Is It Possible to See the Breaking Point of General Relativity near the Galactic Center Black Hole? Consideration of Scalaron and Higher-dimensional Gravity

Abstract

Abstract The Galactic center black hole is a putative laboratory to test general relativity (GR) and constrain its alternatives. f(R) scalaron gravity is an interesting alternative to GR and has tremendous prospects for astrophysics and fundamental physics near the black hole. In this work, we search for breaking points of GR through estimation of pericenter shift of stellar orbits with semimajor axis a = (45–1000) au. The black hole spin is taken as the maximum χ = 0.99, and orbital eccentricity is taken as e = 0.9. We work with theoretical scalaron field amplitude and coupling, predicted by Kalita, and also consider the constraints reported by Hees et al. The scalaron mass is taken in the range (10−22–10−17) eV. It is found that GR suppresses scalaron gravity at all orbital radii for the theoretical values of scalaron field coupling predicted by Kalita. Breaking point arises only for higher scalaron coupling resulting from the Hees et al. observations within a few tens of au to a = 1000 au. We also estimate the pericenter shift with a power-law potential V(r) ∼ 1/r 2 arising in five-dimensional gravity and obtain allowed ranges of the five-dimensional Planck mass through existing bounds on the parameterized post-Newtonian parameters coming from the orbits of S-2, S-38, and S-55. The breaking point for GR arises for a five-dimensional Planck mass of about 104 GeV. Constraint on this parameter, expected from the astrometric capabilities of existing and upcoming large telescopes, is also presented.