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 transformation to the Horndeski theory, one can obtain the so-called generalized disformal Horndeski theories which are more general healthy scalar-tensor theories than ever. However, it is unclear whether or not the generalized disformal Horndeski theories can be coupled consistently to matter fields because introducing a matter field could break the degeneracy conditions of higher-order scalar-tensor theories and hence yield the unwanted Ostrogradsky ghost. We investigate this issue and explore the conditions under which a minimal coupling to a matter field is consistent in the generalized disformal Horndeski theories without relying on any particular gauge such as the unitary gauge. We find that all the higher derivative terms in the generalized disformal transformation are prohibited to avoid the appearance of the Ostrogradsky ghost, leading to the conclusion that only the theories that are related to the Horndeski theory through a conventional disformal transformation remain ghost-free in the presence of minimally coupled matter fields.
We discuss the relation between canonical and metric energy-momentum tensors for field theories with actions that can depend on the higher derivatives of tensor fields in a flat spacetime. In order to obtain it we use a modification of the Noether's procedure for curved space-time. For considered case the difference between these two tensors turns out to have more general form than for theories with no more than first order derivatives. Despite this fact we prove that the difference between corresponding integrals of motion still has the form of integral over 2-dimensional surface that is infi…
To understand the coupling behavior of the spinor with spacetime, the explicit form of the energy-momentum tensor of the spinor in curved spacetime is important. This problem seems to be overlooked for a long time. In this paper we derive the explicit form of energy momentum tensors and display some equivalent but simple forms of the covariant derivatives for both the Weyl spinor and the Dirac bispinor in curved spacetime.
The generalized projection-tensor geometry introduced in an earlier paper is extended. A compact notation for families of projected objects is introduced and used to summarize the results of the previous paper and obtain fully projected decompositions of Lie derivatives of the projection tensor field, the metric and the projected parts of the metric. These results are applied to the analysis of spacetimes with isometries. The familiar cases of spacetimes with isotropic group orbits --- cosmological models and spherical symmetry --- are discussed as illustrations of the results.
With the usual definitions for the entropy and the temperature associated with the apparent horizon, we show that the unified first law on the apparent horizon is equivalent to the Friedmann equation for the scalar--tensor theory with non-minimally derivative coupling. The second law of thermodynamics on the apparent horizon is also satisfied. The results support a deep and fundamental connection between gravitation, thermodynamics, and quantum theory.
A model is proposed, according to which the metric tensor field in the standard gravitational Lagrangian is decomposed into a projection (generally - with a non-zero covariant derivative) tensor field, orthogonal to an arbitrary 4-vector field and a tensor part along the same vector field. A theorem has been used, according to which the variation and the partial derivative, when applied to a tensor field, commute with each other if and only if the tensor field and its variation have zero covariant derivatives, provided also the connection variation is zero. Since the projection field obviously…
We investigate the quasinormal modes of a test massless, minimally coupled scalar field on a static and spherically symmetric black hole in the scalar-tensor theory with field derivative coupling to the Einstein tensor, which is a part of the Horndeski theory with the shift symmetry. In our solution, the spacetime is asymptotically AdS (anti-de Sitter), where the effective AdS curvature scale is determined solely by the derivative coupling constant. The metric approaches the AdS spacetime in the asymptotic infinity limit and precisely recovers the Schwarzschild-AdS solution in general relativi…
We present a definition of tensor fields which are average of tensors over a manifold, with a straightforward and natural definition of derivative for the averaged fields; which in turn makes a suitable and practical construction for the study of averages of tensor fields that satisfy differential equations. Although we have in mind applications to general relativity, our presentation is applicable to a general n-dimensional manifold. The definition is based on the integration of scalars constructed from a physically motivated basis, making use of the least amount of geometrical structure. We …
