Unveiling $f(R)$ Gravity with Void-Galaxy Cross-Correlation Multipoles
Abstract
Cosmic voids provide low-density environments where the scalar fifth force predicted by 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 in redshift space for the Hu-Sawicki model (), combining scale-dependent growth induced by the scalaron with nonlinear spherical shell dynamics. The same framework can be generalized to metric theories for which is specified in the quasi-static limit. Our key results are: (1)~the monopole deviation from grows from for large voids () to for small voids () at , a distinctive size-dependent signature of the Compton-scale scalaron response, with ; (2)~nonlinear evolution amplifies the modified-gravity signal by , 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 gravity and effective dark-energy inhomogeneities in modified gravity.
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