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Rham, Claudia de

Publications and source records attributed to Rham, Claudia de.

11 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Ostrogradsky in theories with multiple fields

We review how the (absence of) Ostrogradsky instability manifests itself in theories with multiple fields. It has recently been appreciated that when multiple fields are present, the existence of higher derivatives may not automatically imply the existence of ghosts. We discuss the connection with gravitational theories like massive gravity and beyond Horndeski which manifest higher derivatives in some formulations and yet are free of Ostrogradsky ghost. We also examine an interesting new class of Extended Scalar-Tensor Theories of gravity which has been recently proposed. We show that for a subclass of these theories, the tensor modes are either not dynamical or are infinitely strongly coupled. Among the remaining theories for which the tensor modes are well-defined one counts one new model that is not field-redefinable to Horndeski via a conformal and disformal transformation but that does require the vacuum to break Lorentz invariance. We discuss the implications for the effective field theory of dark energy and the stability of the theory. In particular we find that if we restrict ourselves to the Extended Scalar-Tensor class of theories for which the tensors are well-behaved and the scalar is free from gradient or ghost instabilities on FLRW then we recover Horndeski up to field redefinitions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Massive gravity on de Sitter and unique candidate for partially massless gravity

We derive the decoupling limit of Massive Gravity on de Sitter in an arbitrary number of space-time dimensions d. By embedding d-dimensional de Sitter into d+1-dimensional Minkowski, we extract the physical helicity-1 and helicity-0 polarizations of the graviton. The resulting decoupling theory is similar to that obtained around Minkowski. We take great care at exploring the partially massless limit and define the unique fully non-linear candidate theory that is free of the helicity-0 mode in the decoupling limit, and which therefore propagates only four degrees of freedom in four dimensions. In the latter situation, we show that a new Vainshtein mechanism is at work in the limit m{sup 2} → 2H{sup 2} which decouples the helicity-0 mode when the parameters are different from that of partially massless gravity. As a result, there is no discontinuity between massive gravity and its partially massless limit, just in the same way as there is no discontinuity in the massless limit of massive gravity. The usual bounds on the graviton mass could therefore equivalently well be interpreted as bounds on m{sup 2}−2H{sup 2}. When dealing with the exact partially massless parameters, on the other hand, the symmetry at m{sup 2} = 2H{sup 2} imposes a specific constraint on matter. As a result the helicity-0 mode decouples without even the need of any Vainshtein mechanism.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Chronology protection in Galileon models and massive gravity

Galileon models are a class of effective field theories that have recently received much attention. They arise in the decoupling limit of theories of massive gravity, and in some cases they have been treated in their own right as scalar field theories with a specific nonlinearly realized global symmetry (Galilean transformation). It is well known that in the presence of a source, these Galileon theories admit superluminal propagating solutions, implying that as quantum field theories they must admit a different notion of causality than standard local Lorentz invariant theories. We show that in these theories it is easy to construct closed timelike curves (CTCs) within the naive regime of validity of the effective field theory. However, on closer inspection we see that the CTCs could never arise since the Galileon inevitably becomes infinitely strongly coupled at the onset of the formation of a CTC. This implies an infinite amount of backreaction, first on the background for the Galileon field, signaling the break down of the effective field theory, and subsequently on the spacetime geometry, forbidding the formation of the CTC. Furthermore the background solution required to create CTCs becomes unstable with an arbitrarily fast decay time. Thus Galileon theories satisfy a direct analogue of Hawking's chronology protection conjecture.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Resummation of Massive Gravity

We construct four-dimensional covariant nonlinear theories of massive gravity which are ghost-free in the decoupling limit to all orders. These theories resume explicitly all the nonlinear terms of an effective field theory of massive gravity. We show that away from the decoupling limit the Hamiltonian constraint is maintained at least up to and including quartic order in nonlinearities, hence excluding the possibility of the Boulware-Deser ghost up to this order. We also show that the same remains true to all orders in a similar toy model.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Cosmic acceleration and the helicity-0 graviton

