arXiv subjects

Masroor C. Pookkillath

Publications and source records attributed to Masroor C. Pookkillath.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A no-go theorem in bumblebee vector-tensor cosmology

Bumblebee models, a class of vector-tensor theories in which a vector field acquires a nonzero vacuum expectation value that spontaneously breaks spacetime symmetries, are ubiquitous in the literature. By constructing the most general bumblebee action from all diffeomorphism-invariant marginal operators together with a general potential, aiming to cover all the bumblebee models studied in the literature, we perform a complete linear perturbation analysis on a spatially flat FLRW background. We show that for generic marginal couplings, the scalar sector propagates extra degrees of freedom beyond the single scalar expected for a massive vector. Enforcing the correct number of propagating modes in a cosmological setup forces degeneracy relations between the marginal couplings, which in turn completely fix the potential at the background level and render the remaining scalar infinitely strongly coupled already at linear order of perturbations. We establish a no-go theorem stating that the following conditions cannot be simultaneously satisfied: (i) the most general marginal action, (ii) a homogeneous and isotropic background, (iii) no extra propagating degrees of freedom around a spatially flat FLRW background, and (iv) healthy cosmological perturbations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2026

Phantom-divide crossing and suppressed structure growth in kinetically braided dark energy with momentum exchange

We construct a linearly stable scalar-field model that realizes both an upward crossing of the dark-energy equation of state, from $w_{\rm DE}<-1$ to $w_{\rm DE}>-1$, and weakened gravitational clustering in the cold dark matter (CDM) sector. An exponential potential breaks shift symmetry and drives the background from a stable phantom phase toward the nonphantom regime, while a pure momentum-transfer interaction increases the dynamical inertia of CDM without altering its background dilution law. We derive the background and linear perturbation equations and establish the no-ghost and Laplacian-stability conditions. For perturbations deep inside the Hubble radius, where the quasi-static approximation applies, the effective gravitational coupling for CDM can fall below Newton's constant, suppressing late-time growth and small-scale matter power, while the baryonic coupling remains enhanced by Galileon braiding. A modified CLASS calculation, including the scalar-field perturbation and the full Boltzmann hierarchies, reveals signatures of transient braiding around radiation--matter equality. For the representative stable solutions studied here, these signatures include an enhancement of matter power toward the lowest wavenumbers probed numerically and a reduction of CMB temperature power over the multipole range $2\leq\ell\leq30$. We also find small shifts in the acoustic scale and the position of the first temperature peak. These results motivate a full likelihood analysis of the model.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Effective field theory of coupled dark energy and dark matter

We formulate an effective field theory (EFT) of coupled dark energy (DE) and dark matter (DM) interacting through energy and momentum transfers. In the DE sector, we exploit the EFT of vector-tensor theories with the presence of a preferred time direction on the cosmological background. This prescription allows one to accommodate shift-symmetric and non-shift-symmetric scalar-tensor theories by taking a particular weak coupling limit, with and without consistency conditions respectively. We deal with the DM sector as a non-relativistic perfect fluid, which can be described by a system of three scalar fields. By choosing a unitary gauge in which the perturbations in the DE and DM sectors are eaten by the metric, we incorporate the leading-order operators that characterize the energy and momentum transfers besides those present in the conventional EFT of vector-tensor and scalar-tensor theories and the non-relativistic perfect fluid. We express the second-order action of scalar perturbations in real space in terms of time- and scale-dependent dimensionless EFT parameters and derive the linear perturbation equations of motion by taking into account additional matter (baryons, radiation). In the small-scale limit, we obtain conditions for the absence of both ghosts and Laplacian instabilities and discuss how they are affected by the DE-DM interactions. We also compute the effective DM gravitational coupling $G_{\rm eff}$ by using a quasi-static approximation for perturbations deep inside the DE sound horizon and show that the existence of momentum and energy transfers allow a possibility to realize $G_{\rm eff}$ smaller than in the uncoupled case at low redshift.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

The Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna: Mission Studies and Science Case

The Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna (LGWA) is a proposed array of next-generation inertial sensors to monitor the response of the Moon to gravitational waves (GWs). Given the size of the Moon and the expected noise produced by the lunar seismic background, the LGWA would be able to observe GWs from about 1 mHz to 1 Hz. This would make the LGWA the missing link between space-borne detectors like LISA with peak sensitivities around a few millihertz and proposed future terrestrial detectors like Einstein Telescope or Cosmic Explorer. In this article, we provide a first comprehensive analysis of the LGWA science case including its multi-messenger aspects and lunar science with LGWA data. We also describe the scientific analyses of the Moon required to plan the LGWA mission.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

