A new non-linear instability for scalar fields

07/29/2021

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by   Farbod Hassani, et al.

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In this letter we introduce the non-linear partial differential equation (PDE) ∂^2_τπ∝ (∇⃗π)^2 showing a new type of instability. Such equations appear in the effective field theory (EFT) of dark energy for the k-essence model as well as in many other theories based on the EFT formalism. We demonstrate the occurrence of instability in the cosmological context using a relativistic N-body code, and we study it mathematically in 3+1 dimensions within spherical symmetry. We show that this term dominates for the low speed of sound limit where some important linear terms are suppressed.