Luigi Pilo

Perturbations in Massive Gravity Cosmology

A bstractWe study cosmological perturbations for a ghost free massive gravity theory formulated with a dynamical extra metric that is needed to massive deform GR. In this formulation FRW background solutions fall in two branches. In the dynamics of perturbations around the first branch solutions, no extra degree of freedom with respect to GR is present at linearized level, likewise what is found in the Stuckelberg formulation of massive gravity where the extra metric is flat and non dynamical. In the first branch, perturbations are probably strongly coupled. On the contrary, for perturbations around the second branch solutions all expected degrees of freedom propagate. While tensor and vector perturbations of the physical metric that couples with matter follow closely the ones of GR, scalars develop an exponential Jeans-like instability on sub-horizon scales. On the other hand, around a de Sitter background there is no instability. We argue that one could get rid of the instabilities by introducing a mirror dark matter sector minimally coupled to only the second metric.

Spherically symmetric solutions in ghost-free massive gravity

Recently, a class of theories of massive gravity has been shown to be ghost-free. We study the spherically symmetric solutions in the bigravity formulation of such theories. In general, the solutions admit both a Lorentz-invariant and a Lorentz-breaking asymptotically flat behavior and also fall into two branches. In the first branch, all solutions can be found analytically and are Schwarzschild-like, with no modification as is found for other classes of theories. In the second branch, exact solutions are hard to find, and relying on perturbation theory, Yukawa-like modifications of the static potential are found. The general structure of the solutions suggests that the bigravity formulation of massive gravity is crucial and more than a tool.

The fate of the radion in models with metastable graviton

We clarify some general issues in models where gravity is localized at intermediate distances. We introduce the radion mode, which is usually neglected, and we point out that its role in the model is crucial. We show that the brane bending effects discussed in the literature can be obtained in a formalism where the physical origin is manifest. The model violates positivity of energy due to a negative tension brane, which induces a negative kinetic term for the radion. The very same effect that violates positivity is responsible for the recovery of conventional Einstein gravity at intermediate distances.

On anomalies in orbifold theories

Abstract We study the issue of gauge invariance in five-dimensional theories compactified on an orbifold S 1 /( Z 2 × Z ′ 2 ) in the presence of an external U(1) gauge field. From the four-dimensional point of view the theory contains a tower of Kaluza–Klein Dirac fermions with chiral couplings and it looks anomalous at the quantum level. We show that this “anomaly” is cancelled by a topological Chern–Simons term which is generated in the effective action when the gauge theory is regularized introducing a Pauli–Villars fermion with an odd mass term. In the presence of a classical background gauge field, the fermionic current acquires a vacuum expectation value, thus generating the suitable Chern–Simons term and a gauge invariant theory.

Lorentz-breaking massive gravity in curved space

A systematic study of the different phases of Lorentz-breaking massive gravity in a curved background is performed. For tensor and vector modes, the analysis is very close to that of Minkowski space. The most interesting results are in the scalar sector where, generically, there are two propagating degrees of freedom (DOF). While in maximally symmetric spaces ghostlike instabilities are inevitable, they can be avoided in a FRW background. The phases with less than two DOF in the scalar sector are also studied. Curvature allows an interesting interplay with the mass parameters; in particular, we have extended the Higuchi bound of de Sitter to Friedman-Robertson-Walker and Lorentz-breaking masses. As in dS, when the bound is saturated there is no propagating DOF in the scalar sector. In a number of phases the smallness of the kinetic terms gives rise to strongly coupled scalar modes at low energies. Finally, we have computed the gravitational potentials for pointlike sources. In the general case we recover the general relativity predictions at small distances, whereas the modifications appear at distances of the order of the characteristic mass scale. In contrast with Minkowski space, these corrections may not spoil the linear approximation at large distances.

Exact Spherically Symmetric Solutions in Massive Gravity

A phase of massive gravity free from pathologies can be obtained by coupling the metric to an additional spin-two field. We study the gravitational field produced by a static spherically symmetric body, by finding the exact solution that generalizes the Schwarzschild metric to the case of massive gravity. Besides the usual 1/r term, the main effects of the new spin-two field are a shift of the total mass of the body and the presence of a new power-like term, with sizes determined by the mass and the shape (the radius) of the source. These modifications, being source dependent, give rise to a dynamical violation of the Strong Equivalence Principle. Depending on the details of the coupling of the new field, the power-like term may dominate at large distances or even in the ultraviolet. The effect persists also when the dynamics of the extra field is decoupled.

Degrees of Freedom in Massive Gravity

We study in a systematic way a generic nonderivative (massive) deformation of general relativity using the Hamiltonian formalism. The number of propagating degrees of freedom is analyzed in a nonperturbative and background independent way. We show that the condition of having only five propagating degrees of freedom can be cast in a set of differential equations for the deforming potential. Though the conditions are rather restrictive, many solutions can be found.

FRW Cosmological Perturbations in Massive Bigravity

Cosmological perturbations of FRW solutions in ghost free massive bigravity, including also a second matter sector, are studied in detail. At early time, we find that sub horizon exponential instabilities are unavoidable and they lead to a premature departure from the perturbative regime of cosmological perturbations.

Cosmology of bigravity with doubly coupled matter

We study cosmology in the bigravity formulation of the dRGT model where matter couples to both metrics. At linear order in perturbation theory two mass scales emerge: an hard one from the dRGT potential, and an environmental dependent one from the coupling of bigravity with matter. At early time, the dynamics is dictated by the second mass scale which is of order of the Hubble scale. The set of gauge invariant perturbations that couples to matter follow closely the same behaviour as in GR. The remaining perturbations show no issue in the scalar sector, while problems arise in the tensor and vector sectors. During radiation domination, a tensor mode grows power-like at super-horizon scales. More dangerously, the only propagating vector mode features an exponential instability on sub-horizon scales. We discuss the consequences of such instabilities and speculate on possible ways to deal with them.

Massive gravity: a general analysis

A bstractMassive gravity can be described by adding to the Einstein-Hilbert action a function V of metric components. By using the Hamiltonian canonical analysis, we find the most general form of V such that five degrees of freedom propagate non perturbatively. The construction is based on a set of differential equations for V, that remarkably can be solved in terms of two arbitrary functions. Besides recovering the known “Lorentz invariant” massive gravity theory, we find an entirely new class of solutions, with healthy features on the phenomenological side, in particular they are weakly coupled in the solar system and have a high ultraviolet cutoff Λ2 = (mMpl)1/2, where m is the graviton mass scale.