A master screening equation is derived for luminal Horndeski gravity that recovers Vainshtein and Chameleon mechanisms and introduces Phaedrus screening with screening radius scaling linearly with source mass.
Dark-Energy Instabilities induced by Gravitational Waves
6 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.
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abstract
We point out that dark-energy perturbations may become unstable in the presence of a gravitational wave of sufficiently large amplitude. We study this effect for the cubic Horndeski operator (braiding), proportional to $\alpha_{\rm B}$. The scalar that describes dark-energy fluctuations features ghost and/or gradient instabilities for gravitational-wave amplitudes that are produced by typical binary systems. Taking into account the populations of binary systems, we conclude that the instability is triggered in the whole Universe for $|\alpha_{\rm B} |\gtrsim 10^{-2}$, i.e. when the modification of gravity is sizeable. The instability is triggered by massive black-hole binaries down to frequencies corresponding to $10^{10}$ km: the instability is thus robust, unless new physics enters on even longer wavelengths. The fate of the instability and the subsequent time-evolution of the system depend on the UV completion, so that the theory may end up in a state very different from the original one. The same kind of instability is present in beyond-Horndeski theories for $|\alpha_{\rm H}| \gtrsim 10^{-20}$. In conclusion, the only dark-energy theories with sizeable cosmological effects that avoid these problems are $k$-essence models, with a possible conformal coupling with matter.
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A minimal open EFT for late-time acceleration fits BAO observations without NEC violations and predicts dissipative suppression of GW luminosity distance, modified Bardeen potentials with gravitational slip, and enhanced low-z structure formation.
Galileon models must obey a void-depth limit tied to expansion history to avoid force breakdowns, excluding ~60% of a linear parameterization's space by z less than or equal to 10.
Kinetic screening non-monotonically suppresses or enhances scalar quadrupolar emission from equal-mass neutron star binaries depending on screening radius versus wavelength, with a dipole re-emerging linearly with mass asymmetry.
Spacetime-symmetry-breaking Goldstone EFTs systematically describe bulk and localized excitations of solids, fluids, and superfluids, with new thermodynamic identifications and corrected scattering rates.
citing papers explorer
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A Master Equation for Screening in Luminal Horndeski Gravity
A master screening equation is derived for luminal Horndeski gravity that recovers Vainshtein and Chameleon mechanisms and introduces Phaedrus screening with screening radius scaling linearly with source mass.
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Phenomenology of an Open Effective Field Theory of Dark Energy
A minimal open EFT for late-time acceleration fits BAO observations without NEC violations and predicts dissipative suppression of GW luminosity distance, modified Bardeen potentials with gravitational slip, and enhanced low-z structure formation.
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How deep can a cosmic void be? Voids-informed theoretical bounds in Galileon gravity
Galileon models must obey a void-depth limit tied to expansion history to avoid force breakdowns, excluding ~60% of a linear parameterization's space by z less than or equal to 10.
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Scalar emission from binary neutron stars in scalar-tensor theories with kinetic screening
Kinetic screening non-monotonically suppresses or enhances scalar quadrupolar emission from equal-mass neutron star binaries depending on screening radius versus wavelength, with a dipole re-emerging linearly with mass asymmetry.
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Effective Field Theories for Material Media
Spacetime-symmetry-breaking Goldstone EFTs systematically describe bulk and localized excitations of solids, fluids, and superfluids, with new thermodynamic identifications and corrected scattering rates.
- Constraining dark energy with complementary probes of large-scale structure