Revisiting the cuscuton as a Lorentz-violating gravity theory

The cuscuton is a scalar field with infinite speed of propagation. It was introduced in the context of cosmology but it has also been claimed to resemble Horava gravity in a certain limit. Here we revisit the cuscuton theory as a Lorentz-violating gravity theory. We clarify its relation with Horava...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bhattacharyya, Jishnu, Coates, Andrew, Colombo, Mattia, Gümrükçüoğlu, A. Emir, Sotiriou, Thomas P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2018
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51113/
Description
Summary:The cuscuton is a scalar field with infinite speed of propagation. It was introduced in the context of cosmology but it has also been claimed to resemble Horava gravity in a certain limit. Here we revisit the cuscuton theory as a Lorentz-violating gravity theory. We clarify its relation with Horava gravity and Einstein-æther theory, analyze its causal structure, and consider its initial value formulation. Finally, we discuss to which extent the cuscuton theory can be used as a proxy for Horava gravity in the context of gravitational collapse and formation of universal horizons.