Nonlinear stability of cosmological solutions in massive gravity

Abstract

We investigate nonlinear stability of two classes of cosmological solutions in massive gravity: isotropic Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) solutions and anisotropic FLRW solutions. For this purpose we construct the linear cosmological perturbation theory around axisymmetric Bianchi type--I backgrounds. We then expand the background around the two classes of solutions, which are fixed points of the background evolution equation, and analyze linear perturbations on top of it. This provides a consistent truncation of nonlinear perturbations around these fixed point solutions and allows us to analyze nonlinear stability in a simple way. In particular, it is shown that isotropic FLRW solutions exhibit nonlinear ghost instability. On the other hand, anisotropic FLRW solutions are shown to be ghost-free for a range of parameters and initial conditions.

28 pages ; v2. Minor changes to match the published version