9,522 research outputs found
Constraints on the Brans-Dicke gravity theory with the Planck data
Based on the new cosmic CMB temperature data from the Planck satellite, the 9
year polarization data from the WMAP, the BAO distance ratio data from the SDSS
and 6dF surveys, we place a new constraint on the Brans-Dicke theory. We adopt
a parametrization \zeta=\ln(1+1/\omega}), where the general relativity (GR)
limit corresponds to . We find no evidence of deviation from general
relativity. At 95% probability, , correspondingly,
the region is excluded. If we restrict ourselves to
the (i.e. ) case, then the 95% probability interval is
. We can also translate this
result to a constraint on the variation of gravitational constant, and find the
variation rate today as yr ( error bar), the integrated change since the epoch of
recombination is ( error
bar). These limits on the variation of gravitational constant are comparable
with the precision of solar system experiments.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 2 table
Probing gravitational non-minimal coupling with dark energy surveys
We investigate observational constraints on a specific one-parameter
extension to the minimal quintessence model, where the quintessence field
acquires a quadratic coupling to the scalar curvature through a coupling
constant . The value of is highly suppressed in typical tracker
models if the late-time cosmic acceleration is driven at some field values near
the Planck scale. We test in a second class of models in which the field
value today becomes a free model parameter. We use the combined data from
type-Ia supernovae, cosmic microwave background, baryon acoustic oscillations
and matter power spectrum, to weak lensing measurements and find a best-fit
value where is excluded outside the 95 per cent
confidence region. The effective gravitational constant subject
to the hint of a non-zero is constrained to at the same confidence level on cosmological scales, and can be narrowed
down to when combining with Solar
System tests.Comment: Context extended, figures and references added, title changed to
match with accepted version for publicatio
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