Geodesic deviation, Raychaudhuri equation, and tidal forces in modified gravity with an arbitrary curvature-matter coupling

Abstract: The geodesic deviation equation, describing the relative accelerations of nearby particles, and the Raychaudhury equation, giving the evolution of the kinematical quantities associated with deformations (expansion, shear and rotation) are considered in the framework of modified theories of gravity with an arbitrary curvature-matter coupling, by taking into account the effects of the extra force. As a physical application of the geodesic deviation equation the modifications of the tidal forces due to the supplementary curvature-matter coupling are obtained in the weak field approximation. The tidal motion of test particles is directly influenced not only by the gradient of the extra force, which is basically determined by the gradient of the Ricci scalar, but also by an explicit coupling between the velocity and the Riemann curvature tensor. As a specific example, the expression of the Roche limit (the orbital distance at which a satellite will begin to be tidally torn apart by the body it is orbiting) is also obtained for this class of models.