Orbital dynamics of a two-body system in the context of a nonlocally mixed IR–UV field theory of gravity

Abstract

We have recently suggested a set of nonlocally extended field equations in which Newton’s constant [Formula: see text] was promoted to a covariant differential operator [Formula: see text] composed by two different contributions. These two terms independently operate in the infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) energy regimes. Considering the recent spectacular direct gravitational radiation measurements, we aim to compute the nonlocally modified orbital dynamics of a two-body system. In a first attempt, we determine the effective Newtonian potential from the nonlocal UV-wave equation to work out the modified Kepler orbits. In addition, we use data obtained from the perihelion precession of Mercury in order to derive an upper bound for the dimensionless UV-parameter [Formula: see text]. Finally, we determine the energy per unit time (power) released by a binary system in the form of gravitational waves. In this context, we observe that in the limit of vanishing UV-parameters, we eventually recover the result obtained in the context of the standard quadrupole formula.