Chunshan Lin

Open FRW universes and self-acceleration from nonlinear massive gravity

In the context of a recently proposed nonlinear massive gravity with Lorentz-invariant mass terms, we investigate open Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universes driven by arbitrary matter source. While the flat FRW solutions were recently shown to be absent, the proof does not extend to the open universes. We find three independent branches of solutions to the equations of motion for the Stuckelberg scalars. One of the branches does not allow any nontrivial FRW cosmologies, as in the previous no-go result. On the other hand, both of the other two branches allow general open FRW universes governed by the Friedmann equation with the matter source, the standard curvature term and an effective cosmological constant Λ± = c±mg2. Here, mg is the graviton mass, + and - represent the two branches, and c± are constants determined by the two dimensionless parameters of the theory. Since an open FRW universe with a sufficiently small curvature constant can approximate a flat FRW universe but there is no exactly flat FRW solution, the theory exhibits a discontinuity at the flat FRW limit.

Cosmological perturbations of self-accelerating universe in nonlinear massive gravity

We study cosmological perturbations of self-accelerating universe solutions in the recently proposed nonlinear theory of massive gravity, with general matter content. While the broken diffeomorphism invariance implies that there generically are 2 tensor, 2 vector and 2 scalar degrees of freedom in the gravity sector, we find that the scalar and vector degrees have vanishing kinetic terms and nonzero mass terms. Depending on their nonlinear behavior, this indicates either nondynamical nature of these degrees or strong couplings. Assuming the former, we integrate out the 2 vector and 2 scalar degrees of freedom. We then find that in the scalar and vector sectors, gauge-invariant variables constructed from metric and matter perturbations have exactly the same quadratic action as in general relativity. The difference from general relativity arises only in the tensor sector, where the graviton mass modifies the dispersion relation of gravitational waves, with a time-dependent effective mass. This may lead to modification of stochastic gravitational wave spectrum.

Nonlinear stability of cosmological solutions in massive gravity

We investigate nonlinear stability of two classes of cosmological solutions in massive gravity: isotropic Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) solutions and anisotropic FLRW solutions. For this purpose we construct the linear cosmological perturbation theory around axisymmetric Bianchi type-I backgrounds. We then expand the background around the two classes of solutions, which are fixed points of the background evolution equation, and analyze linear perturbations on top of it. This provides a consistent truncation of nonlinear perturbations around these fixed point solutions and allows us to analyze nonlinear stability in a simple way. In particular, it is shown that isotropic FLRW solutions exhibit nonlinear ghost instability. On the other hand, anisotropic FLRW solutions are shown to be ghost-free for a range of parameters and initial conditions.

Anisotropic Friedmann–Robertson–Walker universe from nonlinear massive gravity

Abstract Motivated by the recent no-go result of homogeneous and isotropic solutions in the nonlinear massive gravity, we study fixed points of evolution equations for a Bianchi type-I universe. We find a new attractor solution with non-vanishing anisotropy, on which the physical metric is isotropic but the Stuckelberg configuration is anisotropic. As a result, at the background level, the solution describes a homogeneous and isotropic universe, while a statistical anisotropy is expected from perturbations, suppressed by smallness of the graviton mass.

On the cosmology of massive gravity

We present a review of cosmological solutions in nonlinear massive gravity, focusing on the stability of perturbations. Although homogeneous and isotropic solutions have been found, these are now known to suffer from either the Higuchi ghost or a new nonlinear ghost instability. We discuss two approaches to alleviate this issue. By relaxing the symmetry of the background by e.g. breaking isotropy in the hidden sector, it is possible to accommodate a stable cosmological solution. Alternatively, extending the theory to allow for new dynamical degrees of freedom can also remove the conditions which lead to the instability. As examples for this case, we study the stability of self-accelerating solutions in the quasi-dilatonic extension and generic cosmological solutions in the varying mass extension. While the quasi-dilaton case turns out to be unstable, the varying mass case allows stable regimes of parameters. Viable self-accelerating solutions in the varying mass theory yet remain to be found.

Hamiltonian structure of scalar-tensor theories beyond Horndeski

We study the nature of constraints and the Hamiltonian structure in a scalar-tensor theory of gravity recently proposed by Gleyzes, Langlois, Piazza and Vernizzi (GLPV). For the simple case with A_5 = 0, namely when the canonical momenta conjugate to the spatial metric are linear in the extrinsic curvature, we prove that the number of physical degrees of freedom is three at fully nonlinear level, as claimed by GLPV. Therefore, while this theory extends Horndeskis scalar-tensor gravity theory, it is protected against additional degrees of freedom.

Cosmological Perturbations in Extended Massive Gravity

We study cosmological perturbations around self-accelerating solutions to two extensions of nonlinear massive gravity: the quasi-dilaton theory and the mass-varying theory. We examine stability of the cosmological solutions, and the extent to which the vanishing of the kinetic terms for scalar and vector perturbations of self-accelerating solutions in massive gravity is generic when the theory is extended. We find that these kinetic terms are in general non-vanishing in both extensions, though there are constraints on the parameters and background evolution from demanding that they have the correct sign. In particular, the self-accelerating solutions of the quasi-dilaton theory are always unstable to scalar perturbations with wavelength shorter than the Hubble length.

Gravitational wave signal from massive gravity

We discuss the detectability of gravitational waves with a time dependent mass contribution, by means of the stochastic gravitational wave observations. Such a mass term typically arises in the cosmological solutions of massive gravity theories. We conduct the analysis based on a general quadratic action, and thus the results apply universally to any massive gravity theories in which modification of general relativity appears primarily in the tensor modes. The primary manifestation of the modification in the gravitational wave spectrum is a sharp peak. The position and height of the peak carry information on the present value of the mass term, as well as the duration of the inflationary stage. We also discuss the detectability of such a gravitational wave signal using the future-planned gravitational wave observatories.

SO(3) massive gravity

Abstract In this Letter, we propose a massive gravity theory with 5 degrees of freedom. The mass term is constructed by 3 Stuckelberg scalar fields, which respects SO(3) symmetry in the fieldsʼ configuration. By the analysis on the linear cosmological perturbations, we found that such 5 d.o.f. are free from ghost instability, gradient instability, and tachyonic instability.

Topological inflation with large tensor-to-scalar ratio

BICEP2s detection on the primordial B-mode of CMB polarization suggests that inflation occurred around GUT scale, with the tensor-to-scalar ratio r0.2. Inspired by this discosvery, we study the topological inflation which was driven by a double/single/no well potential. We show that with proper choice of parameters, all these three types of topological inflationary models could be consistent with the constraints from current observations.