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Black holes offer a unique laboratory for fundamental physics and are crucial for understanding theories beyond Einstein’s theory of general relativity. In this paper, we focus on 4D effective field theories and string-theory inspired models that include scalar fields. We focus on one such model, axi-dilaton gravity, a quadratic gravity theory with two kinetically coupled scalar fields, an axion and a dilaton. To study the evolution and structure of these fields around black holes, we introduce canuda–axidil, the first open-source, parametrized numerical relativity code for quadratic and biscalar gravity. Using this code, we perform single black hole simulations to show the dynamical formation of axion and dilaton hairs and quantify the effect of higher-order terms in coupling and spin. Through these simulations, we measure the impact of black hole spin and curvature coupling strength on the profiles of the axion and dilaton and show that including kinetic coupling between the fields increases the observed deviations from general relativity. Furthermore, we simulate the axion and dilaton fields around a binary black hole coalescence demonstrating the growth of axion hair during the inspiral and the production of radiative modes for both fields.
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Effective actions for domain wall dynamics
We introduce a systematic method to derive the effective action for domain walls directly from the scalar field theory that gives rise to their solitonic solutions. The effective action for the Goldstone mode, which characterizes the soliton’s position, is shown to consist of the Nambu-Goto action supplemented by higher-order curvature invariants associated to its worldvolume metric. Our approach constrains the corrections to a finite set of Galileon terms, specifying both their functional forms and the procedure to compute their coefficients. We do a collection of tests across various models in 2 +1 and 3 +1 dimensions that confirm the validity of this framework. Additionally, the method is extended to include bound scalar fields living on the world sheet, along with their couplings to the Goldstone mode. These interactions reveal a universal nonminimal coupling of these scalar fields to the Ricci scalar on the world sheet. A significant consequence of this coupling is the emergence of a parametric instability, driven by interactions between the bound states and the Goldstone mode.
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- PAR ID:
- 10611408
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Physical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review D
- Volume:
- 111
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 2470-0010
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.056007
