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Dark-Energy Instabilities induced by Gravitational Waves

6 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

6 Pith papers citing it
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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2026 6

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representative citing papers

A Master Equation for Screening in Luminal Horndeski Gravity

gr-qc · 2026-05-05 · unverdicted · novelty 7.0

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.

Phenomenology of an Open Effective Field Theory of Dark Energy

astro-ph.CO · 2026-03-12 · conditional · novelty 7.0

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.

Effective Field Theories for Material Media

hep-th · 2026-07-07 · accept · novelty 4.0

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

Showing 6 of 6 citing papers.

  • A Master Equation for Screening in Luminal Horndeski Gravity gr-qc · 2026-05-05 · unverdicted · none · ref 51

    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.

  • Phenomenology of an Open Effective Field Theory of Dark Energy astro-ph.CO · 2026-03-12 · conditional · none · ref 32

    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.

  • How deep can a cosmic void be? Voids-informed theoretical bounds in Galileon gravity astro-ph.CO · 2026-01-08 · unverdicted · none · ref 31

    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.

  • Scalar emission from binary neutron stars in scalar-tensor theories with kinetic screening gr-qc · 2026-05-01 · unverdicted · none · ref 35

    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.

  • Effective Field Theories for Material Media hep-th · 2026-07-07 · accept · none · ref 217 · internal anchor

    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 astro-ph.CO · 2026-06-30 · unverdicted · none · ref 106

    Adding DESI DR1 RSD, DES Y3 3x2pt, and ISW cross-correlations to CMB+BAO+SNe improves FoM for EFTofDE parameters {cB, cM} by 2.69x and for {mu(z), Sigma(z)} by 3.37x, with 2.9 sigma deviation from LambdaCDM similar to w0waCDM.