Scalar hair of black holes in theories with a shift symmetry are constrained by the no-hair theorem of Hui and Nicolis, assuming spherical symmetry, time-independence of the scalar field and asymptotic flatness. The most studied counterexample is a linear coupling of the scalar with the Gauss-Bonnet invariant. However, in this case the norm of the shift-symmetry current J 2 diverges at the horizon casting doubts on whether the solution is physically sound. We show that this is not an issue since J 2 is not a scalar quantity, since J µ is not a diff-invariant current in the presence of Gauss-Bonnet. The same theory can be written in Horndeski form with a non-analytic function G 5 ∼ log X. In this case the shift-symmetry current is diff-invariant, but contains powers of X in the denominator, so that its divergence at the horizon is again immaterial. We confirm that other hairy solutions in the presence of non-analytic Horndeski functions are pathological, featuring divergences of physical quantities as soon as one departs from time-independence and spherical symmetry. We generalise the no-hair theorem to Beyond Horndeski and DHOST theories, showing that the coupling with Gauss-Bonnet is necessary to have hair.

The propagation of magnetostatic forward volume waves excited by a constricted coplanar waveguide is studied via inductive spectroscopy techniques. A series of devices consisting of pairs of sub-micrometer size antennae is used to perform a discrete mapping of the spin wave amplitude in the plane of a 30-nm thin YIG film. We found that the spin wave propagation remains well focused in a beam shape of width comparable to the constriction length and that the amplitude within the constriction displays oscillations, two features which are explained in terms of near-field Fresnel diffraction theory.

We investigate the production of gravitational waves (GWs) during preheating with monomial/polynomial inflationary potentials, considering a trilinear coupling ϕχ2 between a singlet inflaton ϕ and a daughter scalar field χ. For sufficiently large couplings, the trilinear interaction leads to an exponential production of χ particles and, as a result, a large stochastic GW background (SGWB) is generated throughout the process. We study the linear and non-linear dynamics of preheating with lattice simulations, following the production of GWs through all relevant stages. We find that large couplings lead to SGWBs with amplitudes today that can reach up to h 2ΩGW (0) ≃ 5 · 10-9. These backgrounds are however peaked at high frequencies f p ≳ 5 · 106 Hz, which makes them undetectable by current/planned GW observatories. As the amount of GWs produced is in any case remarkable, we discuss the prospects for probing the SGWB indirectly by using constraints on the effective number of relativistic species in the universe N eff.

We discuss the possibility to measure particle couplings with stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds (SGWBs). Under certain circumstances a sequence of peaks of different amplitude and frequency-a stairway-emerges in a SGWB spectrum, with each peak probing a different coupling. The detection of such signature opens the possibility to reconstruct couplings (spectroscopy) of particle species involved in high energy phenomena generating SGWBs. Stairwaylike signatures may arise in causally produced backgrounds in the early Universe, e.g., from preheating or first order phase transitions. As a proof of principle we study a preheating scenario with an inflaton ϕ coupled to multiple daughter fields fχ j g with different coupling strengths. As a clear stairway signature is imprinted in the SGWB spectrum, we reconstruct the relevant couplings with various detectors.