https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201816801003
Gravitational Wave Polarizations in f (R) Gravity and Scalar-Tensor Theory
School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China
* e-mail: yggong@hust.edu.cn
** e-mail: shou1397@hust.edu.cn
Published online: 9 January 2018
The detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory opens a new era to use gravitational waves to test alternative theories of gravity. We investigate the polarizations of gravitational waves in f (R) gravity and Horndeski theory, both containing scalar modes. These theories predict that in addition to the familiar + and × polarizations, there are transverse breathing and longitudinal polarizations excited by the massive scalar mode and the new polarization is a single mixed state. It would be very difficult to detect the longitudinal polarization by interferometers, while pulsar timing array may be the better tool to detect the longitudinal polarization.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2018
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
