Are stealth scalar fields stable?

Nongravitating (stealth) scalar fields associated with Minkowski space in scalar-tensor gravity are examined. Analytical solutions for both nonminimally coupled scalar field theory and for Brans-Dicke gravity are studied and their stability with respect to tensor perturbations is assessed using a covariant and gauge-invariant formalism developed for alternative gravity. For Brans-Dicke solutions, the stability with respect to homogeneous perturbations is also studied. There are regions of parameter space corresponding to stability and other regions corresponding to instability.