Related papers: Ghost condensation and Ostrogradskian instability …
$f(R)$ supergravity is known to contain a ghost mode associated with higher-derivative terms if it contains $R^n$ with $n$ greater than two.We remove the ghost in $f(R)$ supergravity by introducing auxiliary gauge field to absorb the ghost.…
Albert Einstein's General Relativity (GR) from 1916 has become the widely accepted theory of gravity and been tested observationally to a very high precision at different scales of energy and distance. At the same time, there still remain…
It is shown that polynomial gravity theories with more than four derivatives in each scalar and tensor sectors have a regular weak-field limit, without curvature singularities. This is achieved by proving that in these models the effect of…
A stealth de Sitter solution in scalar-tensor theories has an exact de Sitter background metric and a nontrivial scalar field profile. Recently, in the context of Degenerate Higher-Order Scalar-Tensor (DHOST) theories it was shown that…
We construct the consistent ghost-free covariant scalar-vector-tensor gravity theories with second order equations of motion with derivative interactions. We impose locality, unitarity, Lorentz invariance and pseudo-Riemannian geometry as…
We consider general theories of a massive spin-2 particle $h_{\mu\nu}$ on a Minkowski background. A decomposition of $h_{\mu\nu}$ in terms of helicity eigenstates allows us to directly test whether any given theory possesses a consistent…
The evidence of the acceleration of universe at present time has lead to investigate modified theories of gravity and alternative theories of gravity, which are able to explain acceleration from a theoretical viewpoint without the need of…
Phantom scalar theories are widely considered in cosmology, but rarely at the quantum level, where they give rise to negative-energy ghost particles. These cause decay of the vacuum into gravitons and photons, violating observational…
We consider perturbations of a static and spherically symmetric background endowed with a metric tensor and a scalar field in the framework of the effective field theory of modified gravity. We employ the previously developed 2+1+1…
We revisit the D-term inflation and amend it with ghost-free higher derivative couplings of chiral superfields to super-curvature. These couplings realize a more generic inflationary phase in supergravity. After pointing out that a…
We consider a problem whether bound states are made in a scalar theory with a fourth-order derivative term or not. After rewriting the theory to a standard scalar theory with second-order derivative terms, we calculate a correlation…
The detection of the GW170817/GRB170817A event improved the constraints on the propagation speed of gravitational waves, thus placing possible variations caused by dark energy under restraint. For models based on scalar fields belonging to…
We derive the full perturbative equations of motion for the most general background solutions in ghost-free bimetric theory in its metric formulation. Clever field redefinitions at the level of fluctuations enable us to circumvent the…
The recently proposed infrared modification of gravity through the introduction of a ghost scalar field results in a number of interesting cosmological and phenomenological implications. In this paper, we derive the exact cosmological…
The Hamiltonian analysis for $f(T)$ gravity implies the existence of at least one scalar-type degree of freedom (DoF). However, this scalar DoF of $f(T)$ gravity does not manifest in linear perturbations around a cosmological background,…
The mutual compatibility of the dynamical equations and constraints describing a massive particle of arbitrary spin, though essential for consistency, is generically lost in the presence of interactions. The conventional Lagrangian approach…
Whichever could be the real theory of gravitation, the corresponding low-energy effective lagrangian will probably contain higher derivative terms. In this work we study the general conditions on those terms in order to produce enough…
We consider an original variational approach for building new models of quintessence interacting with dark or baryonic matter. The coupling is introduced at the Lagrangian level using a variational formulation for relativistic fluids, where…
An effective action of ghost condensate with higher derivatives creates a source of gravity and mimics a dark matter in spiral galaxies. We present a spherically symmetric static solution of Einstein--Hilbert equations with the ghost…
We consider a subclass of Horndeski theories for studying cosmic inflation. In particular, we investigate models of inflation in which the derivative self-interaction of the scalar field and the non-minimal derivative coupling to gravity…