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Outputs (41)

Ringdowns for black holes with scalar hair: The large mass case (2024)
Journal Article
D’Addario, G., Padilla, A., Saffin, P. M., Sotiriou, T. P., & Spiers, A. (2024). Ringdowns for black holes with scalar hair: The large mass case. Physical Review D, 109(8), Article 084046. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.109.084046

Deviations from general relativity can alter the quasinormal mode (QNM) ringdown of perturbed black holes. It is known that a shift-symmetric (hence massless) scalar can only introduce black hole hair if it couples to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant, in w... Read More about Ringdowns for black holes with scalar hair: The large mass case.

The cosmological constant is probably still zero (2023)
Journal Article
Liu, Y., Padilla, A., & Pedro, F. G. (2023). The cosmological constant is probably still zero. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2023(10), Article 14. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10%282023%29014

We consider a wide class of four-dimensional effective field theories in which gravity is coupled to multiple four-forms and their dual scalar fields, with membrane sources charged under the corresponding three-form potentials. Four-form flux, quanti... Read More about The cosmological constant is probably still zero.

CMB constraints on monodromy inflation at strong coupling (2022)
Journal Article
Copeland, E. J., Cunillera, F., Moss, A., & Padilla, A. (2022). CMB constraints on monodromy inflation at strong coupling. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2022(09), Article 080. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2022/09/080

We carry out a thorough numerical examination of field theory monodromy inflation at strong coupling. We perform an MCMC analysis using a Gaussian likelihood, fitting multiparameter models using CMB constraints on the spectral index and the tensor to... Read More about CMB constraints on monodromy inflation at strong coupling.

Generalised scalar-tensor theories and self-tuning (2022)
Journal Article
Copeland, E. J., Ghataore, S., Niedermann, F., & Padilla, A. (2022). Generalised scalar-tensor theories and self-tuning. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2022(3), Article 004. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2022/03/004

We explore a family of generalised scalar-tensor theories that exhibit self-tuning to low scale anti de Sitter vacua, even in the presence of a large cosmological constant. We are able to examine the linearised fluctuations about these vacua and comp... Read More about Generalised scalar-tensor theories and self-tuning.

Quintessence and the Swampland: The Numerically Controlled Regime of Moduli Space (2022)
Journal Article
Cicoli, M., Cunillera, F., Padilla, A., & Pedro, F. G. (2022). Quintessence and the Swampland: The Numerically Controlled Regime of Moduli Space. Fortschritte der Physik / Progress of Physics, 70(4), Article 2200008. https://doi.org/10.1002/prop.202200008

We provide a detailed discussion of the main theoretical and phenomenological challenges of quintessence model building in any numerically controlled regime of the moduli space of string theory. We argue that a working quintessence model requires a l... Read More about Quintessence and the Swampland: The Numerically Controlled Regime of Moduli Space.

Quadratic curvature corrections to stringy effective actions and the absence of de Sitter vacua (2022)
Journal Article
Cunillera, F., Emond, W. T., Lehébel, A., & Padilla, A. (2022). Quadratic curvature corrections to stringy effective actions and the absence of de Sitter vacua. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2022(2), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep02%282022%29012

We investigate the combined effect of fluxes and higher-order curvature corrections, in the form of the Gauss-Bonnet term, on the existence of de Sitter vacua in a heterotic string inspired framework, compactified on spheres and tori. We first gain s... Read More about Quadratic curvature corrections to stringy effective actions and the absence of de Sitter vacua.

A stringy perspective on the coincidence problem (2021)
Journal Article
Cunillera, F., & Padilla, A. (2021). A stringy perspective on the coincidence problem. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2021(10), Article 55. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10%282021%29055

We argue that, for string compactifications broadly consistent with swampland constraints, dark energy is likely to signal the beginning of the end of our universe as we know it, perhaps even through decompactification, with possible implications for... Read More about A stringy perspective on the coincidence problem.

Deconstructing higher order clockwork gravity (2021)
Journal Article
Avgoustidis, A., Niedermann, F., Padilla, A., & Saffin, P. M. (2021). Deconstructing higher order clockwork gravity. Physical Review D, 103(12), Article 124007. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.103.124007

We consider the higher order clockwork theory of gravitational interactions, whereby a number of gravitons are coupled together with TeV strength, but nevertheless generate a Planck scale coupling to matter without the need for a dilaton. It is shown... Read More about Deconstructing higher order clockwork gravity.

