Ghost instabilities of cosmological models with vector fields nonminimally coupled to the curvature

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that many cosmological models involving nonminimally coupled vector fields contain ghost instabilities, leading to quantum ill-definition and linearized instabilities during evolution.

Contribution

It provides a general proof of ghost presence in these models and explicitly analyzes the divergence of solutions at singular points during cosmological evolution.

Findings

Ghosts are associated with the longitudinal polarization of vectors.

Eigenvalues of the kinetic matrix cross zero, causing singularities.

Solutions diverge at the points where the eigenvalues vanish.

Abstract

We prove that many cosmological models characterized by vectors nonminimally coupled to the curvature (such as the Turner-Widrow mechanism for the production of magnetic fields during inflation, and models of vector inflation or vector curvaton) contain ghosts. The ghosts are associated with the longitudinal vector polarization present in these models, and are found from studying the sign of the eigenvalues of the kinetic matrix for the physical perturbations. Ghosts introduce two main problems: (1) they make the theories ill-defined at the quantum level in the high energy/sub horizon regime (and create serious problems for finding a well behaved UV completion); (2) they create an instability already at the linearized level. This happens because the eigenvalue corresponding to the ghost crosses zero during the cosmological evolution. At this point the linearized equations for the perturbations become singular (we show that this happens for all the models mentioned above). We explicitly solve the equations in the simplest cases of a vector without vev in a FRW geometry, and of a vector with vev plus a cosmological constant, and we show that indeed the solutions of the linearized equations diverge when these equations become singular.