Physical nonviability of in the scalar-tensor representation
arXiv:2606.30036
summary
The authors demonstrate that the scalar‑tensor representation of f(Q) gravity inevitably contains a propagating ghost degree of freedom, confirming its physical non‑viability.
Abstract
We show the known pathological character of gravity in its scalar-tensor representation.
7 pages, no figures. We added further clarifications on the propagating nature of the ghost and the number of dofs
Topics & keywords
#modified gravity#f(q) gravity#scalar-tensor theory#ghost instability#degrees of freedomf(Q)nonmetricityscalar-tensor representationghostpropagating modepathology