Related papers: Exploring gravitational theories beyond Horndeski
Minimally modified gravity theories are modifications of general relativity with two local gravitational degrees of freedom in four dimensions. Their construction relies on the breaking of 4D diffeomorphism invariance keeping however the…
We consider theories describing the dynamics of a four-dimensional metric, whose Lagrangian is diffeomorphism invariant and depends at most on second derivatives of the metric. Imposing degeneracy conditions we find a set of Lagrangians…
We consider Higher-Order Scalar-Tensor theories which appear degenerate when restricted to the unitary gauge but are not degenerate in an arbitrary gauge. We dub them U-degenerate theories. We provide a full classification of theories that…
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…
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…
It has been pointed out that non-singular cosmological solutions in second-order scalar-tensor theories generically suffer from gradient instabilities. We extend this no-go result to second-order gravitational theories with an arbitrary…
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 of gravity extend general relativity by a single degree of freedom, despite their equations of motion being higher than second order. In some cases, this is a mere consequence of a disformal field…
The importance of the first-class constraint algebra of general relativity is not limited just by its self-contained description of the gauge nature of spacetime, but it also provides conditions to properly evolve the geometry by selecting…
The null energy condition can be violated stably in generalized Galileon theories, which gives rise to the possibilities of healthy non-singular cosmologies. However, it has been reported that in many cases cosmological solutions are…
Certain scalar fields with higher derivative interactions and novel classical and quantum mechanical properties - the Galileons - can be naturally covariantized by coupling to nonlinear massive gravity in such a way that their symmetries…
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…
The Aether Scalar Tensor (AeST) theory is an extension of General Relativity (GR), proposed for addressing galactic and cosmological observations without dark matter. By casting the AeST theory into a $3+1$ form, we determine its full…
We study spatially flat bouncing cosmologies and models with the early-time Genesis epoch in a popular class of generalized Galileon theories. We ask whether there exist solutions of these types which are free of gradient and ghost…
A class of scalar-tensor theories (STT) including a non-metricity that unifies metric, Palatini and hybrid metric-Palatini gravitational actions with non-minimal interaction is proposed and investigated from the point of view of their…
We study new classes of metric transformations in the context of scalar-tensor theories, which involve both higher derivatives of the scalar field and derivatives of the metric itself. In general, such transformations are not invertible as…
We discuss the most general class of teleparallel scalar-torsion theories of gravity in their covariant formulation. The only restrictions we impose are the invariance of the action under diffeomorphisms and local Lorentz transformations,…
We review how the (absence of) Ostrogradsky instability manifests itself in theories with multiple fields. It has recently been appreciated that when multiple fields are present, the existence of higher derivatives may not automatically…
We present new second derivative, generally covariant theories of gravity for spherically symmetric spacetimes (general covariance is in the $t-r$ plane) belonging to the class where the spherically symmetric Einstein-Hilbert theory is…
We naturally extend the theory of gravity with a conformally coupled scalar field by only requiring conformal invariance of the scalar field equation of motion and not of the action. The classically extended theory incorporates a…