Stability of nonsingular cosmologies in Galileon models with torsion: A no-go theorem for eternal subluminality

Generic models in Galileons or Horndeski theory do not have cosmological solutions that are free of instabilities and singularities in the entire time of evolution. We extend this no-go theorem to a spacetime with torsion. On this more general geometry the no-go argument now holds provided the additional hypothesis that the graviton is also subluminal throughout the entire evolution. Thus, critically different for Galileons’ stability on a torsionful spacetime, an arguably unphysical although arbitrarily short (deep UV) phase occurring at an arbitrary time, when the speed of gravity <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mo stretchy="false">(</a:mo><a:msub><a:mi>c</a:mi><a:mi>g</a:mi></a:msub><a:mo stretchy="false">)</a:mo></a:math> is slightly higher than luminal (<e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><e:mi>c</e:mi></e:math>), and by at least an amount <g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><g:msub><g:mi>c</g:mi><g:mi>g</g:mi></g:msub><g:mo>≥</g:mo><g:msqrt><g:mn>2</g:mn></g:msqrt><g:mi>c</g:mi></g:math>, can lead to an all-time linearly stable and nonsingular cosmology. As a proof of principle we build a stable model for a cosmological bounce that is almost always subluminal, where the short-lived superluminal phase occurs before the bounce, and that transits to general relativity in the asymptotic past and future. Published by the American Physical Society 2024