Related papers: Theoretical priors in scalar-tensor cosmologies: S…
Constraining the Dark Energy (DE) equation of state, w, is one of the primary science goals of ongoing and future cosmological surveys. In practice, with imperfect data and incomplete redshift coverage, this requires making assumptions…
Future observations of the large-scale structure have the potential to investigate cosmological models with a high degree of complexity, including the properties of gravity on large scales, the presence of a complicated dark energy…
We review the most general scalar-tensor cosmological models with up to second-order derivatives in the field equations that have a fixed spatially flat de Sitter critical point independent of the material content or vacuum energy. This…
We present new cosmological parameter constraints for general Horndeski scalar-tensor theories, using CMB, redshift space distortion, matter power spectrum and BAO measurements from the Planck, SDSS/BOSS and 6dF surveys. We focus on…
We investigate the radiative stability of Horndeski scalar-tensor theories with luminally propagating gravitational waves (as extensively discussed in the wake of GW170817) and show that in general there is a tension between obtaining…
Ongoing and upcoming cosmological surveys will significantly improve our ability to probe the equation of state of dark energy, $w_{\rm DE}$, and the phenomenology of Large Scale Structure. They will allow us to constrain deviations from…
Positivity bounds - the consequences of requiring a unitary, causal, local UV completion - place strong restrictions on theories of dark energy and/or modified gravity. We derive and investigate such bounds for Horndeski scalar-tensor…
Cosmic acceleration may be due to modifications of cosmic gravity and to test this we need robust connections between theory and observations. However, in a model independent approach like effective field theory or a broad class like…
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…
We revisit the theoretical priors used for inferring Dark Energy (DE) parameters. Any DE model must have some form of a tracker mechanism such that it behaved as matter or radiation in the past. Otherwise, the model is fine-tuned. We…
We study the cosmological evolution of a scalar field in Horndeski gravity, assuming that the scalar field is subdominant with respect to the cosmic fluid. We first analyse the most general shift-symmetric action that respects local Lorentz…
The late time acceleration of the Universe can be characterized in terms of an extra, time dependent, component of the universe -- dark energy. The simplest proposal for dark energy is a scalar-tensor theory -- quintessence -- which…
Cosmic acceleration may be due to modified gravity, with effective field theory or property functions describing the theory. Connection to cosmological observations through practical parametrization of these functions is difficult and also…
We study the extent up to which the equivalence principle is obeyed in models of modified gravity and dark energy involving a single scalar degree of freedom. We focus on the effective field theories of dark energy describing the late time…
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…
In order to derive model-independent observational bounds on dark energy/modified gravity theories, a typical approach is to constrain parametrised models intended to capture the space of dark energy theories. Here we investigate in detail…
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…
One of the most compelling goals of observational cosmology is the characterisation of the properties of the dark energy component thought to be responsible for the recent acceleration of the universe, including its possible dynamics. In…
We study cosmological models involving a single real scalar field that has an equation of state parameter which evolves with cosmic time. We highlight some common parametrizations for the equation of state as a function of redshift in the…
We discuss the possibility of a scalar field being the fundamental description of dark energy. We focus on shift-symmetric scalar-tensor theories since this symmetry potentially avoids some fine-tuning problems. We also restrict attention…