Galileon cosmology

We study the cosmology of a galileon scalar-tensor theory, obtained by covariantizing the decoupling Lagrangian of the Dvali-Gabadadze-Poratti (DGP) model. Despite being local in 3+1 dimensions, the resulting cosmological evolution is remarkably similar to that of the full 4+1-dimensional DGP framework, both for the expansion history and the evolution of density perturbations. As in the DGP model, the covariant galileon theory yields two branches of solutions, depending on the sign of the galileon velocity. Perturbations are stable on one branch and ghostlike on the other. An interesting effect uncovered in our analysis is a cosmological version of the Vainshtein screening mechanism: at early times, the galileon dynamics are dominated by self-interaction terms, resulting in its energy density being suppressed compared to matter or radiation; once the matter density has redshifted sufficiently, the galileon becomes an important component of the energy density and contributes to dark energy. We estimate conservatively that the resulting expansion history is consistent with the observed late-time cosmology, provided that the scale of modification satisfies r₂15 Gpc.