Massive Galileons and Vainshtein screening (2021)
Journal Article
Burrage, C., Coltman, B., Padilla, A., Saadeh, D., & Wilson, T. (2021). Massive Galileons and Vainshtein screening. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2021(02), Article 050. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2021/02/050

The Vainshtein screening mechanism relies on nonlinear interaction terms becoming dominant close to a compact source. However, theories displaying this mechanism are generally understood to be low-energy theories: it is unclear that operators emergin... Read More about Massive Galileons and Vainshtein screening.

Unimodular vs nilpotent superfield approach to pure dS supergravity (2021)
Journal Article
Bansal, S., Nagy, S., Padilla, A., & Zavala, I. (2021). Unimodular vs nilpotent superfield approach to pure dS supergravity. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2021(1), Article 146 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep01%282021%29146

Recent progress in understanding de Sitter spacetime in supergravity and string theory has led to the development of a four dimensional supergravity with spontaneously broken supersymmetry allowing for de Sitter vacua, also called de Sitter supergrav... Read More about Unimodular vs nilpotent superfield approach to pure dS supergravity.

Dark energy loopholes some time after GW170817 (2020)
Journal Article
Bordin, L., Copeland, E. J., & Padilla, A. (2020). Dark energy loopholes some time after GW170817. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2020(11), Article 063. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2020/11/063

We revisit the constraints on scalar tensor theories of modified gravity following the purge of GW170817. We pay particular attention to dynamical loopholes where the anomalous speed of propagation of the gravitational wave can vanish on-shell, when... Read More about Dark energy loopholes some time after GW170817.

Quantum corrections to vacuum energy sequestering (with monodromy) (2019)
Journal Article
Kamal El-Menoufi, B., Nagy, S., Niedermann, F., & Padilla, A. (2019). Quantum corrections to vacuum energy sequestering (with monodromy). Classical and Quantum Gravity, 36(21), https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/ab46f6

Field theory models of axion monodromy have been shown to exhibit vacuum energy sequestering as an emergent phenomenon for cancelling radiative corrections to the cosmological constant. We study one loop corrections to this class of models coming fro... Read More about Quantum corrections to vacuum energy sequestering (with monodromy).

Cosmological consequences of Omnia Sequestra (2019)
Journal Article
Coltman, B., Li, Y., & Padilla, A. (2019). Cosmological consequences of Omnia Sequestra. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2019(06), https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2019/06/017

Vacuum energy sequestering is a mechanism for cancelling off the radiative corrections to vacuum energy. The most comprehensive low energy model, proposed in [1], has the ability to cancel off radiative corrections to vacuum energy for loops of both... Read More about Cosmological consequences of Omnia Sequestra.

Dark Energy after GW170817 Revisited (2019)
Journal Article
Copeland, E. J., Kopp, M., Padilla, A., Saffin, P. M., & Skordis, C. (2019). Dark Energy after GW170817 Revisited. Physical Review Letters, 122(6), Article 061301. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.122.061301

We revisit the status of scalar-tensor theories with applications to dark energy in the aftermath of the gravitational wave signal GW170817 and its optical counterpart GRB170817A. At the level of the cosmological background, we identify a class of th... Read More about Dark Energy after GW170817 Revisited.

Monodromy inflation and an emergent mechanism for stabilising the cosmological constant (2019)
Journal Article
Padilla, A. (2019). Monodromy inflation and an emergent mechanism for stabilising the cosmological constant. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2019(1), Article 175. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep01%282019%29175

We show that a pair of field theory monodromies in which the shift symmetry is broken by small, well motivated deformations, naturally incorporates a mechanism for cancelling off radiative corrections to the cosmological constant. The lighter monodro... Read More about Monodromy inflation and an emergent mechanism for stabilising the cosmological constant.

Higher order clockwork gravity (2018)
Journal Article
Niedermann, F., Padilla, A., & Saffin, P. M. (2018). Higher order clockwork gravity. Physical Review D, 98(10), Article 104014. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.98.104014

We present a higher order generalisation of the clockwork mechanism starting from an underlying non-linear multigravity theory with a single scale and nearest neighbour ghost-free interactions. Without introducing any hierarchies in the underlying po... Read More about Higher order clockwork gravity.