We explore cosmology in the decoupling limit of a nonlinear covariant extension of Fierz-Pauli massive gravity obtained recently in arXiv:1007.0443. In this limit the theory is a scalar-tensor model of a unique form defined by symmetries. We find that it admits a self-accelerated solution, with the Hubble parameter set by the graviton mass. The negative pressure causing the acceleration is due to a condensate of the helicity-0 component of the massive graviton, and the background evolution, in the approximation used, is indistinguishable from the {Lambda}CDM model. Fluctuations about the self-accelerated background are stable for a certain range of parameters involved. Most surprisingly, the fluctuation of the helicity-0 field above its background decouples from an arbitrary source in the linearized theory. We also show how massive gravity can remarkably screen an arbitrarily large cosmological constant in the decoupling limit, while evading issues with ghosts. The obtained static solution is stable against small perturbations, suggesting that the degravitation of the vacuum energy is possible in the full theory. Interestingly, however, this mechanism postpones the Vainshtein effect to shorter distance scales. Hence, fifth force measurements severely constrain the value of the cosmological constant that can be neutralized, making this scheme phenomenologically not viable for solving the old cosmological constant problem. We briefly speculate on a possible way out of this issue.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2011

De Sitter Galileon

We generalize the Galileon symmetry and its relativistic extension to a de Sitter background. This is made possible by studying a probe-brane in a flat five-dimensional bulk using a de Sitter slicing. The generalized Lovelock invariants induced on the probe brane enjoy the induced Poincaré symmetry inherited from the bulk, while living on a de Sitter geometry. The non-relativistic limit of these invariants naturally maintain a generalized Galileon symmetry around de Sitter while being free of ghost-like pathologies. We comment briefly on the cosmology of these models and the extension to the AdS symmetry as well as generic FRW backgrounds.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Galileon inflation

Galileon inflation is a radiatively stable higher derivative model of inflation. The model is determined by a finite number of relevant operators which are protected by a covariant generalization of the Galileon shift symmetry.We show that the nongaussianity of the primordial density perturbation generated during an epoch of Galileon inflation is a particularly powerful observational probe of these models and that, when the speed of sound is small, f{sub NL} can be larger than the usual result f{sub NL}∝c{sub s}{sup −2}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2010

Generalization of the Fierz-Pauli action

We consider the Lagrangian of gravity covariantly amended by the mass and polynomial interaction terms with arbitrary coefficients and reinvestigate the consistency of such a theory in the decoupling limit, up to the fifth order in the nonlinearities. We calculate explicitly the self-interactions of the helicity-0 mode, as well as the nonlinear mixing between the helicity-0 and -2 modes. We show that ghostlike pathologies in these interactions disappear for special choices of the polynomial interactions and argue that this result remains true to all orders in the decoupling limit. Moreover, we show that the linear and some of the nonlinear mixing terms between the helicity-0 and -2 modes can be absorbed by a local change of variables, which then naturally generates the cubic, quartic, and quintic Galileon interactions, introduced in a different context. We also point out that the mixing between the helicity-0 and -2 modes can be at most quartic in the decoupling limit. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the consistency of the effective field theory away from the decoupling limit, and for the Boulware-Deser problem.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2010

Cascading gravity is ghost free

We perform a full perturbative stability analysis of the 6D cascading gravity model in the presence of 3-brane tension. We demonstrate that for sufficiently large tension on the (flat) 3-brane, there are no ghosts at the perturbative level, consistent with results that had previously only been obtained in a specific 5D decoupling limit. These results establish the cascading gravity framework as a consistent infrared modification of gravity.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2010

DBI and the Galileon reunited

We derive the relativistic generalization of the Galileon, by studying the brane position modulus of a relativistic probe brane embedded in a five-dimensional bulk. In the appropriate Galilean contraction limit, we recover the complete Galileon generalization of the DGP decoupling theory and its conformal extension. All higher order interactions for the Galileon and its relativistic generalization naturally follow from the brane tension, induced curvature, and the Gibbons-Hawking-York boundary terms associated with all bulk Lovelock invariants. Our approach makes the coupling to gravity straightforward, in particular allowing a simple rederivation of the nonminimal couplings required by the Covariant Galileon. The connection with the Lovelock invariants makes the well-defined Cauchy problem manifest, and gives a natural unification of four dimensional effective field theories of the DBI type and the Galileon type.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