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Domain walls and other defects in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity

P. P. Avelino, L. Sousa

Abstract
We investigate domain wall and other defect solutions in the weak-field limit of Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity as a function of κ , the only additional parameter of the theory with respect to general relativity. We determine, both analytically and numerically, the internal structure of domain walls, quantifying its dependency on κ as well as the impact of such dependency on the value of the tension measured by an outside observer. We find that the pressure in the direction perpendicular to the domain wall can be, in contrast to the weak-field limit of general relativity, significantly greater or smaller than zero, depending, respectively, on whether κ is positive or negative. We further show that the generalized von Laue condition, which states that the average value of the perpendicular pressure is approximately equal to zero in the weak-field limit of general relativity, does not generally hold in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity not only for domain walls, but also in the case of cosmic strings and spherically symmetric particles. We argue that a violation of the generalized von Laue condition should, in general, be expected in any theory of gravity whenever geometry plays a significant role in determining the defect structure.

Keywords
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology; Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; High Energy Physics - Theory

Physical Review D
Volume 102, Issue 10
2020 November

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Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia COMPETE 2020 PORTUGAL 2020 União Europeia