perturbations leads to enhancing a dynamical gravitational perturbation in the even-parity sector. Thus, the background regular metric is no longer maintained in a steady state. Our results suggest that the construction of stable, nonsingular black holes with regular centers, if they exist, requires theories beyond nonlinear electrodynamics.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Proving the absence of large one-loop corrections to the power spectrum of curvature perturbations in transient ultra-slow-roll inflation within the path-integral approach

We revisit one-loop corrections to the power spectrum of curvature perturbations $ζ$ in an inflationary scenario containing a transient ultra-slow-roll (USR) period. In Ref.[1], it was argued that one-loop corrections to the power spectrum of $ζ$ can be larger than the tree-level one within the parameter region generating the seeds of primordial black holes during the USR epoch, which implies the breakdown of perturbation theory. We prove that this is not the case by using a master formula for one-loop corrections to the power spectrum obtained in Ref.[2]. We derive the same formula within the path-integral formalism, which is simpler than the original derivation in [2]. To show the smallness of one-loop corrections, the consistency relations and the effective constancy of tree-level mode functions of $ζ$ for super-Hubble modes play essential roles, with which the master formula gives a simple expression for one-loop corrections. For concreteness, we provide a reduced set of interactions including the leading-order one, while establishing the consistency relations in a self-consistent manner. We also show how the consistency relations of various operators hold explicitly, which plays a key role in proving the absence of large one-loop corrections.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

Low-Scale Inflationary Magnetogenesis without Baryon Isocurvature Problem

Primordial magnetogenesis is an intriguing possibility to explain the origin of intergalactic magnetic fields (IGMFs). However, the baryon isocurvature problem has recently been pointed out, ruling out all magnetogenesis models operating above the electroweak scale. In this letter, we show that lower-scale inflationary scenarios with a Chern-Simons coupling can evade this problem. We propose concrete inflationary models whose reheating temperatures are lower than the electroweak scale and numerically compute the amount of magnetic fields generated during inflation and reheating. We find that, for lower reheating temperatures, the magnetic helicity decreases significantly. It is also possible to generate fully helical magnetic fields by modifying the inflaton potential. In both cases, the produced magnetic fields can be strong enough to explain the observed IGMFs, while avoiding the baryon isocurvature problem.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Scrutinizing black hole stability in cubic vector Galileon theories

In a subclass of generalized Proca theories where a cubic vector Galileon term breaks the $U(1)$ gauge invariance, it is known that there are static and spherically symmetric black hole (BH) solutions endowed with nonvanishing temporal and longitudinal vector components. Such hairy BHs are present for a vanishing vector-field mass ($m=0$) with a non-zero cubic Galileon coupling $β_3$. We study the linear stability of those hairy BHs by considering even-parity perturbations in the eikonal limit. In the angular direction, we show that one of the three dynamical perturbations has a nontrivial squared propagation speed $c_{Ω,1}^2$, while the other two dynamical modes are luminal. We could detect two different unstable behaviors of perturbations in all the parameter spaces of hairy asymptotically flat BH solutions we searched for. In the first case, an angular Laplacian instability on the horizon is induced by negative $c_{Ω,1}^2$. For the second case, it is possible to avoid this horizon instability, but in such cases, the positivity of $c_{Ω,1}^2$ is violated at large distances. Hence these hairy BHs are generally prone to Laplacian instabilities along the angular direction in some regions outside the horizon. Moreover, we also encounter a pathological behavior of the radial propagation speeds $c_r$ possessing two different values of $c_r^2$ for one of the dynamical perturbations. Introducing the vector-field mass $m$ to cubic vector Galileons, however, we show that the resulting no-hair Schwarzschild BH solution satisfies all the linear stability conditions in the small-scale limit, with luminal propagation speeds of three dynamical even-parity perturbations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Roles of boundary and equation-of-motion terms in cosmological correlation functions

We revisit the properties of total time-derivative terms as well as terms proportional to the free equation of motion (EOM) in a Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. They are relevant to the correct calculation of correlation functions of curvature perturbations in the context of inflationary Universe. We show that these two contributions to the action play different roles in the operator or the path-integral formalism, but they give the same correlation functions as each other. As a concrete example, we confirm that the Maldacena's consistency relations for the three-point correlation function in the slow-roll inflationary scenario driven by a minimally coupled canonical scalar field hold in both the operator and path-integral formalisms. We also give some comments on loop calculations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

