English

Spherical Cows in the Sky with Fab Four

High Energy Physics - Theory 2015-06-17 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We explore spherically symmetric static solutions in a subclass of unitary scalar-tensor theories of gravity, called the `Fab Four' models. The weak field large distance solutions may be phenomenologically viable, but only if the Gauss-Bonnet term is negligible. Only in this limit will the Vainshtein mechanism work consistently. Further, classical constraints and unitarity bounds constrain the models quite tightly. Nevertheless, in the limits where the range of individual terms at large scales is respectively Kinetic Braiding, Horndeski, and Gauss-Bonnet, the horizon scale effects may occur while the theory satisfies Solar system constraints and, marginally, unitarity bounds. On the other hand, to bring the cutoff down to below a millimeter constrains all the couplings scales such that `Fab Fours' can't be heard outside of the Solar system.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1310.5058,
  title  = {Spherical Cows in the Sky with Fab Four},
  author = {Nemanja Kaloper and McCullen Sandora},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1310.5058},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

15 pages, LaTeX

R2 v1 2026-06-22T01:49:44.647Z