Gravitational waves in Palatini gravity for a non-minimal geometry-matter coupling

Abstract We discuss the propagation of gravitational waves over a non-Riemannian space-time, when a non-minimal coupling between the geometry and matter is considered in the form of contractions of the energy momentum tensor with the Ricci and co-Ricci curvature tensors. We focus our analysis on perturbations on a Minkowski background, elucidating how derivatives of the energy momentum tensor can sustain non-trivial torsion and non-metricity excitations, eventually resulting in additional source terms for the metric field. These can be reorganized in the form of d'Alembert operator acting on the energy momentum tensor and the equivalence principle can be reinforced at the linear level by a suitable choice of the parameters of the model. We show how tensor polarizations can exhibit a subluminal phase velocity in matter, evading the constraints found in General Relativity, and how this allows for the kinematic damping in specific configurations of the medium and of the geometry-matter coupling. These in turn define regions in the wavenumber space where propagation is forbidden, leading to the appearance of typical cut-off scale in the frequency spectrum.