Massive gravitational waves in Chern-Simons modified gravity

Abstract

We consider the nondynamical Chern-Simons (nCS) modified gravity, which is regarded as a parity-odd theory of massive gravity in four dimensions. We first find polarization modes of gravitational waves for θ=x/μ in nCS modified gravity by using the Newman-Penrose formalism where the null complex tetrad is necessary to specify gravitational waves. We show that in the Newman–Penrose formalism, the number of polarization modes is one in addition to an unspecified Ψ{sub 4}, implying three degrees of freedom for θ=x/μ. This compares with two for a canonical embedding of θ=t/μ. Also, if one introduces the Ricci tensor formalism to describe a massive graviton arising from the nCS modified gravity, one finds one massive mode after making second-order wave equations, which is compared to five found from the parity-even Einstein–Weyl gravity.