Cosmological perturbations in Horava-Lifshitz theory without detailed balance

In the Horava-Lifshitz theory of quantum gravity, two conditions—detailed balance and projectability—are usually assumed. The breaking of projectability simplifies the theory, but it leads to serious problems with the theory. The breaking of detailed balance leads to a more complicated form of the theory, but it appears to resolve some of the problems. Sotiriou, Visser and Weinfurtner formulated the most general theory of Horava-Lifshitz type without detailed balance. We compute the linear scalar perturbations of the FRW model in this form of HL theory. We show that the higher-order curvature terms in the action lead to a gravitational effective anisotropic stress on small scales. Specializing to a Minkowski background, we study the spin-0 scalar mode of the graviton, using a gauge-invariant analysis, and find that it is stable in both the infrared and ultraviolet regimes for 0≤ξ≤2/3. However, in this parameter range the scalar mode is a ghost.