On the kinematic cosmic dipole tension

Our motion through the Universe generates a dipole in the temperature anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and also in the angular distribution of sources. If the cosmological principle is valid, these two dipoles are directly linked, such that the amplitude of one determines that of the other. However, it is a longstanding problem that number counts of radio sources and of quasars at low and intermediate redshifts exhibit a dipole that is well aligned with that of the CMB but with about twice the expected amplitude, leading to a tension reaching up to $4.9 \sigma$. In this paper, we revisit the theoretical derivation of the dipole in the sources number counts, explicitly accounting for the redshift evolution of the population of sources. We argue that if the spectral index and magnification bias of the sources vary with redshift, the standard theoretical description of the dipole may be inaccurate. We provide an alternative expression which does not depend on the spectral index, but instead on the time evolution of the population of sources. We then determine the values that this evolution rate should have in order to remove the tension with the CMB dipole.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, typo corrected in Eq. (28), (43). Subsequent Eqs. (54), (56), (59), Fig. 7 and 8 adapted with respect to v

Statistical effects of the observer's peculiar velocity on source number counts

The velocity of the Sun with respect to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) can be extracted from the CMB dipole, provided its intrinsic dipole is assumed to be small in comparison. This interpretation is consistent, within fairly large error bars, with the measurement of the correlations between neighboring CMB multipoles induced by the velocity of the observer, which effectively breaks isotropy. In contrast, the source number count dipole was reported to privilege a velocity of the observer with an amplitude which is about twice as large as the one extracted from the entirely kinematic interpretation of the CMB dipole, with error bars which indicate a more and more significant tension. In this work, we study the effect of the peculiar velocity of the observer on correlations of nearby multipoles in the source number counts. We provide an unbiased estimator for the kinetic dipole amplitude, which is proportional to the peculiar velocity of the observer and we compute the expected signal to noise ratio. Near future experiments can achieve better than 5$\%$ constraints on the velocity of the Sun with our estimator.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, matches published versio

Scalar Čerenkov radiation from high-energy cosmic rays

As first noted by Robert Wagoner in the 1970s, if a scalar field is nonminimally coupled to the Ricci scalar and propagates at subluminal speeds, then there exists the possibility of scalar Cerenkov radiation from a moving particle. The mere observation of high-energy cosmic rays could in principle rule out the existence of such scalar fields since any particle moving faster than scalar perturbations would lose energy in the form of scalar waves until it moves slower than those. We compute in detail the energy loss to scalar waves and find that it scales with the square of the ultraviolet (UV) cutoff frequency of the effective field theory (EFT) of gravity. For dark-energy-motivated EFTs, the UV cutoff can be low, in which case that energy loss could always be negligible. In contrast, if viewed as a covariant theory valid at all scales or as an EFT valid at higher energies, perhaps even all the way up to the Planck scale, as may be the case if motivated by quantum-gravity perspectives, then the energy loss to scalar waves may diverge or become dramatically large. In this case, high-energy cosmic rays of extragalactic origin stringently constrain any conformally coupled scalar fields with noncanonical kinetic terms, although a minimum scalar phase velocity is required to trust the EF

Scalar and tensor gravitational waves

In dark-energy models where a scalar field is nonminimally coupled to the spacetime geometry, gravitational waves are expected to be supplemented with a scalar mode. Such scalar waves may interact with the standard tensor waves, thereby affecting their observed amplitude and polarization. Understanding the role of scalar waves is thus essential in order to design reliable gravitational-wave probes of dark energy and gravity beyond general relativity. In this article, we thoroughly investigate the propagation of scalar and tensor waves in the subset of Horndeski theories in which tensor waves propagate at the speed of light. We work at linear order in scalar and metric perturbations, in the eikonal regime, and for arbitrary scalar and spacetime backgrounds. We diagonalize the system of equations of motion and identify the physical tensor mode, which differs from the metric perturbation. We find that interactions between scalar and tensor waves generally depend on the scalar propagation speed. If the scalar waves are luminal or quasiluminal, then interactions are negligible. In the subluminal case, scalar-tensor interactions are effectively suppressed due to the incoherence of the wave’s phase

Scalar and tensor gravitational waves

In dark-energy models where a scalar field is nonminimally coupled to the spacetime geometry, gravitational waves are expected to be supplemented with a scalar mode. Such scalar waves may interact with the standard tensor waves, thereby affecting their observed amplitude and polarization. Understanding the role of scalar waves is thus essential in order to design reliable gravitational-wave probes of dark energy and gravity beyond general relativity. In this article, we thoroughly investigate the propagation of scalar and tensor waves in the subset of Horndeski theories in which tensor waves propagate at the speed of light. We work at linear order in scalar and metric perturbations, in the eikonal regime, and for arbitrary scalar and spacetime backgrounds. We diagonalize the system of equations of motion and identify the physical tensor mode, which differs from the metric perturbation. We find that interactions between scalar and tensor waves generally depend on the scalar propagation speed. If the scalar waves are luminal or quasiluminal, then interactions are negligible. In the subluminal case, scalar-tensor interactions are effectively suppressed due to the incoherence of the wave's phases.Comment: 12+6 pages, 1 figure. v2: extended results for subluminal scalar waves, matches published version in PR

Precision Tests of Gravity From Gravitational Wave Propagation in Curved Spacetime

The recent detection of gravitational waves (GWs) in 2015 opened a completely new way to constrain cosmology and gravity. In this thesis, I start by reviewing how gravitational waves emitted by compact binaries may be used as distance indicators in the context of general relativity. I then discuss scalar-tensor modifications of gravity motivated as dark-energy models and how those can affect gravitational waves and evade local constraints from the Solar System via so-called screening mechanisms. In particular, I present how the effective distance probed by standard sirens may be affected by scalar-tensor modifications of gravity. I show how this distance is only affected by local properties of the source and of the observer, which are assumed and constrained to live in screened environments. To do so, I present a formalism to study the evolution of the amplitude of scalar and tensor waves which propagate in a generically curved background spacetime, which allows to account for inhomogeneities which appear in the Universe, as well as in the background scalar field, necessary to account for screening. I present a way to diagonalize the system of equations of motion for the scalar and tensor degrees of freedom and find that interactions are always negligible, although the argument depends on the scalar phase velocity. Next, I focus on subluminal scalar waves interacting with matter fields and discuss scalar Cherenkov radiation from high-energy cosmic rays, which may slow them down. I show how this effect is negligible if the effective field theory (EFT) of gravity is designed to explain cosmic acceleration but how it may be significant if the EFT is applicable at higher energy scales. Finally, I challenge the geometric optics approximation in a general relativistic GW lensing scenario. I show how in certain configurations, a point-like lens can affect the transport of the polarization of the gravitational waves in such a way that may be confused with a smoking gun signature of deviations from general relativity. I discuss the probability to generate significant effective non-tensorial polarizations in a realistic Universe and find that the probability is small for the expected binary black hole merger rates, thereby confirming the robustness of the geometric optics approximation