Kovács ÁD, Reall HS. Well-Posed Formulation of Scalar-Tensor Effective Field Theory.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2020;
124:221101. [PMID:
32567920 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.124.221101]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2020] [Accepted: 05/12/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Effective field theory provides a way of parametrizing strong-field deviations from general relativity that might be observable in the gravitational waves emitted in a black hole merger. To perform numerical simulations of mergers in such theories it is necessary that the equations be written in a form that admits a well-posed initial value formulation. We study gravity coupled to a scalar field including the leading (four-derivative) effective field theory corrections. We introduce a new class of "modified harmonic" gauges and gauge-fixed equations of motion, such that, at weak coupling, the equations are strongly hyperbolic and therefore admit a well-posed initial value formulation.
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