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Hamiltonian analysis of higher derivative scalar-tensor theories

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arxiv 1512.06820 v1 pith:PJRUSU5J submitted 2015-12-21 gr-qc astro-ph.COhep-th

Hamiltonian analysis of higher derivative scalar-tensor theories

classification gr-qc astro-ph.COhep-th
keywords hamiltoniananalysislagrangiansconstraintshorndeskiscalar-tensortheoriesbeyond
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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We perform a Hamiltonian analysis of a large class of scalar-tensor Lagrangians which depend quadratically on the second derivatives of a scalar field. By resorting to a convenient choice of dynamical variables, we show that the Hamiltonian can be written in a very simple form, where the Hamiltonian and the momentum constraints are easily identified. In the case of degenerate Lagrangians, which include the Horndeski and beyond Horndeski quartic Lagrangians, our analysis confirms that the dimension of the physical phase space is reduced by the primary and secondary constraints due to the degeneracy, thus leading to the elimination of the dangerous Ostrogradski ghost. We also present the Hamiltonian formulation for nondegenerate theories and find that they contain four degrees of freedom, as expected. We finally discuss the status of the unitary gauge from the Hamiltonian perspective.

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Cited by 7 Pith papers

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