Evolution and spherical collapse in Einstein-Æther theory and Hořava gravity

We compare the initial value formulation of the low-energy limit of (nonprojectable) Hořava gravity to that of Einstein-æther theory when the æther is assumed to be hypersurface orthogonal at the level of the field equations. This comparison clearly highlights a crucial difference in the causal stru...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bhattacharyya, Jishnu, Coates, Andrew, Colombo, Mattia, Sotiriou, Thomas P.
Format: Article
Published: American Physical Society 2016
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39494/
Description
Summary:We compare the initial value formulation of the low-energy limit of (nonprojectable) Hořava gravity to that of Einstein-æther theory when the æther is assumed to be hypersurface orthogonal at the level of the field equations. This comparison clearly highlights a crucial difference in the causal structure of the two theories at the nonperturbative level: in Hořava gravity evolution equations include an elliptic equation that is not a constraint relating initial data but needs to be imposed on each slice of the foliation. This feature is absent in Einstein-æther theory. We discuss its physical significance in Hořava gravity. We also focus on spherical symmetry, and we revisit existing collapse simulations in Einstein-æther theory. We argue that they have likely already uncovered the dynamical formation of a universal horizon and that they can act as evidence that this horizon is indeed a Cauchy horizon in Hořava gravity.