English

Massive gravity: nonlinear instability of the homogeneous and isotropic universe

High Energy Physics - Theory 2012-10-26 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We argue that all homogeneous and isotropic solutions in nonlinear massive gravity are unstable. For this purpose, we study the propagating modes on a Bianchi type--I manifold. We analyze their kinetic terms and dispersion relations as the background manifold approaches the homogeneous and isotropic limit. We show that in this limit, at least one ghost always exists and that its frequency tends to vanish for large scales, meaning that it cannot be integrated out from the low energy effective theory. This ghost mode is interpreted as a leading nonlinear perturbation around a homogeneous and isotropic background.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1206.2080,
  title  = {Massive gravity: nonlinear instability of the homogeneous and isotropic universe},
  author = {Antonio De Felice and A. Emir Gumrukcuoglu and Shinji Mukohyama},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1206.2080},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

4 pages, uses REVTeX4.1; v2: minor update to match the published version