$G_{3}$ -- interacting scalar tensor dark energy

We study the effect of adding an interaction in the $G_3$ term of Horndeski theory, where the propagation of gravitational waves are not modified. We derive the background and perturbation equations of motion from the action. We also derive the no-ghost and Laplacian instability conditions for tensor modes and scalar mode propagation. Then we study the evolution of the matter perturbation in the quasi-static approximation. We find that the gravitational couplings to the baryonic and cold dark matter over density are modified in this theory. We introduce a concrete model of the free function in the theory and study the background and linear perturbation dynamics. We then use the genetic algorithm to test the model. We compare the $H(z)$ function of the model and the $H(z)$ curve predicted by the genetic algorithm, using the $H(z)$ data. For the perturbation sector we compute the $fσ_{8}$ observable for the model and compare it with the predicted function from the genetic algorithm from the $fσ_{8}$ data.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Theory of interacting vector dark energy and fluid

In this work, we study interaction between dark energy and dark matter, where dark energy is described by a massive vector field, and dark matter is modelled as a fluid. We present a new interaction term, which affects only perturbations and can give interesting phenomenology. Then we present a general Lagrangian for the interacting vector dark energy with dark matter. For the dark energy, we choose Proca theory with $G_{3}$ term to study its phenomenological consequence. For this model, we explore both background and perturbation dynamics. We also present the no-ghost condition for tensor modes, vector modes and scalar modes. Subsequently, we also study the evolution of the overdensities of both baryon and cold dark matter in the high$-k$ limit. We show that the effective gravitational coupling is modified for cold dark matter and baryon. We also choose a simple concrete model and numerically show a suppression of the effective gravitational coupling for cold dark matter. However, in this simple model, the suppression of the effective gravitational coupling does not result in a suppression of the matter overdensity compared to that in the $Λ$CDM model due to the modified background expansion.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

CMB spectrum in unified EFT of dark energy: scalar-tensor and vector-tensor theories

We study the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in the unified description of the effective field theory (EFT) of dark energy that accommodates both scalar-tensor and vector-tensor theories. The boundaries of different classes of theories are universally parameterised by a new EFT parameter $α_V$ characterising the vectorial nature of dark energy and a set of consistency relations associated with the global/local shift symmetry. After implementing the equations of motion in a Boltzmann code, as a demonstration, we compute the CMB power spectrum based on the $w$CDM background with the EFT parameterisation of perturbations and a concrete Horndeski/generalised Proca theory. We show that the vectorial nature generically prevents modifications of gravity in the CMB spectrum. On the other hand, while the shift symmetry is less significant in the perturbation equations unless the background is close to the $Λ$CDM, it requires that the effective equation of state of dark energy is in the phantom region $w_{\rm DE}<-1$. The latter is particularly interesting in light of the latest result of the DESI+CMB combination as the observational verification of $w_{\rm DE}>-1$ can rule out shift-symmetric theories including vector-tensor theories in one shot.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Gravitational collapse and formation of a black hole in a type II minimally modified gravity theory

We study the spherically symmetric collapse of a cloud of dust in VCDM, a class of gravitational theories with two local physical degrees of freedom. We find that the collapse corresponds to a particular foliation of the Oppenheimer-Snyder solution in general relativity (GR) which is endowed with a constant trace for the extrinsic curvature relative to the time $t$ constant foliation. For this solution, we find that the final state of the collapse leads to a static configuration with the lapse function vanishing at a radius inside the apparent horizon. Such a point is reached in an infinite time-$t$ interval, $t$ being the cosmological time, i.e. the time of an observer located far away from the collapsing cloud. The presence of this vanishing lapse endpoint implies the necessity of a UV completion to describe the physics inside the resulting black hole. On the other hand, since the corresponding cosmic time $t$ is infinite, VCDM can safely describe the whole history of the universe at large scales without knowledge of the unknown UV completion, despite the presence of the so-called shadowy mode.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

VCDM and Cuscuton

We investigate two Type-IIa Minimally Modified Gravity theories, namely VCDM and Cuscuton theories. We confirm that all acceptable Cuscuton solutions are always solutions for VCDM theory. However, the inverse does not hold. We find that VCDM allows for the existence of exact General Relativity (GR) solutions with or without the presence of matter fields and a cosmological constant. We determine the conditions of existence for such GR-VCDM solutions in terms of the trace of the extrinsic curvature and on the fields which define the VCDM theory. On the other hand, for the Cuscuton theory, we find that the same set of exact GR solutions (such as Schwarzschild and Kerr spacetimes) is not compatible with timelike configurations of the Cuscuton field and therefore cannot be considered as acceptable solutions. Nonetheless, in Cuscuton theory, there could exist solutions which are not the same but close enough to GR solutions. We also show the conditions to determine intrinsic-VCDM solutions, i.e. solutions which differ from GR and do not belong to the Cuscuton model. We finally show that in cosmology a mapping between VCDM and the Cuscuton is possible, for a generic form of the VCDM potential. In particular, we find that for a quadratic potential in VCDM theory, this mapping is well defined giving an effective redefinition of the Planck mass for the cosmological background solutions of both theories.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Extended minimal theories of massive gravity

In this work, we introduce a class of extended Minimal Theories of Massive Gravity (eMTMG), without requiring a priori that the theory should admit the same homogeneous and isotropic cosmological solutions as the de Rham-Gabadadze-Tolley massive gravity. The theory is constructed as to have only two degrees of freedom in the gravity sector. In order to perform this step we first introduce a precursor theory endowed with a general graviton mass term, to which, at the level of the Hamiltonian, we add two extra constraints as to remove the unwanted degrees of freedom, which otherwise would typically lead to ghosts and/or instabilities. On analyzing the number of independent constraints and the properties of tensor mode perturbations, we see that the gravitational waves are the only propagating gravitational degrees of freedom which do acquire a non-trivial mass, as expected. In order to understand how the effective gravitational force works for this theory we then investigate cosmological scalar perturbations in the presence of a pressureless fluid. We then restrict the whole class of models by imposing the following conditions at all times: 1) it is possible to define an effective gravitational constant, $G_{\rm eff}$; 2) the value $G_{\text{eff}}/G_{N}$ is always finite but not always equal to unity (as to allow some non-trivial modifications of gravity, besides the massive tensorial modes); and 3) the square of mass of the graviton is always positive. These constraints automatically make also the ISW-effect contributions finite at all times. Finally we focus on a simple subclass of such theories, and show they already can give a rich and interesting phenomenology.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Disformal map and Petrov classification in modified gravity

Disformal transformation provides a map relating different scalar-tensor and vector-tensor theories and gives access to a powerful solution-generating method in modified gravity. In view of the vast family of new solutions one can achieve, it is crucial to design suitable tools to guide their construction. In this work, we address this question by revisiting the Petrov classification of disformally constructed solutions in modified gravity theories. We provide close formulas which relate the principal nulls directions as well as the Weyl scalars before and after the disformal transformation. These formulas allow one to capture if and how the Petrov type of a given seed geometry changes under a disformal transformation. Finally, we apply our general setup to three relevant disformally constructed solutions for which the seeds are respectively homogeneous and isotropic, static spherically symmetric and stationary axisymmetric. For the first two cases, we show that the Petrov type O and Petrov type D remain unchanged after a disformal transformation while we show that disformed Kerr black hole is no longer of type D but of general Petrov type I. The results presented in this work should serve as a new toolkit when constructing and comparing new disformal solutions in modified gravity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Static, spherically symmetric objects in Type-II minimally modified gravity

Static, spherically symmetric solutions representing stars made of barotropic perfect fluid are studied in the context of two theories of type-II minimally modified gravity, VCDM and VCCDM. Both of these theories share the property that no additional degree of freedom is introduced in the gravity sector, and propagate only two gravitational waves besides matter fields, as in General Relativity (GR). We find that, on imposing physical boundary conditions on the Misner-Sharp mass of the system, the solutions in V(C)CDM exactly coincide with the ones in GR, namely they also satisfy the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Minimal theory of massive gravity and constraints on the graviton mass

The Minimal theory of Massive Gravity (MTMG) is endowed non-linearly with only two tensor modes in the gravity sector which acquire a non-zero mass. On a homogeneous and isotropic background the theory is known to possess two branches: the self-accelerating branch with a phenomenology in cosmology which, except for the mass of the tensor modes, exactly matches the one of $Λ$CDM; and the normal branch which instead shows deviation from General Relativity in terms of both background and linear perturbations dynamics. For the latter branch we study using several early and late times data sets the constraints on today's value of the graviton mass $μ_{0}$, finding that $(μ_{0}/H_{0})^{2}=0.119_{-0.098}^{+0.12}$ at $68\%$ CL, which in turn gives an upper bound at $95\%$ CL as $μ_{0}<8.4\times10^{-34}$ eV. This corresponds to the strongest bound on the mass of the graviton for the normal branch of MTMG.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Addressing $H_0$ tension by means of VCDM

In this letter we propose a reduction of the $H_0$ tension puzzle by means of a theory of minimally modified gravity which is dubbed VCDM. After confronting the theory with the experiments, we find that the data allow for a low-redshift transition in the expansion history of the universe at either $z\simeq 0.3 $ or $z \simeq 1.8\,$, corresponding to one of the two local minima of the total $χ^2$. From the bestfit values the total fitness parameter is improved by $Δχ^2 \simeq 12$, for the data set considered. We then infer the local Hubble expansion rate today within this theory by means of low redshift Pantheon data. The resulting local Hubble expansion rate today is $H^{\rm{loc}}_0=73.6\pm1.4$. We find the tension is reduced within the VCDM theory.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Reducing the $H_{0}$ tension with generalized Proca theory

We investigate the cosmological viability of the generalized proca theory. We first implement the background and linear perturbation equations of motion in the Boltzmann code and then study the constraints on the parameters of the generalized proca theory after running MCMC against the cosmological data set. With Planck + HST data, we obtain the constraint $h=0.7334_{-0.0269}^{+0.0246}$, which indicates that the tension between early universe and late time universe within this theory is removed. By adding other late-time data sets (BAO, RSD, etc.) we show that the tension is reduced, as the 2$σ$ allowed region for $h$ in Proca, $h=0.7041_{-0.0087}^{+0.0094}$, overlaps with the 2$σ$ region of the HST data.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Minimally Modified Gravity fitting Planck data better than $Λ$CDM

We study the phenomenology of a class of minimally modified gravity theories called $f(\mathcal{H})$ theories, in which the usual general relativistic Hamiltonian constraint is replaced by a free function of it. After reviewing the construction of the theory and a consistent matter coupling, we analyze the dynamics of cosmology at the levels of both background and perturbations, and present a concrete example of the theory with a $3$-parameter family of the function $f$. Finally, we compare this example model to Planck data as well as some later-time probes, showing that such a realization of $f(\mathcal{H})$ theories fits the data significantly better than the standard $Λ$CDM model, in particular by modifying gravity at intermediate redshifts, $z\simeq743$.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Anisotropic instability in a higher order gravity theory

We study a metric cubic gravity theory considering odd-parity modes of linear inhomogeneous perturbations on a spatially homogeneous Bianchi type I manifold close to the isotropic de Sitter spacetime. We show that in the regime of small anisotropy, the theory possesses new degrees of freedom compared to General Relativity, whose kinetic energy vanishes in the limit of exact isotropy. From the mass dispersion relation we show that such theory always possesses at least one ghost mode as well as a very short-time-scale (compared to the Hubble time) classical tachyonic (or ghost-tachyonic) instability. In order to confirm our analytic analysis, we also solve the equations of motion numerically and we find that this instability is developed well before a single e-fold of the scale factor. This shows that this gravity theory, as it is, cannot be used to construct viable cosmological models.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Baryon Physics and Tight Coupling Approximation in Boltzmann Codes

We provide two derivations of the baryonic equations that can be straightforwardly implemented in existing Einstein--Boltzmann solvers. One of the derivations begins with an action principle, while the other exploits the conservation of the stress-energy tensor. While our result is manifestly covariant and satisfies the Bianchi identities, we point out that this is not the case for the implementation of the seminal work by Ma and Bertschinger and in the existing Boltzmann codes. We also study the tight coupling approximation up to the second order without choosing any gauge using the covariant full baryon equations. We implement the improved baryon equations in a Boltzmann code and investigate the change in the estimate of cosmological parameters by performing an MCMC analysis. With the covariantly correct baryon equations of motion, we find 1% deviation for the best fit values of the cosmological parameters that should be taken into account. While in this paper, we study the Lambda-CDM model only, our baryon equations can be easily implemented in other models and various modified gravity theories.

astro-ph.CO↗