Related papers: Selected topics in scalar-tensor theories and beyo…
Scalar-tensor theories are studied in the context of cosmological evolution, where the expansion history of the Universe is reconstructed. It is considered quintessence/phantom models, where inflation and cosmic acceleration are reproduced.…
The qualitative properties of spatially homogeneous stiff perfect fluid and minimally coupled massless scalar field models within general relativity are discussed. Consequently, by exploiting the formal equivalence under conformal…
Scalar fields describe interesting phenomena such as Higgs bosons, dark matter and dark energy, and are found to be quite common in physical theories. These fields are susceptible to gravitational forces so that being massless is not enough…
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…
Non-gravitating (stealth) scalar fields associated with Minkowski space in scalar-tensor gravity are examined. Analytical solutions for both non-minimally coupled scalar field theory and for Brans-Dicke gravity are studied and their…
Evolution of primordial fluctuations in a Brans-Dicke type scalar-tensor gravity theory is comprehensively investigated. The harmonic attractor model, in which the scalar field has its harmonic effective potential in the Einstein conformal…
Tensor-scalar theories of gravitation are commonly employed as extensions of General Relativity that allow to describe a much wider phenomenology. They are also naturally generated as low energy limit of higher-dimensional or unified…
Why are there no fundamental scalar fields actually observed in physics today? Scalars are the simplest fields, but once we go beyond Galilean-Newtonian physics they appear only in speculations, as possible determinants of the gravitational…
Scalar-tensor gravitational theories are important extensions of standard general relativity, which can explain both the initial inflationary evolution, as well as the late accelerating expansion of the Universe. In the present paper we…
We analyze the cosmology of a general Scalar-Tensor theory which encompasses generalized Brans-Dicke theory, Gauss-Bonnet gravity, non-minimal derivative gravity, generalized Galileon gravity and also the general k-essence type models.…
Scalar-tensor theories are frequently only consistent with fifth force constraints in the presence of a screening mechanism, namely in order to suppress an otherwise unacceptably large coupling between the scalar and ordinary matter. Here…
The backreaction of inhomogeneities on the cosmic dynamics is studied in the context of scalar-tensor gravity. Due to terms of indefinite sign in the non-canonical effective energy tensor of the Brans-Dicke-like scalar field, extra…
The regularity of black hole solutions, embedded in an expanding Universe, is studied in a subclass of Horndeski theories, namely the sum of the simplest quadratic, cubic and quintic actions. We find that in presence of a time derivative of…
We study the cosmology of an extended version of Horndeski theories with second-order equations of motion on the flat Friedmann-Lema\^{i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) background. In addition to a dark energy field $\chi$ associated with the…
The role that the auxiliary scalar field $\phi$ played in Brans-Dicke cosmology is discussed. If a constant vacuum energy is assumed to be the origin of dark energy, then the corresponding density parameter would be a quantity varying with…
In the present work, the observational consequences of a subclass of of the Horndeski theory have been investigated. In this theory a scalar field (tachyon field) non-minimally coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant through an arbitrary…
In the context of scalar-torsion theory we investigate the evolution of the cosmological anisotropies for a Kantowski-Sachs background geometry. We study the phase-space of the gravitational field equations by determining the admitted…
We have recently proposed a new class of gravitational scalar-tensor theories free from Ostrogradski instabilities, in arXiv:1404.6495. As they generalize Horndeski theories, or "generalized" galileons, we call them G$^3$. These theories…
We study the inhomogeneous cosmological evolution of the Newtonian gravitational 'constant' G in the framework of scalar-tensor theories. We investigate the differences that arise between the evolution of G in the background universes and…
The conformal equivalence of some cosmological models in Brans-Dicke theory to general relativistic cosmologies with a scalar field is discussed. In the case of radiation-dominated universes, it is shown that the presence of the scalar…