Can TeVeS be a viable theory of gravity?

Abstract

Among modified gravitational theories, the Tensor-Vector-Scalar (TeVeS) occupies a special place -- it is a covariant theory of gravity that produces the modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) in the nonrelativistic weak field limit and explains the astrophysical data at scales larger than that of the Solar System, without the need of an excessive amount of invisible matter. We show that, in contrast to other modified theories, TeVeS is free from ghosts. These achievements make TeVeS (and its nonrelativistic limit) a viable theory of gravity. A speculative outlook on the emergence of TeVeS from a quantum theory is presented.

10 pages, v2: Discussions on the degrees of freedom and the positivity of total energy extended, presentation improved, added three new references, to be published in Phys. Lett. B

References in corpus (3)

• Dynamics of dark energy
• Generalizing TeVeS Cosmology
• Hamiltonian analysis of curvature-squared gravity with or without conformal invariance

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Mimetic dark matter, ghost instability and a mimetic tensor-vector-scalar gravity
• A general class of gravitational theories as alternatives to dark matter where the speed of gravity always equals the speed of light
• Physical laboratory at the center of the Galaxy
• Aether scalar tensor theory: Linear stability on Minkowski space
• Testing the tensor-vector-scalar Theory with the latest cosmological observations
• Aether scalar tensor theory: Hamiltonian Formalism
• Cosmological Principle in Newtonian Dynamics
• Stealth black holes in Aether Scalar Tensor theory
• Mimetic Tensor-Vector-Scalar Cosmology: Incorporating Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Stiff Matter
• Emergent Dark Matter and Dark Energy from a Lattice Model