Linear stability of vector Horndeski black holes

Horndeski's vector-tensor (HVT) gravity is described by a Lagrangian in which the field strength $F_{μν}=\partial_μ A_ν-\partial_ν A_μ$ of a vector field $A_μ$ interacts with a double dual Riemann tensor $L^{μναβ}$ in the form $βL^{μναβ} F_{μν} F_{αβ}$, where $β$ is a constant. In Einstein-Maxwell-HVT theory, there are static and spherically symmetric black hole (BH) solutions with electric or magnetic charges, whose metric components are modified from those in the Reissner-Nordström geometry. The electric-magnetic duality of solutions is broken even at the background level by the nonvanishing coupling constant $β$. We compute a second-order action of BH perturbations containing both the odd- and even-parity modes and show that there are four dynamical perturbations arising from the gravitational and vector-field sectors. We derive all the linear stability conditions associated with the absence of ghosts and radial/angular Laplacian instabilities for both the electric and magnetic BHs. These conditions exhibit the difference between the electrically and magnetically charged cases by reflecting the breaking of electric-magnetic duality at the level of perturbations. In particular, the four angular propagation speeds in the large-multipole limit are different from each other for both the electric and magnetic BHs. This suggests the breaking of eikonal correspondence between the peak position of at least one of the potentials of dynamical perturbations and the radius of photon sphere. For the electrically and magnetically charged cases, we elucidate parameter spaces of the HVT coupling and the BH charge in which the BHs without naked singularities are linearly stable.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Revisiting linear stability of black hole odd-parity perturbations in Einstein-Aether gravity

In Einstein-Aether gravity, we revisit the issue of linear stabilities of black holes against odd-parity perturbations on a static and spherically symmetric background. In this theory, superluminal propagation is allowed and there is a preferred timelike direction along the unit Aether vector field. If we choose the usual spherically symmetric background coordinates with respect to the Killing time $t$ and the areal radius $r$, it may not be appropriate for unambiguously determining the black hole stability because the constant $t$ hypersurfaces are not necessarily always spacelike. Unlike past related works of black hole perturbations, we choose an Aether-orthogonal frame in which the timelike Aether field is orthogonal to spacelike hypersurfaces over the whole background spacetime. In the short wavelength limit, we show that no-ghost conditions as well as radial and angular propagation speeds coincide with those of vector and tensor perturbations on the Minkowski background. Thus, the odd-parity linear stability of black holes for large radial and angular momentum modes is solely determined by constant coefficients of the Aether derivative couplings.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Even- and odd-parity stabilities of black holes in Einstein-Aether gravity

In Einstein-Aether theories with a timelike unit vector field, we study the linear stability of static and spherically symmetric black holes against both even- and odd-parity perturbations. For this purpose, we formulate a gauge-invariant black hole perturbation theory in the background Aether-orthogonal frame where the spacelike property of hypersurfaces orthogonal to the timelike Aether field is always maintained even inside the metric horizon. Using a short-wavelength approximation with large radial and angular momenta, we show that, in general, there are three dynamical degrees of freedom arising from the even-parity sector besides two propagating degrees of freedom present in the odd-parity sector. The propagation speeds of even-parity perturbations and their no-ghost conditions coincide with those of tensor, vector, and scalar perturbations on the Minkowski background, while the odd sector contains tensor and vector modes with the same propagation speeds as those in the even-parity sector (and hence as those on the Minkowski background). Thus, the consistent study of black hole perturbations in the Aether-orthogonal frame on static and spherically symmetric backgrounds does not add new small-scale stability conditions to those known for the Minkowski background in the literature.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Probing the signature of axions through the quasinormal modes of black holes

The axion-photon coupling allows the existence of a magnetically and electrically charged black hole (BH) solution endowed with a pseudo-scalar hair. For the Reissner-Nordstrom BH with a given total charge and mass, it is known that the quasinormal modes (QNMs) are independent of the mixture between the magnetic and electric charges due to the presence of electric-magnetic duality. We show that the BH with an axion hair breaks this degeneracy by realizing nontrivial QNMs that depend on the ratio between the magnetic and total charges. Thus, the upcoming observations of BH QNMs through gravitational waves offer an exciting possibility for probing the existence of both magnetic monopoles and the axion coupled to photons.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Gravitational-wave constraints on scalar-tensor gravity from a neutron star and black-hole binary GW200115

In nonminimally coupled theories where a scalar field is coupled to the Ricci scalar, neutron stars (NSs) can have scalar charges through an interaction with matter mediated by gravity. On the other hand, the same theories do not give rise to hairy black hole (BH) solutions. The observations of gravitational waves (GWs) emitted from an inspiralling NS-BH binary system allows a possibility of constraining the NS scalar charge. Moreover, the nonminimally coupled scalar-tensor theories generate a breathing scalar mode besides two tensor polarizations. Using the GW200115 data of the coalescence of a BH-NS binary, we place observational constraints on the NS scalar charge as well as the nonminimal coupling strength for a subclass of massless Horndeski theories with a luminal GW propagation. Unlike past related works, we exploit a waveform for a mixture of tensor and scalar polarizations. Taking the breathing mode into account, the scalar charge is more tightly constrained in comparison to the analysis of the tensor GWs alone. In nonminimally coupled theories including Brans-Dicke gravity and spontaneous scalarization scenarios with/without a kinetic screening, we put new bounds on model parameters of each theory.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Angular and radial stabilities of spontaneously scalarized black holes in the presence of scalar-Gauss-Bonnet couplings