We present black hole type solutions in the scalar-tensor theory with nonminimal derivative coupling to the Einstein tensor. The effects of the nonminimal derivative coupling appear in the large scales, while the solutions approach those in the Einstein gravity in the small scales. For the particular coupling constant tuned to the inverse of the cosmological constant, the scalar field becomes trivial and the solutions in the Einstein gravity are recovered. For the other coupling constant, more general solutions can be obtained. If the two-dimensional maximally symmetric space is a two-sphere, …
We study the particle content of higher derivative theories of gravity built with contractions of the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives. In the absence of the latter, there is a family of theories exhibiting an Einsteinian spectrum known as generalized quasi-topological gravities. In turn, we present a no-go result for the construction of Einsteinian gravities involving covariant derivatives of the Riemann tensor. We find evidences suggesting that (truncated series) finite order Lagrangians with covariant derivatives of the Riemann tensor generically present ghosts in their spectrum…
Loop Quantum Cosmology yields two kinds of quantum corrections to the effective equations of motion for cosmological perturbations. Here we focus on the holonomy kind and we study the problem of the closure of the resulting algebra of constraints. Up to now, tensor, vector and scalar perturbations were studied independently, leading to different algebras of constraints. The structures of the related algebras were imposed by the requirement of anomaly freedom. In this article we show that the algebra can be modified by a very simple quantum correction, holding for all types of perturbations. Th…
We investigate the correspondence between generally covariant higher derivative scalar-tensor theory and spatially covariant gravity theory. The building blocks are the scalar field and spacetime curvature tensor together with their generally covariant derivatives for the former, and the spatially covariant geometric quantities together with their spatially covariant derivatives for the later. In the case of a single scalar degree of freedom, they are transformed to each other by gauge fixing and recovering procedures, of which we give the explicit expressions. We make a systematic classificat…
We present detailed pedagogical derivation of covariant derivative of fermions and some related expressions, including commutator of covariant derivatives and energy-momentum tensor of a free Dirac field. On top of that, local conformal transformations for a Dirac fermion in curved spacetime are considered and we obtain the expression for the energy-momentum tensor on the cosmological background.
We investigate how the comoving curvature and tensor perturbations are transformed under the generalized disformal transformation with the second-order covariant derivatives of the scalar field, where the free functions depend on the fundamental elements constructed with the covariant derivatives of the scalar field with at most the quadratic order of the second-order covariant derivatives. Our analysis reveals that on the superhorizon scales the difference between the comoving curvature perturbations in the original and new frames is given by the combination of the time derivative of the como…
The purpose of the paper is to develop further a projection variational approach in relativistic hydrodynamics. The approach, previously proposed in [gr-qc/9908032], is based on the variation of the vector field and the projection tensor (instead of the given metric tensor) and their first partial derivatives. The previously proved property of non-commutativity of the variation and the partial derivative in respect to the projection tensor has been used to find all the variations. Subsequently, motivated by some analogy with the well-known (3+1) ADM projection formalism, an assumption has been…
We make a full classification of scalar monomials built of the Riemann curvature tensor up to the quadratic order and of the covariant derivatives of the scalar field up to the third order. From the point of view of the effective field theory, the third or even higher order covariant derivatives of the scalar field are of the same order as the higher curvature terms, and thus should be taken into account. Moreover, higher curvature terms and higher order derivatives of the scalar field are complementary to each other, of which novel ghost-free combinations may exist. We make a systematic class…
Recently, Chamseddine and Mukhanov introduced a higher-derivative scalar-tensor theory which leads to a modified Friedmann equation allowing for bouncing solutions. As we note in the present work, this Friedmann equation turns out to reproduce exactly the loop quantum cosmology effective dynamics for a flat isotropic and homogeneous space-time. We generalize this result to obtain a class of scalar-tensor theories, belonging to the family of mimetic gravity, which all reproduce the loop quantum cosmology effective dynamics for flat, closed and open isotropic and homogeneous space-times.
