Related papers: A comment on the matter-graviton coupling
We investigate path integral quantization of two versions of unimodular gravity. First a fully diffeomorphism-invariant theory is analyzed, which does not include a unimodular condition on the metric, while still being equivalent to other…
In this work, we review a plethora of modified theories of gravity with generalized curvature-matter couplings. The explicit nonminimal couplings, for instance, between an arbitrary function of the scalar curvature $R$ and the Lagrangian…
General Relativity can be reformulated as a diffeomorphism invariant gauge theory of the Lorentz group, with Lagrangian of the type $f(F\wedge F)$, where $F$ is the curvature 2-form of the spin connection. A theory from this class with a…
A new analysis of the gauge invariances and their unity with diffeomorphism invariances in second order metric gravity is presented which strictly follows Dirac's constrained Hamiltonian approach.
We investigate N=2, D=5 supersymmetry and matter-coupled supergravity theories in a superconformal context. In a first stage we do not require the existence of a Lagrangian. Under this assumption, we already find at the level of rigid…
Einstein gravity in the Palatini first order formalism is shown to possess a vector supersymmetry of the type encountered in the topological gauge theories. A peculiar feature of the gravitationel theory is the link of this vector…
The structure of the divergences for transverse theories of gravity is studied to one-loop order. These theories are invariant only under those diffeomorphisms that enjoy unit Jacobian determinant (TDiff), so that the determinant of the…
The coupling between matter and gravity in General Relativity is given by a proportionality relation between the stress tensor and the geometry. This is an oriented assumption driven by the fact that both the stress tensor and the Einstein…
We present a novel theory of gravity by considering an extension of symmetric teleparallel gravity. This is done by introducing, in the framework of the metric-affine formalism, a new class of theories where the nonmetricity $Q$ is…
We extend a previous self-tuning analysis of the most general scalar-tensor theory of gravity in four dimensions with second order field equations by considering a generalized coupling to the matter sector. Through allowing a disformal…
Diffeomorphism invariance is a feature that gets sometimes highlighted as something with profound implications in the physics of spacetime. Moreover, it is often wrongly associated exclusively with General Relativity. The fact that…
We give a variational formulation of General Relativity, with coupling to a cosmological constant, to scalar fields, to vector fields and to spinor fields (all with possible mass and interaction terms). Among the matter fields, we include…
Diffeomorphism invariance is often considered to be a hallmark of the theory of general relativity (GR). But closer analysis reveals that this cannot be what makes GR distinctive. The concept of diffeomorphism invariance can be defined in…
Conventional quantization of two-dimensional diffeomorphism and Weyl invariant theories sacrifices the latter symmetry to anomalies, while maintaining the former. When alternatively Weyl invariance is preserved by abandoning diffeomorphism…
We investigate a possible unified theory of all interactions which is based only on fundamental spinor fields. The vielbein and metric arise as composite objects. The effective quantum gravitational theory can lead to a modification of…
We develop a Lagrangian formulation for gravity with matter where the gravitational couplings are universally treated as being field-dependent. The solutions for FLRW geometries and the associated time evolution of the Newton and…
Einstein's General Relativity (GR) is a dynamical theory of the spacetime metric. We describe an approach in which GR becomes an SU(2) gauge theory. We start at the linearised level and show how a gauge theoretic Lagrangian for…
Two sets of spatially diffeomorphism invariant operators are constructed in the loop representation formulation of quantum gravity. This is done by coupling general relativity to an anti- symmetric tensor gauge field and using that field to…
Effective field theories describing gravity coupled to matter are investigated, allowing for operators of arbitrary mass dimension. Terms violating local Lorentz and diffeomorphism invariance while preserving internal gauge symmetries are…
Unimodular gravity can be formulated so that transverse diffeomorphisms and Weyl transformations are symmetries of the theory. For this formulation of unimodular gravity, we work out the two-point and three-point $h_{\mu\nu}$ contributions…