Related papers: Effective Description of Higher-Order Scalar-Tenso…
This article reviews scalar-tensor theories characterized by a Lagrangian that, despite the presence of second order derivatives, contain a single scalar degree of freedom. These theories, known as Degenerate Higher-Order Scalar-Tensor…
Degenerate Higher Order Scalar Tensor (DHOST) theories are the most general scalar-tensor theories whose Lagrangian depends on the metric tensor and a single scalar field and its derivatives up to second order. They propagate only one…
This contribution reviews scalar-tensor theories whose Lagrangian contains second-order derivatives of a scalar field but nevertheless propagate only one scalar mode (in addition to the usual two tensor modes), and are thus not plagued with…
Theories of dark energy and modified gravity can be strongly constrained by astrophysical or cosmological observations, as illustrated by the recent observation of the gravitational wave event GW170817 and of its electromagnetic counterpart…
We present a framework for discussing the cosmology of dark energy and dark matter based on two scalar degrees of freedom. An effective field theory of cosmological perturbations is employed. A unitary gauge choice renders the dark energy…
In the last decades, a cosmological model that fits observations through a vast range of scales emerged. It goes under the name of ${\Lambda}$CDM. However, there are still challenging questions that remain unanswered by this model, such as…
The effective field theory (EFT) of cosmological perturbations is a useful framework to deal with the low-energy degrees of freedom present for inflation and dark energy. We review the EFT for modified gravitational theories by starting…
We present a novel and remarkably simple formulation of degenerate higher-order scalar-tensor (DHOST) theories whose Lagrangian is quadratic in second derivatives of some scalar field. Using disformal transformations of the metric, we…
We propose a minimal description of single field dark energy/modified gravity within the effective field theory formalism for cosmological perturbations, which encompasses most existing models. We start from a generic Lagrangian given as an…
We study the late cosmological evolution, from the nonrelativistic matter dominated era to the dark energy era, in modified gravity models described by Degenerate Higher-Order Scalar-Tensor (DHOST) theories. They represent the most general…
Theories with higher order time derivatives generically suffer from ghost-like instabilities, known as Ostrogradski instabilities. This fate can be avoided by considering "degenerate" Lagrangians, whose kinetic matrix cannot be inverted,…
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 classify higher-order Maxwell-Einstein theories linear in the curvature tensor and quadratic in the derivatives of the electromagnetic field strength whose kinetic matrices are degenerate. This provides a generalisation of quadratic…
We show that theories of mimetic gravity can be viewed as degenerate higher-order scalar-tensor (DHOST) theories that admit an extra local (gauge) symmetry in addition to the usual diffeomorphism invariance. We reformulate and classify…
We systematically construct ghost-free scalar-tensor theories whose Lagrangian includes up to third-order derivatives of the scalar field. Using a spatially covariant action written in terms of the ADM variables, we impose degeneracy and…
We construct the metric-affine analogue of the quadratic degenerate higher-order scalar-tensor (DHOST) theories. We begin with the metric-affine completion of the quadratic DHOST scalar-tensor action, which is linear in curvature and…
In general the speed of Gravitational Waves (GWs) in Scalar-Tensor modifications of Einstein's gravity is different from the speed of Light. Nevertheless, it has been measured that their speeds are nearly the same. For the most general…
We develop an approach to compute observables beyond the linear regime of dark matter perturbations for general dark energy and modified gravity models. We do so by combining the Effective Field Theory of Dark Energy and Effective Field…
We show that most classes of shift-symmetric degenerate higher-order scalar-tensor (DHOST) theories which satisfy certain degeneracy conditions are not compatible with the conditions for the existence of exact black hole solutions with a…
Higher derivative scalar interactions can give rise to interesting cosmological scenarios. We present a complete classification of such operators that can yield sizeable effects without introducing ghosts and, at the same time, define an…