Related papers: Behind Horndeski: Structurally Robust Higher Deriv…
We extend the dynamical systems analysis of Scalar-Fluid interacting dark energy models performed in C. G. Boehmer et al, Phys. Rev. D 91, 123002 (2015), by considering scalar field potentials beyond the exponential type. The properties and…
One possible way to explain the observed effective dark energy equation of state crossing $w=-1$ (the phantom divide) is through modified gravity. A key point is to not view the expansion history in isolation but to take into account the…
We examine the phenomenological implications at colliders for the existence of higher-derivative gravity terms as extensions to the Randall-Sundrum model. Such terms are expected to arise on rather general grounds, e.g., from string theory.…
We discuss mimetic gravity theories with direct couplings between the curvature and higher derivatives of the scalar field, up to the quintic order, which were proposed to solve the instability problem for linear perturbations around the…
The string theory swampland proposes that there is no UV-completion for an effective field theory with an exact (metastable) de Sitter vacua, thereby ruling out standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology if the conjecture is taken seriously. The…
We propose a novel method to construct ghost-free multiple scalar-tensor theories. The key idea is to use the geometric quantities of hypersurfaces defined by the scalar fields, rather than the covariant derivatives of scalar fields or…
Interacting theories with higher derivatives involve ghosts. They correspond to instabilities that display themselves at the classical level. We notice that comparatively "benign" mechanical higher-derivative systems exist where the…
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…
Effective equations are often useful to extract physical information from quantum theories without having to face all technical and conceptual difficulties. One can then describe aspects of the quantum system by equations of classical type,…
As an example of what happens with physically relevant theories like effective gravity, we consider the covariant relativistic theory of a scalar field of arbitrarily higher differential order. A procedure based on the Legendre…
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…
The spontaneous symmetry breaking for the massless scalar field naturally arises from the framework of the effective theory (the non-minimal coupling of gravity to a scalar field). A magic key ingredient is to add the large vacuum energy…
In this work we illustrate a general framework to describe the LHC phenomenology of extended scalar (and fermion) sectors, with focus on dark matter (DM) physics, based on an effective field theory (EFT) with non-linearly realized…
We provide a full analysis of ghost free higher derivative field theories with coupled degrees of freedom. Assuming the absence of gauge symmetries, we derive the degeneracy conditions in order to evade the Ostrogradsky ghosts, and analyze…
A non-singular bouncing cosmology is generically obtained in loop quantum cosmology due to non-perturbative quantum gravity effects. A similar picture can be achieved in standard general relativity in the presence of a scalar field with a…
We develop an effective field theory of a generic massive particle of any spin and, as an example, apply this to study higher-spin dark matter (DM). Our formalism does not introduce unphysical degrees of freedom, thus avoiding the potential…
We propose a new class of higher derivative scalar-tensor theories without the Ostrogradsky's ghost instabilities. The construction of our theory is originally motivated by a scalar field with spacelike gradient, which enables us to fix a…
We investigate the corresponding relation between $f(R)$ gravity and an interacting holographic dark energy. By obtaining conditions needed for some observational evidence such as, positive acceleration expansion of universe, crossing the…
We consider an extended scalar-tensor theory of gravity where the action has two interacting scalar fields, a Brans-Dicke field which makes the effective Newtonian constant a function of coordinates and a Higgs field which has derivative…
Attempts at constraining theories of late time accelerated expansion often assume broad priors for the parameters in their phenomenological description. Focusing on shift-symmetric scalar-tensor theories with standard gravitational wave…