English

Unveiling $f(R)$ Gravity with Void-Galaxy Cross-Correlation Multipoles

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2026-05-19 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Cosmic voids provide low-density environments where the scalar fifth force predicted by f(R)f(R) modified gravity can be weakly screened. We present a semi-analytical calculation of the monopole, dipole, and quadrupole of the void-galaxy cross-correlation function ξs(s,μ)\xi^{s}(s,\mu) in redshift space for the Hu-Sawicki f(R)f(R) model (n=1n=1), combining scale-dependent growth induced by the scalaron with nonlinear spherical shell dynamics. The same framework can be generalized to metric f(R)f(R) theories for which Geff(k,a)/GG_{\rm eff}(k,a)/G is specified in the quasi-static limit. Our key results are: (1)~the monopole deviation from ΛCDM\Lambda{\rm CDM} grows from +2.8%+2.8\% for large voids (rv=30h1Mpcr_v=30 h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}) to +29.7%+29.7\% for small voids (rv=11.7h1Mpcr_v=11.7 h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}) at fR0=105|f_{R0}|=10^{-5}, a distinctive size-dependent signature of the Compton-scale scalaron response, with λC8h1Mpc\lambda_C\approx 8 h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}; (2)~nonlinear evolution amplifies the modified-gravity signal by A04\mathcal{A}_0\approx 4, bringing it within reach of ongoing and upcoming spectroscopic surveys such as DESI, Subaru PFS, Euclid, and Roman; (3) the gravitational potential contains a finite-range Yukawa component, producing a radially dependent dipole signature complementary to the density and velocity multipoles; (4) for the fiducial Hu-Sawicki evolution, the signal generally decreases toward higher redshift as the scalaron Compton wavelength becomes shorter, but remains potentially detectable at Stage-IV spectroscopic void samples. We show that the void-scale transition in the modified-gravity response, the joint sensitivity to density, velocity, and fifth-force contributions, and the nonlinear amplification around void shells make redshift-space void-galaxy multipoles a powerful semi-analytical probe of f(R)f(R) gravity and effective dark-energy inhomogeneities in modified gravity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.12482,
  title  = {Unveiling $f(R)$ Gravity with Void-Galaxy Cross-Correlation Multipoles},
  author = {Yue Nan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.12482},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

22 pages, 12 figures, 7 tables

R2 v1 2026-07-22T07:08:18.676Z