Scalar Gravitational Wave Signals from Core Collapse in Massive Scalar-Tensor Gravity with Triple-Scalar Interactions

Abstract: The spontaneous scalarization during the stellar core collapse in the massive scalar-tensor theories of gravity introduces extra polarizations (on top of the plus and cross modes) in gravitational waves, whose amplitudes are determined by several model parameters. Observations of such scalarization-induced gravitational waveforms therefore offer valuable probes into these theories of gravity. Considering a triple-scalar interactions in such theories, we find that the self-coupling effects suppress the magnitude of the scalarization and thus reduce the amplitude of the associated gravitational wave signals. In addition, the self-interacting effects in the gravitational waveform are shown to be negligible due to the dispersion throughout the astrophysically distant propagation. As a consequence, the gravitational waves observed on the Earth feature the characteristic inverse-chirp pattern. Although not with the on-going ground-based detectors, we illustrate that the scalarization-induced gravitational waves may be detectable at a signal-to-noise ratio level of ${\cal O}(100)$ with future detectors, such as Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer.