Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1809.08735

Dark energy in Horndeski theories after GW170817: A review

Ryotaro Kase·Shinji Tsujikawa
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The gravitational-wave event GW170817 from a binary neutron star merger together with the electromagnetic counterpart showed that the speed of gravitational waves $c_t$ is very close to that of light for the redshift $z<0.009$. This places tight constraints on dark energy models constructed in the framework of modified gravitational theories. We review models of the late-time cosmic acceleration in scalar-tensor theories with second-order equations of motion (dubbed Horndeski theories) by paying particular attention to the evolution of dark energy equation of state and observables relevant to the cosmic growth history. We provide a gauge-ready formulation of scalar perturbations in full Horndeski theories and estimate observables associated with the evolution of large-scale structures, cosmic microwave background, and weak lensing by employing a so-called quasi-static approximation for the modes deep inside the sound horizon. In light of the recent observational bound of $c_t$, we also classify surviving dark energy models into four classes depending on different structure-formation patterns and discuss how they can be observationally distinguished from each other. In particular, the nonminimally coupled theories in which the scalar field $\phi$ has a coupling with the Ricci scalar $R$ of the form $G_4(\phi) R$, including $f(R)$ gravity, can be tightly constrained not only from the cosmic expansion and growth histories but also from the variation of screened gravitational couplings. The cross correlation of integrated Sachs-Wolfe signal with galaxy distributions can be a key observable for placing bounds on the relative ratio of cubic Galileon density to total dark energy density. The dawn of gravitational-wave astronomy will open up a new window to constrain nonminimally coupled theories further by the modified luminosity distance of tensor perturbations.

Explore related subjects

gr-qcastro-ph.COhep-phhep-th

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Ryotaro Kase, Shinji Tsujikawa. 2018-09-24. Dark energy in Horndeski theories after GW170817: A review. https://doi.org/10.1142/s0218271819420057

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Electrovacuum Black Hole Uniqueness

We prove the black hole uniqueness conjecture in the axially symmetric, stationary, electrovacuum setting, subject to the refined asymptotic analysis of the associated singular harmonic maps, which includes an analyticity hypothesis at the axes. More precisely, it is shown that any asymptotically flat solution of the Einstein--Maxwell equations in this class, with more than one black hole horizon component is either: Majumdar--Papapetrou, up to a duality rotation, in which case all logarithmic angle defects vanish, or every finite axis rod logarithmic angle defect is strictly negative and hence every interaction force is strictly attractive. The proof extends the singular harmonic map method used for vacuum Kerr uniqueness in [18].

gr-qc↗
arXiv2026

Constraining Modified Mass-to-Horizon Cosmology Through Primordial Inflationary Observables

We investigate slow-roll inflation in a modified cosmological framework inspired by a generalized mass-to-horizon relation (MHR), $M=\gamma {c^2 L^n}/{G}$, where $n$ is a real parameter and $\gamma$ a dimensional constant. Using Padmanabhan's emergence paradigm, we derive the modified Friedmann equations for a flat FRW universe and analyze the dynamics of a canonical scalar field (inflaton) under the slow-roll approximation. We study the resulting inflationary phenomenology for power-law and Starobinsky potentials. For power-law potentials, the MHR modification fails to reconcile these models with current CMB constraints on $r$ and $n_s$. In contrast, Starobinsky inflation exhibits significant sensitivity to deviations from $n=1$. A perturbative analysis ($n=1+\Delta$) yields corrections to inflationary observables. We observe that the scalar power-spectrum normalization, under a fixed-Starobinsky prescription, imposes the stringent constraint $0.960 \lesssim n \lesssim 1.040$ for $N=60$ efolds. This is considerably tighter than spectral-index bounds. Our results establish inflation, particularly Starobinsky-like models, as a sensitive probe of generalized horizon thermodynamics and departures from standard MHR scaling.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2026

Improving the Sensitivity of Gravitational Wave Detection with Weighted Conformal Prediction

In the last decade, kilometre-scale interferometric gravitational-wave detectors have observed hundreds of compact binary mergers, the majority of which are binary black holes. However, the data are noise-dominated, and multiple independent search algorithms (pipelines) are used to enhance sensitivity and improve robustness. Rather than the standard approach of selecting the most significant pipeline output, we combine the outputs from all pipelines using a conformal prediction-based framework to provide statistically rigorous confidence estimates for candidate events. While combining pipelines improves sensitivity and ranking robustness, it requires a principled statistical framework that remains valid as data properties evolve across observing runs. A key challenge is distribution shifts between simulated datasets used for training and calibration and the real, unlabelled, observations used for testing, which can invalidate coverage guarantees and bias confidence estimates. In this work, we address this challenge by incorporating likelihood-ratio reweighting into our conformal prediction framework to account for covariate shift. Using mock datasets containing simulated signals, we demonstrate that weighted conformal prediction restores well-calibrated coverage under covariate shift and increases the confidence of events near the detection threshold, recovering true signals that would otherwise be missed.

gr-qc↗