Fab Four effective field theory treatment

Abstract

The article addresses the John interaction from Fab Four class of Horndeski models from the effective field theory point of view. Models with this interaction are heavily constrained by gravitational wave speed observations, so it is important to understand, if these constraints hold in the effective field theory framework. We show that John interaction induces new terms quadratic in curvature at the level of the effective (classical) action. These new terms generate additional low energy scalar and spin-2 gravitational degrees of freedom. Some of them have a non-vanishing decay width and some are ghosts. Discussion of these features is given.