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Title: An extended action for the effective field theory of dark energy: a stability analysis and a complete guide to the mapping at the basis of EFTCAMB

Journal Article · · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
 [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 6 et CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, GReCO, 98 bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris (France)
  2. Institute Lorentz, Leiden University, PO Box 9506, Leiden 2300 RA (Netherlands)

We present a generalization of the effective field theory (EFT) formalism for dark energy and modified gravity models to include operators with higher order spatial derivatives. This allows the extension of the EFT framework to a wider class of gravity theories such as Hořava gravity. We present the corresponding extended action, both in the EFT and the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) formalism, and proceed to work out a convenient mapping between the two, providing a self contained and general procedure to translate a given model of gravity into the EFT language at the basis of the Einstein-Boltzmann solver EFTCAMB. Putting this mapping at work, we illustrate, for several interesting models of dark energy and modified gravity, how to express them in the ADM notation and then map them into the EFT formalism. We also provide for the first time, the full mapping of GLPV models into the EFT framework. We next perform a thorough analysis of the physical stability of the generalized EFT action, in absence of matter components. We work out viability conditions that correspond to the absence of ghosts and modes that propagate with a negative speed of sound in the scalar and tensor sector, as well as the absence of tachyonic modes in the scalar sector. Finally, we extend and generalize the phenomenological basis in terms of α-functions introduced to parametrize Horndeski models, to cover all theories with higher order spatial derivatives included in our extended action. We elaborate on the impact of the additional functions on physical quantities, such as the kinetic term and the speeds of propagation for scalar and tensor modes.

OSTI ID:
22679652
Journal Information:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 07; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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