Cosmological stealths with nonconformal couplings

Abstract: In this paper we reconsider the existence of stealth fields during the evolution of our Universe by admitting more realistic nonminimal couplings to gravity than the conformal one. In the framework of the FRW cosmology we found that inhomogeneous stealths, as those enabled in the conformal case, are only allowed in de Sitter backgrounds. In particular, it is shown that the homogeneous stealths resulting from nonconformal couplings can coexist with each kind of matter dominant in the several phases characterizing the evolution of our Universe according to the $\Lambda$CDM model.