Related papers: Avoiding instabilities in antisymmetric tensor fie…

We present for the first time a ghost-free higher-derivative chiral model with a propagating auxiliary F-term field (highest component of the chiral multiplet). We obtain this model by removing a ghost in a higher derivative chiral model,…

In arXiv:0908.4089, we have proposed a model where natural inflation is realized on a steep potential as a consequence of the interaction of the inflaton with gauge fields through an axion-like coupling. In the present work we study the…

A non-abelian $SU(2)$ gauge field with a non-minimal Horndeski coupling to gravity gives rise to a de Sitter solution followed by a graceful exit to a radiation-dominated epoch. In this Horndeski Yang-Mills (HYM) theory we derive the…

The energy and time scales during the inflationary stage of the universe calls for an out of equilibrium quantum field treatment. Moreover, the high energy densities involved make necessary the use of non-perturbative approaches as large N…

We show the existence of a general mechanism by which heavy scalar fields can be destabilized during inflation, relying on the fact that the curvature of the field space manifold can dominate the stabilizing force from the potential and…

We consider cosmological models with a dynamical dark energy field, and study the presence of three types of commonly found instabilities, namely ghost (when fields have negative kinetic energy), gradient (negative momentum squared) and…

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 show that Inflation in a False Vacuum becomes viable in the presence of a spectator scalar field non minimally coupled to gravity. The field is unstable in this background, it grows exponentially and slows down the pure de Sitter phase…

A new gauge-invariant criterion for stability against inhomogeneous perturbations of de Sitter space is applied to scenarios of dark energy and inflation in scalar-tensor gravity. The results extend previous studies.

Cosmological perturbations of FRW solutions in ghost free massive bigravity, including also a second matter sector, are studied in detail. At early time, we find that sub horizon exponential instabilities are unavoidable and they lead to a…

We explore the nonlinear dynamics of classical field theories containing ghost degrees of freedom, focusing on two coupled scalar fields with opposite kinetic terms in (1+1) and (2+1) dimensional Minkowski spacetime. Using a spacetime…

Quadratic gravity is a fourth-order (in derivatives) theory that can serve as an attractive upgrade to the standard description of gravity provided by General Relativity, thanks to its renormalizability and its built-in description of…

In the Horndeski's most general scalar-tensor theories with second-order field equations, we derive the conditions for the avoidance of ghosts and Laplacian instabilities associated with scalar, tensor, and vector perturbations in the…

In this manuscript we will present the theoretical framework of the recently proposed infinite derivative theory of gravity with a non-symmetric connection. We will explicitly derive the field equations at the linear level and obtain new…

We discuss the additional perturbation introduced during inflation by quantum stress tensor fluctuations of a conformally invariant field such as the photon. We consider both a kinematical model, which deals only with the expansion…

In this work we investigate the inflationary phenomenological implications of a recently developed ghost-free Gauss-Bonnet theory of gravity. The resulting theory can be viewed as a scalar Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory of gravity, so by…

The stable version of the anomaly-induced inflation does not need a fine tuning and leads to sufficient expansion of the Universe. The non-stable version (Starobinsky model) provides the graceful exit to the FRW phase. We indicate the…

We study inflation in the framework of extended metric-affine F(R) gravity, where all even-parity quadratic invariants of torsion and non-metricity are included in the Lagrangian alongside the F(R) term. The extended theory admits a…

We consider a modification of GR with a special type of a non-local f(R). The structure of the non-local operators is motivated by the string field theory and p-adic string theory. The spectrum is derived explicitly and the ghost-free…

We perform a model-independent analysis of kinetically driven inflation (KDI) which (partially) includes Generalized G-inflation and Ghost inflation. We evaluate the background evolution splitting into the inflationary attractor and the…