English

Are Petrov type-N and D spacetimes admitting CTCs valid in $f(R,\mathcal{L}_m,\Phi,X)$ gravity?

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-05-27 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We ask whether two classical time-machine geometries, the Ori (2005) compact-vacuum-core metric and the Ahmed (2018) four-dimensional generalisation of Misner space, remain admissible exact solutions when the gravitational sector is enlarged to the recently proposed f(R,Lm,Φ,X)f(R,\mathcal{L}_{m},\Phi,X) class, an extension of f(R,Lm)f(R,\mathcal{L}_{m}) that couples curvature, the matter Lagrangian density, a scalar field Φ\Phi, and its kinetic invariant X=gμνμΦνΦX = g^{\mu\nu}\nabla_{\mu}\Phi\nabla_{\nu}\Phi. Working with the explicit model f=R+Lm+(λ/2)Xf = R + \mathcal{L}_{m} + (\lambda/2)\,X and a vanishing scalar potential, we compute the curvature invariants, the modified field equations, and the effective stress-energy components produced by the harmonic scalar profile Φ(x,y)=a(x2y2)/2\Phi(x,y) = a(x^{2}-y^{2})/2 in both backgrounds. The Ricci scalar vanishes for the Ori metric and obeys R=ef(f,xx+f,yy)R = e^{f}(f_{,xx}+f_{,yy}) for the Ahmed metric; the kinetic invariant takes the explicit forms X=a2(x2+y2)X = a^{2}(x^{2}+y^{2}) and X=a2ef(x2+y2)X = a^{2}e^{f}(x^{2}+y^{2}), respectively. Both metrics solve the field equations of the modified theory with anisotropic matter sources, and the chronology-violating regions gzz<0g_{zz}<0 (Ori) and gψψ<0g_{\psi\psi}<0 (Ahmed) survive the modification. Energy-density profiles measured by a closed-timelike-curve observer match those measured by a static observer outside the chronology horizon, so the additional scalar degree of freedom in f(R,Lm,Φ,X)f(R,\mathcal{L}_{m},\Phi,X) gravity does not enforce a chronology-protection mechanism in either background. The conclusion mirrors the parallel result for the Li time-machine and supplies a consistency test for scalar-extended modified gravity in non-globally-hyperbolic settings.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.26696,
  title  = {Are Petrov type-N and D spacetimes admitting CTCs valid in $f(R,\mathcal{L}_m,\Phi,X)$ gravity?},
  author = {Faizuddin Ahmed and Ahmad Al-Badawi and İzzet Sakallı},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.26696},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

20 pages, 10 Figures, 1 Table (comments are welcome)