We investigate the ghostfree scalar-tensor theory with a timelike scalar field, with derivatives of the scalar field up to the third order and with the Riemann tensor up to the quadratic order. We build two types of linear spaces. One is the set of linearly independent generally covariant scalar-tensor monomials, the other is the set of linearly independent spatially covariant gravity monomials. We argue that these two types of linear space are isomorphic to each other in the sense of gauge fixing/recovering procedures. We then identify the subspaces in the spatially covariant gravity, which a…
Ostrogradsky instability generally appears in nondegenerate higher-order derivative theories and this issue can be resolved by removing any existing degeneracy present in such theories. We consider an action involving terms that are at most quadratic in second derivatives of the scalar field and non-minimally coupled with the curvature tensors. We perform a 3+1 decomposition of the Lagrangian to separate second-order time derivative terms from rest. This decomposition is useful for checking the degeneracy hidden in the Lagrangian and helps us find conditions under which Ostrogradsky instabilit…
In this paper, we investigate the Randall-Sundrum type braneworld models in the scalar-tensor theory with field derivative coupling to the Einstein tensor. We first formulate the generalized junction conditions of the metric and the scalar field on the timelike codimension-one hypersurface (=brane). With the use of these junction conditions, we then derive the Minkowski and de Sitter brane solutions embedded into the $Z_2$-symmetric five-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS) bulk spacetime. The configuration of the scalar field depends on the slice of the AdS spacetime. These branes are supported b…
In arXiv:2103.15482 an estimate for suitable skew-symmetric 2-tensors was claimed. Soon after, this estimate has been exploited to claim powerful classification results: most notably, it has been employed to propose a proof of a Black Hole Uniqueness Theorem for vacuum static spacetimes with positive scalar curvature and in connection with the Besse Conjecture. In the present note we point out an issue in the argument proposed in arXiv:2103.15482 and we provide a counterexample to the estimate.
We propose a new class of higher derivative scalar-tensor theories without the Ostrogradsky's ghost instabilities. The construction of our theory is originally motivated by a scalar field with spacelike gradient, which enables us to fix a gauge in which the scalar field appears to be non-dynamical. We dub such a gauge as the spatial gauge. Though the scalar field loses its dynamics, the spatial gauge fixing breaks the time diffeomorphism invariance and thus excites a scalar mode in the gravity sector. We generalize this idea and construct a general class of scalar-tensor theories through a non…
The Lagrangian formalism for tensor fields over differentiable manifolds with contravariant and covariant affine connections (whose components differ not only by sign) and metrics [$(\bar{L}_n,g)$-spaces] is considered. The functional variation and the Lie variation of a Lagrangian density, depending on components of tensor fields (with finite rank) and their first and second covariant derivatives are established. A variation operator is determined and the corollaries of its commutation relations with the covariant and the Lie differential operators are found. The canonical (common) method of …
We discuss the extent to which it is necessary to include higher-derivative operators in the effective field theory of general scalar-tensor theories. We explore the circumstances under which it is correct to restrict to second-order operators only, and demonstrate this using several different techniques, such as reduction of order and explicit field redefinitions. These methods are applied, in particular, to the much-studied Horndeski theories. The goal is to clarify the application of effective field theory techniques in the context of popular cosmological models, and to explicitly demonstra…
The usual interpretation of Weyl geometry is modified in two senses. First, both the additive Weyl connection and its variation are treated as (1, 2) tensors under the action of Weyl covariant derivative. Second, a modified covariant derivative operator is introduced which still preserves the tensor structure of the theory. With its help, the Riemann tensor in Weyl geometry can be written in a more compact form. We justify this modification in detail from several aspects and obtain some insights along the way. By introducing some new transformation rules for the variation of tensors under the …
We derive the scalar-tensor Hamiltonian constraint to all orders of momenta when the canonical constraint algebra is deformed by a phase space function as predicted by some studies into loop quantum cosmology. We find that the momenta and spatial derivatives from gravity and matter fields must combine in a very specific form to maintain a deformed general covariance. This suggests that the deformation should be equally caused by matter field derivatives as it is by gravitational curvature. We demonstrate the cosmological consequences of a variety of deformation functions. Some cause a big boun…
A cosmology-to-ringdown EFT consistency map for scalar-tensor gravity
National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Chiniot-Faisalabad Campus（国立计算机与新兴大学奇尼奥特-费萨拉巴德校区）；School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Leicester（莱斯特大学计算与数学科学学院）
We consider a gravitating system of vanishing cosmological constant consisting of an electromagnetic field and a scalar field coupled to the Einstein tensor. A Reissner-Nordström black hole undergoes a second-order phase transition to a hairy black hole of generally anisotropic hair at a certain critical temperature which we compute. The no-hair theorem is evaded due to the coupling between the scalar field and the Einstein tensor. Within a first order perturbative approach we calculate explicitly the properties of a hairy black hole configuration near the critical temperature and show that it…
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 are present in the action and equally important during inflation. In order to control contributions of each term as well as to approach the single-term limit, we introduce a special relation between the derivative interaction and the coupling to gravity. By calculating observable quantities including the power spectra and spectral tilts of scalar and tensor pe…
We study the quasi-normal modes of asymptotically anti-de Sitter black holes in a class of shift-symmetric Horndeski theories where a gravitational scalar is derivatively coupled to the Einstein tensor. The space-time differs from exact Schwarzschild-anti-de Sitter, resulting in a different effective potential for the quasi-normal modes and a different spectrum. We numerically compute this spectrum for a massless test scalar coupled both minimally to the metric, and non-minimally to the gravitational scalar. We find interesting differences from the Schwarzschild-anti-de Sitter black hole found…
We prove the theorem: The second order quasi-linear differential operator as a second rank divergence free tensor in the equation of motion for gravitation could always be derived from the trace of the Bianchi derivative of the fourth rank tensor, which is a homogeneous polynomial in curvatures. The existence of such a tensor for each term in the polynomial Lagrangian is a new characterization of the Lovelock gravity.