Non-perturbative aspects of galileon duality (2018)
Journal Article
Millington, P., Niedermann, F., & Padilla, A. (in press). Non-perturbative aspects of galileon duality. European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields, 78(7), https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-6029-0

We study quantum aspects of the galileon duality, especially in the case of a particular interacting galileon theory that is said to be dual to a free theory through the action of a simultaneous field and coordinate transformation. This would appear... Read More about Non-perturbative aspects of galileon duality.

Vainshtein in the UV and a Wilsonian analysis of derivatively coupled scalars (2018)
Journal Article
Padilla Antonio, A., & Saltas, I. (2018). Vainshtein in the UV and a Wilsonian analysis of derivatively coupled scalars. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2018(6), https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2018/06/039

In the first part of this paper we critically examine the ultra-violet implications of theories that exhibit Vainshtein screening, taking into account both the standard Wilsonian perspective as well as more exotic possibilities. Aspects of this discu... Read More about Vainshtein in the UV and a Wilsonian analysis of derivatively coupled scalars.

Gravitational mechanisms to self-tune the cosmological constant: obstructions and ways forward (2017)
Journal Article
Niedermann, F., & Padilla, A. (2017). Gravitational mechanisms to self-tune the cosmological constant: obstructions and ways forward. Physical Review Letters, 119(25), Article 251306. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.251306

Gravitational models of self-tuning are those in which vacuum energy has no observable effect on spacetime curvature, even though it is a priori unsuppressed below the cut-off. We complement Weinberg's no go theorem by studying field theoretic comple... Read More about Gravitational mechanisms to self-tune the cosmological constant: obstructions and ways forward.

An étude on global vacuum energy sequester (2017)
Journal Article
D’Amico, G., Kaloper, N., Padilla, A., Stefanyszyn, D., Westphal, A., & Zahariade, G. (2017). An étude on global vacuum energy sequester. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2017(9), Article 74. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09%282017%29074

Recently two of the authors proposed a mechanism of vacuum energy sequester as a means of protecting the observable cosmological constant from quantum radiative corrections. The original proposal was based on using global Lagrange multipliers, but la... Read More about An étude on global vacuum energy sequester.

Probing scalar effective field theories with the soft limits of scattering amplitudes (2017)
Journal Article
Padilla, A., Stefanyszyn, D., & Wilson, T. (2017). Probing scalar effective field theories with the soft limits of scattering amplitudes. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2017(4), https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04%282017%29015

We investigate the soft behaviour of scalar effective field theories (EFTs) when there is a number of distinct derivative power counting parameters, ?1 < ?2 < . . . < ?Q. We clarify the notion of an enhanced soft limit and use these to extend the sco... Read More about Probing scalar effective field theories with the soft limits of scattering amplitudes.

Vacuum energy sequestering and graviton loops (2017)
Journal Article
Kaloper, N., & Padilla, A. (2017). Vacuum energy sequestering and graviton loops. Physical Review Letters, 118(6), Article 061303. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.061303

We recently formulated a local mechanism of vacuum energy sequester. This mechanism automatically removes all matter loop contributions to vacuum energy from the stress energy tensor which sources the curvature. Here we adapt the local vacuum energy... Read More about Vacuum energy sequestering and graviton loops.

Sequestering effects on and of vacuum decay (2016)
Journal Article
Kaloper, N., Padilla, A., & Stefanyszyn, D. (2016). Sequestering effects on and of vacuum decay. Physical Review D, 94(2), Article 25022. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.025022

We consider phase transitions and their contributions to vacuum energy in the manifestly local theory of vacuum energy sequestering. We demonstrate that the absence of instabilities imposes constraints on the couplings of gravitating and nongravitati... Read More about Sequestering effects on and of vacuum decay.

How to avoid a swift kick in the chameleons (2016)
Journal Article
Padilla, A., Platts, E., Stefanyszyn, D., Walters, A., Weltman, A., & Wilson, T. (2016). How to avoid a swift kick in the chameleons. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2016, Article 58. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/03/058

Recently, it was argued that the conformal coupling of the chameleon to matter fields created an issue for early universe cosmology. As standard model degrees of freedom become non-relativistic in the early universe, the chameleon is attracted toward... Read More about How to avoid a swift kick in the chameleons.

