Related papers: Time and Observables in Unimodular General Relativ…
The cosmological constant problem represents a profound conflict between quantum field theory and general relativity. Unimodular gravity offers a compelling starting point by de-gravitating the vacuum energy of the Standard Model, but this…
We review the geometrical properties of vacuum spacetimes in (2+1)-gravity with vanishing cosmological constant. We explain how these spacetimes are characterised as quotients of their universal cover by holonomies. We explain how this…
We investigate the relation between measurements and the physical observables for vacuum spacetimes with compact spatial surfaces in (2+1)-gravity with vanishing cosmological constant. By considering an observer who emits lightrays that…
We consider quantization of the positive curvature Friedmann cosmology in the unimodular modification of Einstein's theory, in which the spacetime four-volume appears as an explicit time variable. The Hamiltonian admits self-adjoint…
The observed value of the cosmological constant corresponds to a time scale that is very close to the current conformal age of the universe. Here we show that this is not a coincidence but is caused by a periodic boundary condition, which…
We propose a mechanism for generating an inflationary phase in the early universe without resorting to any type of scalar field(s). Instead, this accelerated expansion is driven by a dynamical "cosmological constant" in the framework of…
In the standard cosmological theory one uses the Einstein concepts of space and time as were originally introduced for the special theory of relativity and the general relativity theory. According to this approach all physical quantities…
Theoretical and observational arguments are listed in favor of a new principle of relativity of units of measurements as the basis of a conformal-invariant unification of General Relativity and Standard Model by replacement of all masses…
We study the Hamiltonian structure of unimodular-like theories, where the cosmological constant (or other supposed constants of nature) are demoted from fixed parameters to classical constants of motion. No new local degrees of freedom are…
We discuss cosmology based on a Cuscuta-Galileon gravity theory, which preserves just two degrees of freedom. Although there exists no additional degrees of freedom, introduction of a potential of a scalar field changes the dynamics. The…
Unimodular gravity addresses the old cosmological constant (CC) problem, explaining why such constant is not at least as large as the largest particle mass scale, but classically it is indistinguishable from ordinary gravity. Conversely,…
We consider a model of gravity and matter fields which is invariant only under unimodular general coordinate transformations (GCT). The determinant of the metric is treated as a separate field which transforms as a scalar under unimodular…
A modification of general relativity is presented in which Newton's constant and the cosmological constant become a conjugate pair of dynamical variables.
We consider the evolution of a flat Friedmann-Roberstson-Walker Universe in a higher derivative theories, including $\alpha R^{2}$ terms to the Einstein-Hilbert action in the presence of a variable gravitational and cosmological constants.…
Hamiltonian gravity, relying on arbitrary choices of "space," can obscure spacetime symmetries. We present an alternative, manifestly spacetime covariant formulation that nonetheless distinguishes between "spatial" and "temporal" variables.…
I propose a general geometric framework in which to discuss the existence of time observables. This frameworks allows one to describe a local sense in which time observables always exist, and a global sense in which they can sometimes exist…
Unimodular Gravity is one of the oldest geometric gravity theory alternative to General Relativity. Essentially, it is based on the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian with an additional constraint on the determinant of the metric. It can be…
The Hamiltonian approach to cosmological perturbations in general relativity in finite space-time is developed, where a cosmological scale factor is identified with spatial averaging the metric determinant logarithm. This identification…
In this work, we show that a gauge-theoretic description of Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity naturally yields a Henneaux-Teitelboim (HT) unimodular gravity via a central extension of its isometry group, valid for both flat and curved…
The idea that the cosmological term, Lambda, should be a time dependent quantity in cosmology is a most natural one. It is difficult to conceive an expanding universe with a strictly constant vacuum energy density, namely one that has…