Gauge-invariant post-Newtonian perturbations in symmetric teleparallel gravity

Abstract

We present an extension to the gauge-invariant formulation of the parameterized post-Newtonian (PPN) formalism, which allows its application to symmetric teleparallel gravity theories. In its original formulation, the gauge-invariant PPN formalism makes use of a gauge-invariant perturbative expansion of tensor fields; however, one of the fundamental gravitational field variables in symmetric teleparallel gravity theories is a flat, torsion-free connection, hence not a tensor field. Since connections transform differently from tensor fields under diffeomorphisms, we introduce here an adapted notion of gauge-invariant perturbation variables for the symmetric teleparallel connection, and show how the lowest order terms can be expressed in terms of the common PPN potentials.