Cosmology of the proxy theory to massive gravity

In this paper, we scrutinize very closely the cosmology in the proxy theory to massive gravity obtained in de Rham and Heisenberg [Phys. Rev. D 84, 043503 (2011)]. This proxy theory was constructed by covariantizing the decoupling limit Lagrangian of massive gravity, and it represents a subclass of Horndeski scalar-tensor theory. Thus, this covariantization unifies two important classes of modified gravity theories, namely, massive gravity and Horndeski theories. We go beyond the regime which was studied in de Rham and Heisenberg [Phys. Rev. D 84, 043503 (2011)] and show that the theory does not admit any homogeneous and isotropic self-accelerated solutions. We illustrate that the only attractor solution is the flat Minkowski solution; hence, this theory is less appealing as a dark energy model. We also show that the absence of de Sitter solutions is tightly related to the presence of shift symmetry breaking interactions.