We study the tensor consistency relation in models of axion inflation with an SU(2) gauge field. In the tensor sector, we have two spin-2 modes, the standard gravity waves and the tensor perturbations of the SU(2) gauge field which sources the gravity waves at the linear level. Interestingly enough, we find that the gravity waves are adiabatic and Maldacena's consistency relation including a long wavelength gravity wave holds in this setup. However, since it is partially polarized, there is a difference between the (n+1)-point functions with different helicity states proportional to the ratio …
We consider a higher-derivative generalization of disformal transformations in $D$-dimensional spacetime and clarify the conditions under which they form a group with respect to the matrix product and the functional composition. These conditions allow us to systematically construct the inverse transformation in a fully covariant manner. Applying the invertible generalized disformal transformation to known ghost-free scalar-tensor theories, we obtain a novel class of ghost-free scalar-tensor theories, whose action contains the third- or higher-order derivatives of the scalar field as well as no…
We consider a general Kaluza-Klein reduction of a truncated Lovelock theory. We find necessary geometric conditions for the reduction to be consistent. The resulting lower-dimensional theory is a higher derivative scalar-tensor theory, depends on a single real parameter and yields second-order field equations. Due to the presence of higher-derivative terms, the theory has multiple applications in modifications of Einstein gravity (Galileon/Horndesky theory) and holography (Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theories). We find and analyze charged black hole solutions with planar or curved horizons, both …
We disclose remarkable features of the scalar-tensor theory with the derivative coupling of the scalar field to the curvature in the Palatini formalism. Using the disformal transformations, we show that this theory is free from Otrogradski ghosts. For a special relation between two coupling constants, it is disformally dual to the Einstein gravity minimally coupled to the scalar, which opens the way to constructing several exact solutions. The disformal transformation degenerates at the boundary of the physical region, near which the properties of desingularization are revealed, illustrated by…
We show that the most general scalar-tensor theory of gravity up to four derivatives in $3+1$ dimensions is well-posed in a modified version of the CCZ4 formulation of the Einstein equations in singularity-avoiding coordinates. We demonstrate the robustness of our new formulation in practise by studying equal mass black hole binary mergers for different values of the coupling constants. Although our analysis of well-posedness is restricted to cases in which the couplings are small, we find that in simulations we are able to push the couplings to larger values, so that a certain weak coupling c…
If observations confirm BICEP2's claim of a tensor-scalar ratio $r\approx 0.2$ on CMB scales, then the inflationary consistency relation $n_{t}=-r/8$ predicts a small negative value for the tensor spectral index $n_t$. We show that future CMB polarization experiments should be able to confirm this prediction at several sigma. We also show how to properly extend the consistency relation to solar system scales, where the primordial gravitational wave density $Ω_{gw}$ could be measured by proposed experiments such as the Big Bang Observer. This would provide a far more stringent test of the consi…
With the usual definitions for the entropy and the temperature associated with the apparent horizon, we discuss the first law of the thermodynamics on the apparent in the general scalar-tensor theory of gravity with the kinetic term of the scalar field non-minimally coupling to Einstein tensor. We show the equivalence between the first law of thermodynamics on the apparent horizon and Friedmann equation for the general models, by using a mass-like function which is equal to the Misner-Sharp mass on the apparent horizon. The results further support the universal relationship between the first l…
We perform a Hamiltonian analysis of a large class of scalar-tensor Lagrangians which depend quadratically on the second derivatives of a scalar field. By resorting to a convenient choice of dynamical variables, we show that the Hamiltonian can be written in a very simple form, where the Hamiltonian and the momentum constraints are easily identified. In the case of degenerate Lagrangians, which include the Horndeski and beyond Horndeski quartic Lagrangians, our analysis confirms that the dimension of the physical phase space is reduced by the primary and secondary constraints due to the degene…
