paper

Mimetic dark matter, ghost instability and a mimetic tensor-vector-scalar gravity

arXiv:1404.4008 · doi:10.1007/JHEP12(2014)102

Abstract

Recently modified gravitational theories which mimic the behaviour of dark matter, the so-called "Mimetic Dark Matter", have been proposed. We study the consistency of such theories with respect to the absence of ghost instability and propose a new tensor-vector-scalar theory of gravity, which is a generalization of the previous models of mimetic dark matter with additional desirable features. The original model proposed by Chamseddine and Mukhanov [JHEP 1311 (2013) 135, arXiv:1308.5410] is concluded to describe a regular pressureless dust, presuming that we consider only those configurations where the energy density of the mimetic dust remains positive under time evolution. For certain type of configurations the theory can become unstable. Both alternative modified theories of gravity, which are based on a vector field (tensor-vector theory) or a vector field and a scalar field (tensor-vector-scalar theory), are free of ghost instabilities.

23 pages, v4: clarifies and/or extends the discussion on the positivity of total energy, the instability found in the original mimetic model, and the number of physical degrees of freedom in each considered theory. Presentation improved in section 3. To be published in J. High Energy Phys

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