How deep can a cosmic void be? Voids-informed theoretical bounds in Galileon gravity
We establish a void-based consistency test for Galileon scalar-tensor theories. We show that the previously reported unphysical breakdown of the predicted Newtonian force in certain Galileon models is controlled by a single condition linking non-linear void dynamics to the cosmic expansion history. This connection yields a redshift-dependent upper bound on the allowed depth of voids and promotes this requirement to a new viability condition, complementary to standard stability criteria. As an example, we apply this void-based criterion to a linear parameterization in the scale factor constrained by theoretical and observational bounds; we find that $\sim 60\%$ of the parameter space is excluded, with most problematic models failing by $z\lesssim 10$. These results position cosmic voids as sharp, complementary and theory-informed filters for viable modified gravity, enabling more informed priors and parameter-space choices in future cosmological inference.
Authors
- Anonymous (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5624-1945)
Institutions
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino (IT)
- Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Napoli (IT)
- Flatiron Health (United States) (US)
- Flatiron Institute (US)
- University of Turin (IT)
- University of Naples Federico II (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
- Published
- 2026-04-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/nk9f-dw1z
- Primary Topic
- Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Simons Foundation
- European Commission
- European Cooperation in Science and Technology
- Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
- Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
- Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare