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We discuss an instability in a large class of models where dark energy is coupled to matter. In these models the mass of the scalar field is much larger than the expansion rate of the Universe. We find models in which this instability is…
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…
It has been suggested that a scalar field with negative kinetic energy, or ``ghost,'' could be the source of the observed late-time cosmological acceleration. Naively, such theories should be ruled out by the catastrophic quantum…
We investigate the stability against inhomogeneous perturbations and the appearance of ghost modes in Gauss-Bonnet gravitational theories with a non-minimally coupled scalar field, which can be regarded as either the dilaton or a…
We present a comprehensive analysis of classical scalar, vector and tensor cosmological perturbations in ghost-free massive bigravity. In particular, we find the full evolution equations and analytical solutions in a wide range of regimes.…
We study the quantization of systems with local particle-ghost symmetries. The systems contain ordinary particles including gauge bosons and their counterparts obeying different statistics. The particle-ghost symmetry is a kind of fermionic…
Poincar\'e gauge theories provide an approach to gravity based on the gauging of the Poincar\'e group, whose homogeneous part generates curvature while the translational sector gives rise to torsion. In this note we revisit the stability of…
We argue that all homogeneous and isotropic solutions in nonlinear massive gravity are unstable. For this purpose, we study the propagating modes on a Bianchi type--I manifold. We analyze their kinetic terms and dispersion relations as the…
Galileons are higher-derivative theories of a real scalar which nevertheless admit second order equations of motion. They have interesting applications as dark energy models and in early universe cosmology, and have been conjectured to…
Cosmological perturbation equations derived from low-energy effective actions are shown to be invariant under a duality transformation reminiscent of electric-magnetic, strong-weak coupling, S-duality. A manifestly duality-invariant…
If the kinetic interactions of a Lorentz-invariant massive graviton are Einstein-Hilbert, then the only possible potential terms free from the Boulware-Deser ghost are those of de Rham, Gabadadze and Tolley (dRGT). We point out there are…
A quantum effective action for gauge field theories is constructed that is gauge invariant and independent of the choice of gauge breaking terms and the ghost determinant.
In the gauge-fixing approach to (chiral) lattice gauge theories, the action in the U(1) case implicitly contains a free ghost term, in accordance with the continuum abelian theory. On the lattice there is no BRST symmetry and, without…
We consider the classical linear stability of a static universe filled with a non-interacting mixture of isotropic radiation and a ghost scalar field. Unlike the conventional Einstein static model, this cosmology is stable against…
The two-dimensional ghost systems with negative integral central charge received much attention in the last years for their role in a number of applications and in connection with logarithmic conformal field theory. We consider the free…
We consider the kinematical and dynamical evolution of Friedmann universes with a mixture of non-interacting matter and a ghost-like field, in a scenario analogous to that advocated by the Quintom model. Assuming that the conventional…
We present a new understanding of the unstable ghost-like resonance which appears in theories such as quadratic gravity and Lee-Wick type theories. Quantum corrections make this resonance unstable, such that it does not appear in the…
Recently, a generalization of invertible disformal transformations containing higher-order derivatives of a scalar field has been proposed in the context of scalar-tensor theories of gravity. By applying this generalized disformal…
We present a relationship between noncommutativity and higher order time derivative theories using a method perturbative. We introduce a generalization of the Chern-Simons Quantum Mechanics for higher order time derivatives. This model…
Disformal couplings to fermions lead to a unique derivative coupling to the axial fermionic current, which contains higher derivatives in general. We derive general conditions on consistent disformal couplings by requiring the absence of…