Manifestly Local Theory of Vacuum Energy Sequestering (2016)
Journal Article
Kaloper, N., Padilla, A., Stefanyszyn, D., & Zahariade, G. (2016). Manifestly Local Theory of Vacuum Energy Sequestering. Physical Review Letters, 116(5), Article 051302. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.051302

© 2016 American Physical Society. We present a manifestly local, diffeomorphism invariant, and locally Poincaré invariant formulation of vacuum energy sequestering. In this theory, quantum vacuum energy generated by matter loops is canceled by auxili... Read More about Manifestly Local Theory of Vacuum Energy Sequestering.

The Parametrized Post-Newtonian-Vainshteinian formalism (2015)
Journal Article
Avilez-Lopez, A., Padilla, A., Saffin, P. M., & Skordis, C. (2015). The Parametrized Post-Newtonian-Vainshteinian formalism. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2015(6), Article 044. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2015/06/044

Light degrees of freedom that modify gravity on cosmological scales must be "screened" on solar system scales in order to be compatible with data. The Vainshtein mechanism achieves this through a breakdown of classical perturbation theory, as large i... Read More about The Parametrized Post-Newtonian-Vainshteinian formalism.

Sequestration of vacuum energy and the end of the universe (2015)
Journal Article
Kaloper, N., & Padilla, A. (2015). Sequestration of vacuum energy and the end of the universe. Physical Review Letters, 114(10), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.101302

Recently, we proposed a mechanism for sequestering the standard model vacuum energy that predicts that the Universe will collapse. Here we present a simple mechanism for bringing about this collapse, employing a scalar field whose potential is linear... Read More about Sequestration of vacuum energy and the end of the universe.

Unitarity and the Vainshtein mechanism (2015)
Journal Article
Kaloper, N., Padilla, A., Saffin, P. M., & Stefanyszyn, D. (2015). Unitarity and the Vainshtein mechanism. Physical Review D, 91(4), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.91.045017

We investigate low energy limits of massive gauge theories that feature the Vainshtein mechanism, focussing on the effects of the UV modes that are integrated out. It turns out that the Goldstone sectors are significantly influenced by the effects fr... Read More about Unitarity and the Vainshtein mechanism.

Vacuum energy sequestering: The framework and its cosmological consequences (2014)
Journal Article
Kaloper, N., & Padilla, A. (2014). Vacuum energy sequestering: The framework and its cosmological consequences. Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, 90(8), https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.90.084023

Recently we suggested a reformulation of general relativity which completely sequesters from gravity all of the vacuum energy from a protected matter sector, assumed to contain the standard model. Here we elaborate further on the mechanism, presentin... Read More about Vacuum energy sequestering: The framework and its cosmological consequences.

Sequestering the standard model vacuum energy (2014)
Journal Article
Kaloper, N., & Padilla, A. (2014). Sequestering the standard model vacuum energy. Physical Review Letters, 112(9), Article 091304. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.091304

We propose a very simple reformulation of general relativity, which completely sequesters from gravity all of the vacuum energy from a matter sector, including all loop corrections and renders all contributions from phase transitions automatically sm... Read More about Sequestering the standard model vacuum energy.

The cosmology of the Fab-Four (2012)
Journal Article
Copeland, E. J., Padilla, A., & Saffin, P. M. (2012). The cosmology of the Fab-Four. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2012(12), Article 026. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2012/12/026

We have recently proposed a novel self tuning mechanism to alleviate the famous cosmological constant problem, based on the general scalar tensor theory proposed by Horndeski. The self-tuning model ends up consisting of four geometric terms in the ac... Read More about The cosmology of the Fab-Four.

Classical duals, Legendre transforms and the Vainshtein mechanism (2012)
Journal Article
Padilla, A., & Saffin, P. M. (2012). Classical duals, Legendre transforms and the Vainshtein mechanism. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2012(7), Article 122. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07%282012%29122

We show how to generalize the classical duals found by Gabadadze {et al} to a very large class of self-interacting theories. This enables one to adopt a perturbative description beyond the scale at which classical perturbation theory breaks down in t... Read More about Classical duals, Legendre transforms and the Vainshtein mechanism.

