Post-Minkowskian Hamiltonians in Modified Theories of Gravity

Abstract

The aim of this note is to describe the computation of post-Minkwoskian Hamiltonians in modified theories of gravity. Exploiting a recent relation between amplitudes of massive scalars and Hamiltonians for relativistic point-particles, we define a post-Minkowskian potential at second order in Newton's constant arising from ${\mathcal{R}}^3$ modifications in General Relativity. Using this result we calculate the associated contribution to the scattering angle for binary black holes at second post-Minkowskian order, showing agreement in the non relativistic limit with previous results for the bending angle of a massless particle around a static massive source in ${\mathcal{R}}^3$ theories.

Comments: 11 pages, new calculations added (v2. submitted to Physics Letter B)