We derive the odd parity perturbation equation in scalar-tensor theories with a non minimal kinetic coupling sector of the general Horndeski theory, where the kinetic term is coupled to the metric and the Einstein tensor. We derive the potential of the perturbation, by identifying a master function and switching to tortoise coordinates. We then prove the mode stability under linear odd- parity perturbations of hairy black holes in this sector of Horndeski theory, when a cosmological constant term in the action is included. Finally, we comment on the existence of slowly rotating black hole solu…
We study the structure of scalar-tensor theories of gravity based on derivative couplings between the scalar and the matter degrees of freedom introduced through an effective metric. Such interactions are classified by their tensor structure into conformal (scalar), disformal (vector) and extended disformal (traceless tensor), as well as by the derivative order of the scalar field. Relations limited to first derivatives of the field ensure second order equations of motion in the Einstein frame and hence the absence of Ostrogradski ghost degrees of freedom. The existence of a mapping to the Jor…
We consider Bel-Robinson-like higher derivative conserved two-index tensors $H_\mn$ in simple matter models, following a recently suggested Maxwell field version. In flat space, we show that they are essentially equivalent to the true stress-tensors. In curved Ricci-flat backgrounds it is possible to redefine $H_\mn$ so as to overcome non-commutativity of covariant derivatives, and maintain conservation, but they become model- and dimension- dependent, and generally lose their simple "BR" form.
We consider a vector-tensor gravitational model with terms quadratic in the Maxwell tensor derivatives, called the Bopp-Podolsky term. The gravitational field equations of the model and the equations describing the evolution of the vector field are obtained and their Newtonian limit is investigated. The cosmological implications of a Bopp-Podolsky type dark energy term are investigated for a Bianchi type I homogeneous and anisotropic geometry for two models, corresponding to the absence and presence of the self-interacting potential of the field, respectively. The time evolutions of the Hubble…
One of the firm predictions of inflationary cosmology is the consistency relation between scalar and tensor spectra. It has been argued that such a relation -if experimentally confirmed- would offer strong support for the idea of inflation. We examine the possibility that trans-Planckian physics violates the consistency relation in the framework of inflation with a cut-off proposed in astro-ph/0009209. We find that despite the ambiguity that exists in choosing the action, Planck scale physics modifies the consistency relation considerably. It also leads to the running of the spectral index. Fo…
We consider the sector of Horndeski's gravity characterized by the coupling between the kinetic scalar field term and the Einstein tensor. We numerically construct neutron star configurations where the external geometry is identical to the Schwarzschild metric but the interior structure is considerably different from standard general relativity. We constrain the only parameter of this model from the requirement that compact configurations exist, and we argue that solutions less compact than neutron stars, such as white dwarfs, are also supported. Therefore, our model provides an explicit modif…
We propose a test of single-scalar inflation based on using the well-measured scalar power spectrum to reconstruct the tensor power spectrum, up to a single integration constant. Our test is a sort of integrated version of the single-scalar consistency relation. This sort of test can be used effectively, even when the tensor power spectrum is measured too poorly to resolve the tensor spectral index. We give an example using simulated data based on a hypothetical detection with tensor-to-scalar ratio $r = 0.01$. Our test can also be employed for correlating scalar and tensor features in the far…
It is well known that the non-Gaussianity parameter $f_{_{\rm NL}}$ characterizing the scalar bi-spectrum can be expressed in terms of the scalar spectral index in the squeezed limit, a property that is referred to as the consistency relation. In this work, we consider the consistency relations associated with the three-point cross-correlations involving scalars and tensors as well as the tensor bi-spectrum in inflationary models driven by a single, canonical, scalar field. Characterizing the cross-correlations in terms of the dimensionless non-Gaussianity parameters $C_{_{\rm NL}}^{\mathcal R…
