Brans-Dicke unimodular gravity (2207.13195v1)

Abstract: We propose a unimodular version of the Brans-Dicke theory designed with a constrained Lagrangian formulation. The resulting field equations are traceless. The vacuum solutions in the cosmological background reproduce the corresponding solutions of the usual Brans-Dicke theory but with a cosmological constant term. A perturbative analysis of the scalar modes is performed and stable and unstable configurations appear in contrast with the Brans-Dicke case for which only stable configurations occur. On the other hand, tensorial modes in this theory remains the same as in the traditional Brans-Dicke theory.