Dark range of ω in Brans-Dicke gravity

Abstract

The variational field equations of Brans-Dicke scalar-tensor theory of gravitation that is coupled to a mass-varying sterile neutrino field are presented in Riemannian and non-Riemannian setting in the language of exterior differential forms over four-dimensional spacetime. In a gravitational plane wave geometry in Rosen coordinates, with the scalar field set equal to a constant, the field equations admit ghost neutrino solutions. These correspond to Majorana spinor configurations for which the total neutrino stress-energy-momentum tensor vanishes. We show here that in the absence of a sterile neutrino in the gravitational wave geometry, there are scalar field configurations for which the total scalar field stress-energy-momentum tensor vanishes for negative values of the Brans-Dicke parameter-3/2 < ω < 0. © 2021 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.