Small-scale nonlinear dynamics of K-mouflage theories
Résumé
We investigate the small-scale static configurations of K-mouflage models defined by a general function $K(\chi)$ of the kinetic terms. The fifth force is screened by the nonlinear K-mouflage mechanism if $K'(\chi)$ grows sufficiently fast for large negative $\chi$. In the general non-spherically symmetric case, the fifth force is not aligned with the Newtonian force. For spherically symmetric static matter density profiles, the results depend on the potential function $W_{-}(y) = y K'(-y^2/2)$, which must be monotonically increasing to $+\infty$ for $y \geq 0$ to guarantee the existence of a single solution throughout space for any matter density profile. Starting from vanishing initial conditions or from nearby profiles, we numerically check that the scalar field converges to the static solution. If $W_{-}$ is bounded, for high-density objects there are no static solutions throughout space, but one can still define a static solution restricted to large radii. Our dynamical study shows that the scalar field relaxes to this static solution at large radii, whereas spatial gradients keep growing with time at smaller radii. If $W_{-}$ is not bounded but non-monotonic, there are an infinite number of discontinuous static solutions but these are not physical and those models are not theoretically sound. Such K-mouflage scenarios provide an example of theories that can appear viable at the cosmological level, for the cosmological background and perturbative analysis, while being meaningless at a nonlinear level for small scale configurations. This shows the importance of small-scale nonlinear analysis of screening models.
All healthy K-mouflage models should satisfy K'0 > 0, and $W_\pm$ (y) = yK'($\pm$$y^2$/2) are monotonically increasing to $+\infty$ when y ≥ 0.