We study the linear stability of spontaneously scalarized black holes (BHs) induced by a scalar field $ϕ$ coupled to a Gauss-Bonnet (GB) invariant $R_{\rm GB}^2$. For the scalar-GB coupling $ξ(ϕ)=(η/8) (ϕ^2+αϕ^4)$, where $η$ and $α$ are constants, we first show that there are no angular Laplacian instabilities of even-parity perturbations far away from the horizon for large multipoles $l \gg 1$. The deviation of angular propagation speeds from the speed of light is largest on the horizon, whose property can be used to put constraints on the model parameters. For $α\gtrsim -1$, the region in which the scalarized BH is subject to angular Laplacian instabilities can emerge. Provided that $α\lesssim -1$ and $-1/2<αϕ_0^2<-0.1155$, where $ϕ_0$ is the field value on the horizon with a unit of the reduced Planck mass $M_{\rm Pl}=1$, there are scalarized BH solutions satisfying all the linear stability conditions throughout the horizon exterior. We also study the stability of spontaneously scalarized BHs in scalar-GB theories with a nonminimal coupling $-βϕ^2 R/16$, where $β$ is a positive constant and $R$ is a Ricci scalar. As the amplitude of the field on the horizon approaches an upper limit $|ϕ_0|=4/\sqrtβ$, one of the squared angular propagation speeds $c_{Ω-}^2$ enters the instability region $c_{Ω-}^2<0$. So long as $|ϕ_0|$ is smaller than a maximum value determined for each $β$ in the range $β>5$, however, the scalarized BHs are linearly stable in both angular and radial directions.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Can we distinguish black holes with electric and magnetic charges from quasinormal modes?

We compute the quasinormal modes of static and spherically symmetric black holes (BHs) with electric and magnetic charges. For the electrically charged case, the dynamics of perturbations separates into the odd- and even-parity sectors with two coupled differential equations in each sector. In the presence of both electric and magnetic charges, the differential equations of four dynamical degrees of freedom are coupled with each other between odd- and even-parity perturbations. Despite this notable modification, we show that, for a given total charge and mass, a BH with mixed electric and magnetic charges gives rise to the same quasinormal frequencies for fundamental modes. This includes the case in which two BHs have equal electric and magnetic charges for each of them. Thus, the gravitational-wave observations of quasinormal modes during the ringdown phase alone do not distinguish between electrically and magnetically charged BHs.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Observational constraints on interactions between dark energy and dark matter with momentum and energy transfers

We place observational constraints on a dark energy (DE) model in which a quintessence scalar field $ϕ$ is coupled to dark matter (DM) through momentum and energy exchanges.The momentum transfer is weighed by an interaction between the field derivative and DM four velocity with a coupling constant $β$, whereas the energy exchange is characterized by an exponential scalar-field coupling to the DM density with a coupling constant $Q$. A positive coupling $β$ leads to the suppression for the growth of DM density perturbations at low redshifts, whose property offers a possibility for resolving the $σ_8$ tension problem. A negative coupling $Q$ gives rise to a $ϕ$-matter-dominated epoch, whose presence can reduce the sound horizon around the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) decoupling epoch. Using the data of Planck 2018, 12-th Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Phantheon supernovae samples, and 1-year dark energy survey, we find that the two couplings are constrained to be $β=0.332^{+1.246}_{-0.237}$ and $Q =-0.0312^{+0.0312}_{-0.0085}$ at 68\,\% confidence level (CL). Thus, there is an interesting observational signature of the momentum exchange ($β\neq 0$) between DE and DM, with a peak of the probability distribution of the energy transfer coupling at $Q<0$.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Starobinsky inflation with a quadratic Weyl tensor

In Starobinsky inflation with a Weyl squared Lagrangian $-αC^2$, where $α$ is a coupling constant, we study the linear stability of cosmological perturbations on a spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker background. In this theory, there are two dynamical vector modes propagating as ghosts for $α>0$, whose condition is required to avoid tachyonic instabilities of vector perturbations during inflation. The tensor sector has four propagating degrees of freedom, among which two of them correspond to ghost modes. However, the tensor perturbations approach constants after the Hubble radius crossing during inflation, and hence the classical instabilities are absent. In the scalar sector, the Weyl curvature gives rise to a ghost mode coupled to the scalaron arising from the squared Ricci scalar. We show that two gauge-invariant gravitational potentials, which are both dynamical in our theory, are subject to exponential growth after the Hubble radius crossing. There are particular gauge-invariant combinations like the curvature perturbations whose growth is suppressed, but it is not possible to remove the instability of other propagating degrees of freedom present in the perturbed metric. This violent and purely classical instability present in the scalar sector makes the background unviable. Furthermore, the presence of such classical instability makes the quantization of the modes irrelevant, and the homogeneous inflationary background is spoiled by the Weyl curvature term.

gr-qc↗