On the Cauchy problem in effective field theories of gravity

ABSTRACT:

Effective field theory (EFT) provides a way of parameterizing strong-field deviations from General Relativity that might be observable in the gravitational waves emitted in a black hole merger. To perform numerical simulations of black hole mergers in an EFT, it is necessary that the theory admits a well-posed initial value formulation.

In the first part of my talk, I will review recent results on the initial value formulation of gravitational EFTs (beyond General Relativity) with second-order equations of motion. In the second part, I will discuss some ideas to deal with EFTs with higher derivative equations.