Effective Field Theory of Black Hole Perturbations with Timelike Scalar Profile: Formulation

Abstract: We formulate the Effective Field Theory (EFT) of perturbations within scalar-tensor theories on an inhomogeneous background. The EFT is constructed while keeping a background of a scalar field to be $\textit{timelike}$, which spontaneously breaks the time diffeomorphism. We find a set of consistency relations that are imposed by the invariance of the EFT under the 3d spatial diffeomorphism. This EFT can be generically applied to any inhomogeneous background metric as long as the scalar profile is everywhere timelike. For completeness, we report a dictionary between our EFT parameters to those of Horndeski theories. Finally, we compute background equations for a class of spherically symmetric, static black hole backgrounds, including a stealth Schwarzschild-de Sitter solution.