Gravitational waves in modified teleparallel theories

Abstract

We investigate the gravitational waves and their properties in various modified teleparallel theories, such as $f(T)$, $f(T,B)$, and $f(T,{T}_{G})$ gravities. We perform the perturbation analysis both around a Minkowski background and in the case where a cosmological constant is present, and for clarity we use both the metric and the tetrad languages. For $f(T)$ gravity we verify the result that no further polarization modes comparing to general relativity are present at first-order perturbation level, and we show that in order to see extra modes one should look at third-order perturbations. For nontrivial $f(T,B)$ gravity, by examining the geodesic deviation equations, we show that extra polarization models, namely the longitudinal and breathing modes, do appear at first-order perturbation level, and the reason for this behavior is the fact that although the first-order perturbation does not have any effect on $T$, it does affect the boundary term $B$. Finally, for $f(T,{T}_{G})$ gravity we show that at first-order perturbations the gravitational waves exhibit the same behavior as those of $f(T)$ gravity. Since different modified teleparallel theories exhibit different gravitational wave properties, the advancing gravitational-wave astronomy would help to alleviate the degeneracy not only between curvature and torsional modified gravity but also between different subclasses of modified teleparallel gravities.