MG11 
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The significance of matter coupling in f(R) gravity

The way one chooses to couple gravity to matter is an essential characteristic of any gravitational theory. In theories where the gravitational field is allowed to have more degrees of freedom than those of General Relativity (e.g. scalar-tensor theory, f(R) gravity) this issue often becomes even more important. Based on recent studies (gr-qc/0604006 and gr-qc/0604028), we concentrate here on f(R) gravity treated within the Palatini variational principle by discussing how the coupling between matter and the extra degrees of freedom of gravity (the independent connections in our case) affects the resulting phenomenology and the interplay between f(R) gravity and scalar-tensor theory. It is shown that this coupling is crucial for the possible dynamical equivalence of different theories as well as for the existence of testable deviations from standard General Relativity even on non-cosmological scales.