Solar system tests and interpretation of gauge field and Newtonian prepotential in general covariant Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity

Understand

We study spherically symmetric, stationary vacuum configurations in general covariant theory (U(1) extension) of Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity with the projectability condition and an arbitrary coupling constant $\lambda$, and obtain all the solutions in closed forms.

• If the gauge field $A$ and the Newtonian prepotential $\varphi$ do not directly couple to matter fields, the theory is inconsistent with solar system tests for $\lambda\not=1$, no matter how small $|\lambda-1|$ is.
• This is shown to be true also with the most general ansatz of spherical (but not necessarily stationary) configurations.
• Therefore, to be consistent with observations, one needs either to find a mechanism to restrict $\lambda$ precisely to $\lambda_{GR}=1$, or to consider $A$ and/or $\varphi$ as parts of the 4-dimensional metric on which matter fields propagate.