Related papers: UV completions, fixing the equations and nonlinear…
We study the vacuum Cauchy problem for K-essence, i.e. cosmologically relevant scalar-tensor theories that involve first-order derivative self-interactions, and which pass all existing gravitational wave bounds. We restrict to spherical…
We consider k-essence, a scalar-tensor theory with first-order derivative self-interactions that can screen local scales from scalar fifth forces, while allowing for sizeable deviations from General Relativity on cosmological scales. We…
The $k$-essence theory is a prototypical class of scalar-field models that already gives rich phenomenology and has been a target of extensive studies in cosmology. General forms of shift-symmetric $k$-essence are known to suffer from…
In this paper, we build upon the successes of the ultraviolet (UV) completion of the Starobinsky model of inflation. This involves an extension of the Einstein-Hilbert term by an infinite covariant derivative theory of gravity, which is…
We point out that the initial-value (Cauchy) problem for self-interacting vector fields presents the same well-posedness issues as for first-order derivative self-interacting scalar fields (often referred to as $k$-essence). For the latter,…
We consider the Cauchy problem for evolutionary Faddeev model corresponding to maps from the Minkowski space $\mathbb{R}^{1 + n}$ to the unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^2$, which obey a system of non-linear wave equations. The nonlinearity enjoys…
Inflationary cosmology attempts to provide a natural explanation for the flatness and homogeneity of the observable universe. In the context of reversible (unitary) evolution, this goal is difficult to satisfy, as Liouville's theorem…
We consider a new variant of cosmological perturbation theory that has been designed specifically to include non-linear density contrasts on scales 100 Mpc, while still allowing for linear fluctuations on larger scales. This theory is used…
We study the well-posedness of the initial value (Cauchy) problem of vacuum Einstein-aether theory. The latter is a Lorentz-violating gravitational theory consisting of General Relativity with a dynamical timelike 'aether' vector field,…
In the mathematical physics literature, there are heuristic arguments, going back three decades, suggesting that for an open set of initially smooth solutions to the Einstein-vacuum equations in high dimensions, stable, approximately…
We discuss aspects of the hierarchy problem in effective theories with light scalars and a large, physical ultraviolet (UV) cutoff. We make two main points: (1) The (naive) fine-tuning observed in an effective theory does not automatically…
We investigate the ultraviolet completion of an $O(N)$ scalar field theory non-minimally coupled to gravity using the Wilsonian functional renormalization group in the proper-time formulation. Focusing on the spontaneously broken phase, we…
We demonstrate some shortcomings of "fixing the equations," an increasingly popular remedy for time evolution problems of effective field theories (EFTs). We compare the EFTs and their "fixed" versions to the UV theories from which they can…
After an exhaustive introduction highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the non-local models proposed so far as ultraviolet completions of the Starobinsky theory, we propose a new nonlocal completion of a general $f(R)$ theory (in the…
Unimodular gravity is an appealing approach to address the cosmological constant problem. In this scenario, the vacuum energy density of quantum fields does not gravitate and the cosmological constant appears merely as an integration…
The Cauchy problem of the vacuum Einstein's equations aims to find a semi-metric $g_{\alpha\beta}$ of a spacetime with vanishing Ricci curvature $R_{\alpha,\beta}$ and prescribed initial data. Under the harmonic gauge condition, the…
A variant of the abstract Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem is considered. We prove existence and uniqueness of classical solutions to the nonlinear, non-autonomous initial value problem \[ \frac{du(t)}{dt} = A(t)u(t) + B(u(t),t), \ \ u(0) = x \]…
We consider the Cauchy problem with smooth data for compressible Euler equations in many dimensions and concentrate on two cases: solutions with finite mass and energy and solutions corresponding to a compact perturbation of a nontrivial…
We consider a general Euler-Korteweg-Poisson system in $R^3$, supplemented with the space periodic boundary conditions, where the quantum hydrodynamics equations and the classical fluid dynamics equations with capillarity are recovered as…
Existence of strong solutions of an abstract Cauchy problem for a class of doubly nonlinear evolution inclusion of second order is established via a semi-implicit time discretization method. The principal parts of the operators acting on…