Well-posedness of cubic Horndeski theories

Abstract

We study the local well-posedness of the initial value problem for cubic Horndeski theories. Three different strongly hyperbolic modifications of the ADM formulation of the Einstein equations are extended to cubic Horndeski theories in the weak field regime. In the first one, the equations of motion are rewritten as a coupled elliptic-hyperbolic system of partial differential equations. The second one is based on the BSSN formulation with a generalised Bona-Mass\'o slicing (covering the 1+log slicing) and non-dynamical shift vector. The third one is an extension of the CCZ4 formulation with a generalised Bona-Mass\'o slicing (also covering the 1+log slicing) and a gamma driver shift condition. This final formulation may be particularly suitable for applications in non-linear numerical simulations.