False vacuum decay in field theory may be formulated as a boundary value problem in Euclidean space. In a previous work, we studied its solution in single scalar field theories with quadratic gravity and used it to find obstructions to vacuum decay.
For simplicity, we focused on massless scalar fields and false vacua with a flat geometry. In this paper, we generalize those findings to massive scalar fields with the same gravitational interactions, namely an Einstein-Hilbert term, a quadratic Ricci scalar, and a non-minimal coupling. We find that the scalar field reaches its asymptotic value faster than in the massless case, in principle allowing for a wider range of theories that may accommodate vacuum decay. Nonetheless, this hardly affects the viability of the bounce in the scenarios here considered. We also briefly consider other physically interesting theories by including higher-order kinetic terms and changing the number of spacetime dimensions.
We analytically derive a class of non-singular, static and spherically symmetric topological black hole metrics inF(R)-gravity. These have not a de Sitter core at their centre, as most model in standard General Relativity. We study the geometric prop
erties and the motion of test particles around these objects. Since they have two horizons, the inner being of Cauchy type, we focus on the problem of mass inflation and show that it occurs except when some extremal conditions are met.
Metastable states decay at zero temperature through quantum tunneling at an exponentially small rate, which depends on the Coleman-de Luccia instanton, also known as bounce. In some theories, the bounce may not exist or its on-shell action may be ill
-defined or infinite, thus hindering the vacuum decay process. In this paper, we test this possibility in modified theories of gravity interacting with a real scalar field. We consider an Einstein-Hilbert term with a non-minimally coupled scalar field and a quadratic Ricci scalar contribution. To tackle the problem we use a new analytic method, with which we prove that the scalar field on the bounce has a universal behavior at large Euclidean radii, almost independently of the potential. Our main result is that the quadratic Ricci scalar prevents the decay, regardless of the other terms in the action. We also comment on the numerical implications of our findings.
Black holes in $f(R)$-gravity are known to be unstable, especially the rotating ones. In particular, an instability develops that looks like the classical black hole bomb mechanism: the linearized modified Einstein equations are characterized by an e
ffective mass that acts like a massive scalar perturbation on the Kerr solution in General Relativity, which is known to yield instabilities. In this note, we consider a special class of $f(R)$ gravity that has the property of being scale-invariant. As a prototype, we consider the simplest case $f(R)=R^2$ and show that, in opposition to the general case, static and stationary black holes are stable, at least at the linear level.
A four-dimensional regularization of Lovelock-Lanczos gravity up to an arbitrary curvature order is considered. We show that Lovelock-Lanczos terms can provide a non-trivial contribution to the Einstein field equations in four dimensions, for spheric
ally symmetric and Friedmann-Lema^{i}tre-Robertson-Walker spacetimes, as well as at first order in perturbation theory around (anti) de Sitter vacua. We will discuss the cosmological and black hole solutions arising from these theories, focusing on the presence of attractors and their stability. Although curvature singularities persist for any finite number of Lovelock terms, it is shown that they disappear in the non-perturbative limit of a theory with a unique vacuum.
The near-simultaneous multi-messenger detection of the gravitational wave (GW) event GW170817 and its optical counterpart, the short $gamma$-ray burst GRB170817A, implies that deviations of the GW speed from the speed of light are restricted to being
of ${cal O}(10^{-15})$. In this note, we study the implications of this bound for mimetic gravity and confirm that in the original setting of the theory, GWs propagate at the speed of light, hence ensuring agreement with the recent multi-messenger detection. A higher-order extension of the original mimetic theory, appearing in the low-energy limit of projectable Hov{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity, is then considered. Performing a Bayesian statistical analysis where we compare the predictions of the higher-order mimetic model for the speed of GWs against the observational bound from GW170817/GRB170817A, we derive constraints on the three free parameters of the theory. Imposing the absence of both ghost instabilities and superluminal propagation of scalar and tensor perturbations, we find very stringent 95% confidence level upper limits of $sim 7 times 10^{-15}$ and $sim 4 times 10^{-15}$ on the coupling strengths of Lagrangian terms of the form $ abla^{mu} abla^{ u}phi abla_{mu} abla_{ u}phi$ and $(Box phi)^2$ respectively, with $phi$ the mimetic field. We discuss implications of the obtained bounds for mimetic theories. This work presents the first ever robust comparison of a mimetic theory to observational data.
In this note we consider the issue of the classical equivalence of scale-invariant gravity in the Einstein and in the Jordan frames. We first consider the simplest example $f(R)=R^{2}$ and show explicitly that the equivalence breaks down when dealing
with Ricci-flat solutions. We discuss the link with the fact that flat solutions in quadratic gravity have zero energy. We also consider the case of scale-invariant tensor-scalar gravity and general $f(R)$ theories. We argue that all scale-invariant gravity models have Ricci flat solutions in the Jordan frame that cannot be mapped into the Einstein frame. In particular, the Minkowski metric exists only in the Jordan frame. In this sense, the two frames are not equivalent.
We consider a model of dark matter fluid based on a sector of Horndeski gravity. The model is very successful, at the background level, in reproducing the evolution of the Universe from early times to today. However, at the perturbative level the mod
el fails. To show this, we use the code $texttt{hi_class}$ and we compute the matter power spectrum and the cosmic microwave background spectrum. Our results confirm, in a new and independent way, that this sector of Horndeski gravity is not viable, in agreement with the recent constraints coming from the measurement of the speed of gravitational waves obtained from the observation of the neutron star merger event GW170817.
The recent observation of the the gravitational wave event GW170817 and of its electromagnetic counterpart GRB170817A, from a binary neutron star merger, has established that the speed of gravitational waves deviates from the speed of light by less t
han one part in $10^{15}$. As a consequence, many extensions of General Relativity are inevitably ruled out. Among these we find the most relevant sectors of Horndeski gravity. In its original formulation, mimetic gravity is able to mimic cosmological dark matter, has tensorial perturbations that travel exactly at the speed of light but has vanishing scalar perturbations and this fact persists if we combine mimetic with Horndeski gravity. In this work, we show that implementing the mimetic gravity action with higher-order terms that break the Horndeski structure yields a cosmological model that satisfies the constraint on the speed of gravitational waves and mimics both dark energy and dark matter with a non-vanishing speed of sound. In this way, we are able to reproduce the $Lambda$CDM cosmological model without introducing particle cold dark matter.
We study a scale-invariant model of quadratic gravity with a non-minimally coupled scalar field. We focus on cosmological solutions and find that scale invariance is spontaneously broken and a mass scale naturally emerges. Before the symmetry breakin
g, the Universe undergoes an inflationary expansion with nearly the same observational predictions of Starobinskys model. At the end of inflation, the Hubble parameter and the scalar field converge to a stable fixed point through damped oscillations and the usual Einstein-Hilbert action is recovered. The oscillations around the fixed point can reheat the Universe in various ways and we study in detail some of these possibilities.
