Related papers: Healthy theories beyond Horndeski
The Einstein-Hilbert action with a cosmological constant is the most general local four-dimensional action leading to second-order derivative equations of motion that are symmetric and divergence free. In higher dimensions, additional terms…
The Horndeski Lagrangian brings together all possible interactions between gravity and a scalar field that yield second-order field equations in four-dimensional spacetime. As originally proposed, it only addresses phenomenology without…
Most existing theories of dark energy and/or modified gravity, involving a scalar degree of freedom, can be conveniently described within the framework of the Effective Theory of Dark Energy, based on the unitary gauge where the scalar…
We study the structure of scalar-tensor theories of gravity based on derivative couplings between the scalar and the matter degrees of freedom introduced through an effective metric. Such interactions are classified by their tensor…
We derive the most generic Carrollian higher derivative free scalar field theory intrinsically on a Carrollian manifold. The solutions to these theories are massless free particles propagating with speeds depending on the coupling constants…
The Horndeski theory is known as the most general scalar-tensor theory with second-order field equations. In this paper, we explore the bi-scalar extension of the Horndeski theory. Following Horndeski's approach, we determine all the…
Degenerate scalar-tensor theories are recently proposed covariant theories of gravity coupled with a scalar field. Despite being characterised by higher order equations of motion, they do not propagate more than three degrees of freedom,…
Among single-field scalar-tensor theories, there is a special class called "cuscuton," which is represented as some limiting case of k-essence in general relativity. This theory has a remarkable feature that the number of propagating…
Standard sirens have been proposed as probes of alternative theories of gravity, such as Horndeski models. Hitherto, all studies have been conducted on a homogeneous-isotropic cosmological background, which is unable to consistently account…
We consider Galileon models on curved spacetime, as well as the counterterms introduced to maintain the second-order nature of the field equations of these models when both the metric and the scalar are made dynamical. Working in a gauge…
In this essay I show that there exists a new way to obtain scalar-tensor field theories by combining a special scalar field on the tangent bundle of a four-dimensional manifold with a scalar field on that manifold. These two scalar fields…
We consider the Quartic Horndeski theory with torsion on a FLRW background in the second order formalism. We show that there is a one parameter family of Quartic Horndeski Cartan Lagrangians and all such theories only modify the dispersion…
Scalar-tensor theories have shown promise in many sectors of cosmology. However, recent constraints from the speed of gravitational waves have put severe limits on the breadth of models such classes of theories can realize. In this work, we…
The Horndeski action is the most general scalar-tensor theory with at most second-order derivatives in the equations of motion, thus evading Ostrogradsky instabilities and making it of interest when modifying gravity at large scales. To…
We determine the most general scalar field theories which have an action that depends on derivatives of order two or less, and have equations of motion that stay second order and lower on flat space-time. We show that those theories can all…
We consider higher-order derivative interactions beyond second-order generalized Proca theories that propagate only the three desired polarizations of a massive vector field besides the two tensor polarizations from gravity. These new…
It is shown that, in the absence of matter fields, the coupling of a scalar field to the non-chiral Plebanski action can be obtained by relaxing the trace component of the simplicity constraints. This is realized by considering a subclass…
This article is intended to review the recent developments in the Horndeski theory and its generalization, which provide us with a systematic understanding of scalar-tensor theories of gravity as well as a powerful tool to explore…
We present a new class of nonsingular bounce cosmology free from instabilities, using a single scalar field coupled to gravity within the framework of the Degenerate Higher-Order Scalar-Tensor (DHOST) theories. In this type of scenarios,…
We construct the consistent ghost-free covariant scalar-vector-tensor gravity theories with second order equations of motion with derivative interactions. We impose locality, unitarity, Lorentz invariance and pseudo-Riemannian geometry as…