Parity violating scalar-tensor model in teleparallel gravity and its cosmological application

Abstract

A bstract The parity violating model based on teleparallel gravity is a competitive scheme for parity violating gravity, which has been preliminary studied in the literature. To further investigate the parity violating model in teleparallel gravity, in this paper, we construct all independent parity-odd terms that are quadratic in torsion tensor and coupled to a scalar field in a way without higher-order derivatives. Using these parity-odd terms, we formulate a general parity violating scalar-tensor model in teleparallel gravity and obtain its equations of motion. To explore potentially viable models within the general model, we investigate the cosmological application of a submodel of the general model in which terms above the second power of torsion are eliminated. We focus on analyzing cosmological perturbations and identify the conditions that preserve the parity violating signal of gravitational waves at linear order while avoiding the ghost instability.