Low energy ghosts and the Jeans’ instability

G�mr�k�o?lu, A. Emir; Mukohyama, Shinji; Sotiriou, Thomas P.

Abstract

We show that a massless canonical scalar field minimally coupled to general relativity can become a tachyonic ghost at low energies around a background in which the scalar’s gradient is spacelike. By performing a canonical transformation we demonstrate that this low energy ghost can be recast, at the level of the action, in a form of a fluid that undergoes a Jeans-like instability affecting only modes with large wavelength. This illustrates that low energy tachyonic ghosts do not lead to a catastrophic quantum vacuum instability, unlike the usual high-energy ghost degrees of freedom.

Citation

Gümrükçüoğlu, A. E., Mukohyama, S., & Sotiriou, T. P. (2016). Low energy ghosts and the Jeans’ instability. Physical Review D, 94(6), Article 64001. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.064001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 16, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Dec 21, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 21, 2016
• Journal: Physical Review D
• Print ISSN: 2470-0010
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0029
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 94
• Issue: 6
• Article Number: 64001
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.064001
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/802869
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.064001
• Additional Information: ©2016 American Physical Society