Related papers: The vacuum revealed: the final state of vacuum ins…
Motivated by constant-G theory, we introduce a one-parameter family of scalar-tensor theories as an extension of constant-G theory in which the conformal symmetry is a cosmological attractor. Since the model has the coupling function of…
Scalar-tensor~(ST) theories of gravity are natural phenomenological extensions to general relativity. Although these theories are severely constrained both by solar system experiments and by binary pulsar observations, a large set of ST…
The behavior of fundamental fields in strong gravity or nontrivial environments is important for our understanding of nature. This problem has interesting applications in the context of dark matter, of dark energy physics or of quantum…
We consider dynamics of a scalar field in compactification scenario of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet cosmology. It is shown that if the field is non-minimally coupled to curvature, its asymptotic value under certain conditions may be shifted from…
We discuss the stability properties of an autonomous system in loop quantum cosmology. The system is described by a self-interacting scalar field $\phi$ with positive potential $V$, coupled with a barotropic fluid in the Universe. With…
We look at vacuum solutions for fields confined in cavities where the boundary conditions can rule out constant field configurations, other than the zero field. If the zero field is unstable, symmetry breaking can occur to a field…
We present a model that naturally tunes a large positive cosmological constant to a small cosmological constant. A slowly rolling scalar field decreases the cosmological constant to a small negative value, causing the universe to contract,…
We compute the vacuum polarization associated with quantum massless fields around stars with spherical symmetry. The nonlocal contribution to the vacuum polarization is dominant in the weak field limit, and induces quantum corrections to…
Using the non-canonical model of scalar field, the cosmological consequences of a pervasive, self-interacting, homogeneous and rolling scalar field are studied. In this model, the scalar field potential is nonlinear and decreases in…
We study static and spherically symmetric charged stars with a nontrivial profile of the scalar field $\phi$ in Einstein-Maxwell-scalar theories. The scalar field is coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field $A_{\mu}$ with the form…
Recently, a new interesting instability of a charged scalar field in the Reissner-Nordstr\"om-de Sitter background has been found (arXiv:1405.4931v2) through the time-domain integration of the perturbation equation. We investigate further…
We identify a class of scalar-tensor theories with coupling between the scalar and the Gauss-Bonnet invariant that exhibit spontaneous scalarization for both black holes and compact stars. In particular, these theories formally admit all of…
It has been shown that if one solves self-consistently the semiclassical Einstein equations in the presence of a quantum scalar field, with a cutoff on the number of modes, spacetime become flatter when the cutoff increases. Here we extend…
In this work, we study the vacuum stability of the classical unstable $\left( -\phi^{4}\right) $ scalar field potential. Regarding this, we obtained the effective potential, up to second order in the coupling, for the theory in $1+1$ and…
One possibility to explain the current accelerated expansion of the universe may be related with the presence of cosmologically evolving scalar whose mass depends on the local matter density (chameleon cosmology). We point out that matter…
We compute the vacuum polarization energies for a couple of soliton models in one space and one time dimensions. These solitons are mappings that connect different degenerate vacua. From the considered sample solitons we conjecture that the…
We analyze numerically the dynamical transition to spontaneous scalarization in neutron stars in the framework of a scalar-tensor theory of gravity where the scalar field is free but massive, and it is coupled nonminimally to gravity in the…
In scalar-tensor theories, spontaneous scalarization is a phase transition that can occur in ultra-dense environments such as neutron stars. The scalar field develops a non-trivial configuration once the stars exceeds a compactness…
We discuss the intimate connection between the chaotic dynamics of a classical field theory and the instability of the one-loop effective action of the associated quantum field theory. Using the example of massless scalar electrodynamics,…
In this paper we examine the stability of scalar perturbations in nonsingular models which emerge from an interacting vacuum component. The analysis developed in this paper relies on two phenomenological choices for the energy exchange…