On the cosmology of massive gravity

Abstract

We present a review of cosmological solutions in nonlinear massive gravity, focusing on the stability of perturbations. Although homogeneous and isotropic solutions have been found, these are now known to suffer from either the Higuchi ghost or a new nonlinear ghost instability. We discuss two approaches to alleviate this issue. By relaxing the symmetry of the background by e.g. breaking isotropy in the hidden sector, it is possible to accommodate a stable cosmological solution. Alternatively, extending the theory to allow for new dynamical degrees of freedom can also remove the conditions which lead to the instability. As examples for this case, we study the stability of self-accelerating solutions in the quasi-dilatonic extension and generic cosmological solutions in the varying mass extension. While the quasi-dilaton case turns out to be unstable, the varying mass case allows stable regimes of parameters. Viable self-accelerating solutions in the varying mass theory yet remain to be found.