Self-tuning and the derivation of a class of scalar-tensor theories (2012)
Journal Article
Charmousis, C., Copeland, E. J., Padilla, A., & Saffin, P. M. (2012). Self-tuning and the derivation of a class of scalar-tensor theories. Physical Review D, 85(10), Article 104040. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.85.104040

We have recently proposed a special class of scalar tensor theories known as the Fab Four. These arose from attempts to analyse the cosmological constant problem within the context of Horndeski's most general scalar tensor theory. The Fab Four togeth... Read More about Self-tuning and the derivation of a class of scalar-tensor theories.

General second-order scalar-tensor theory and self-tuning (2012)
Journal Article
Charmousis, C., Copeland, E. J., Saffin, P. M., & Padilla, A. (2012). General second-order scalar-tensor theory and self-tuning. Physical Review Letters, 108(5), Article 051101. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.051101

Starting from the most general scalar-tensor theory with second order field equations in four dimensions, we establish the unique action that will allow for the existence of a consistent self-tuning mechanism on FLRW backgrounds, and show how it can... Read More about General second-order scalar-tensor theory and self-tuning.

Multi-Galileons, solitons, and Derrick’s theorem (2011)
Journal Article
Padilla, A., Saffin, P. M., & Zhou, S. (2011). Multi-Galileons, solitons, and Derrick’s theorem. Physical Review D, 83(4), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.83.045009

The field theory Galilean symmetry, which was introduced in the context of modified gravity, gives a neat way to construct Lorentz-covariant theories of a scalar field, such that the equations of motion contain at most second-order derivatives. Here... Read More about Multi-Galileons, solitons, and Derrick’s theorem.

Bi-galileon theory II: phenomenology (2011)
Journal Article
Padilla, A., Saffin, P. M., & Zhou, S. (2011). Bi-galileon theory II: phenomenology. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2011(1), https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01%282011%29099

We continue to introduce bi-galileon theory, the generalisation of the single galileon model introduced by Nicolis et al. The theory contains two coupled scalar fields and is described by a Lagrangian that is invariant under Galilean shifts in those... Read More about Bi-galileon theory II: phenomenology.

Bi-galileon theory I: motivation and formulation (2010)
Journal Article
Padilla, A., Saffin, P. M., & Zhou, S. (2010). Bi-galileon theory I: motivation and formulation. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2010(12), https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12%282010%29031

We introduce bi-galileon theory, the generalisation of the single galileon model introduced by Nicolis et al. The theory contains two coupled scalar fields and is described by a Lagrangian that is invariant under Galilean shifts in those fields. This... Read More about Bi-galileon theory I: motivation and formulation.

Strong coupling in Ho?ava gravity (2009)
Journal Article
Charmousis, C., Niz, G., Padilla, A., & Saffin, P. M. (2009). Strong coupling in Ho?ava gravity. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2009(8), https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2009/08/070

By studying perturbations about the vacuum, we show that Horava gravity suffers from two different strong coupling problems, extending all the way into the deep infra-red. The first of these is associated with the principle of detailed balance and ex... Read More about Strong coupling in Ho?ava gravity.

Transmission of an inhomogeneous state via resonant tunnelling (2008)
Journal Article
Saffin, P. M., Padilla, A., & Copeland, E. J. (2008). Transmission of an inhomogeneous state via resonant tunnelling. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2008(9), https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2008/09/055

We recently investigated the nature of resonant tunnelling in standard scalar Quantum Field Theory, uncovering the conditions required for resonance. It was shown that whereas the homogeneous false vacuum may decay via bubble nucleation, it may not d... Read More about Transmission of an inhomogeneous state via resonant tunnelling.

No resonant tunneling in standard scalar quantum field theory (2008)
Journal Article
Copeland, E. J., Padilla, A., & Saffin, P. M. (2008). No resonant tunneling in standard scalar quantum field theory. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2008(1), https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2008/01/066

We investigate the nature of resonant tunneling in Quantum Field Theory. Following the pioneering work of Banks, Bender and Wu, we describe quantum field theory in terms of infinite dimensional quantum mechanics and utilize the ``Most probable escape... Read More about No resonant tunneling in standard scalar quantum field theory.