Related papers: Logarithmic conformal field theory approach to top…
Preliminary investigations of the topological phase of string theory along the lines of a (restricted) $\dot{w}_{\infty}$ non-linear sigma model are provided. Gauge fixing the w gravity gauge fields by preserving a geometric identity Lorenz…
In this paper we establish the correspondence between ghost-free bimetric theory and a class of higher derivative gravity actions, including conformal gravity and New Massive Gravity. We also characterize the relation between the respective…
We investigate the cosmology of SO(3)-invariant massive gravity with 5 degrees of freedom. In contrast with previous studies, we allow for a non-trivial fiducial metric, which can be justified by invoking, for example, a dilaton-like global…
We investigate the ghostfree scalar-tensor theory with a timelike scalar field, with derivatives of the scalar field up to the third order and with the Riemann tensor up to the quadratic order. We build two types of linear spaces. One is…
Genus two partition functions of 2d chiral conformal field theories are given by Siegel modular forms. We compute their conformal blocks and use them to perform the conformal bootstrap. The advantage of this approach is that it imposes…
We propose new massive gravity theories with 5 dynamical degrees of freedom. We evade uniqueness theorems regarding the form of the kinetic and potential terms by adopting the "generalized massive gravity" framework, where a global…
In their original study of conformal gravity, a candidate alternate gravitational theory, Mannheim and Kazanas showed that in any empty vacuum region exterior to a localized static spherically symmetric gravitational source, the geometry…
We describe a new perturbation theory for General Relativity, with the chiral first-order Einstein-Cartan action as the starting point. Our main result is a new gauge-fixing procedure that eliminates the connection-to-connection propagator.…
The cosmological constant problem and the compatibility of gravity with quantum mechanics are the two most pressing problems in all of gravitational theory. While string theory nicely addresses the latter, it has so far failed to provide…
We show that a $3d$ sourced conformal Carrollian field theory has the right kinematic properties to holographically describe gravity in $4d$ asymptotically flat spacetime. The external sources encode the leaks of gravitational radiation at…
We consider conformal and scale-invariant gravities in d dimensions, with a special focus on pure $R^2$ gravity in the scale-invariant case. In four dimensions, the structure of these theories is well known. However, in dimensions larger…
We explicitly calculate the induced gravity theory at the boundary of an asymptotically Anti-de Sitter five dimensional Einstein gravity. We also display the action that encodes the dynamics of radial diffeomorphisms. It is found that the…
Scalar-tensor gravitational theories are important extensions of standard general relativity, which can explain both the initial inflationary evolution, as well as the late accelerating expansion of the Universe. In the present paper we…
This thesis investigates the interactions of partially massless (PM) fields in 4-dimensional (anti)de Sitter spaces, along with conformal higher spin fields and their coupling to matter in arbitrary dimensions. The first part of the thesis…
Giant gravitons in AdS_5 x S^5, and its orbifolds, have a dual field theory representation as states created by chiral primary operators. We argue that these operators are not single-trace operators in the conformal field theory, but rather…
Massive higher spin fields are notoriously difficult to introduce interactions when they are described by symmetric (spin)-tensors. An alternative approach is to use chiral description that does not have unphysical longitudinal modes. For…
We analyze (2+1)-dimensional gravity with a Chern--Simons term and a negative cosmological constant, primarily at the weak field level. The full theory is expressible as the sum of two higher derivative SL(2,R) "vector" Chern-Simons terms,…
We show that two-dimensional topological BF theories coupled to particles carrying non-Abelian charge admit a new coupling involving the Lagrange multiplier field. When applied to the gauge theoretic formulation of dilatonic gravity it…
When four scalar fields with global Lorentz symmetry are coupled to gravity and take a vacuum expectation value breaking diffeomorphism invariance spontaneously, the graviton becomes massive. This model is supersymmetrized by considering…
A light scalar degree of freedom, as the one possibly responsible for the accelerated expansion of the Universe, could leave observable traces in the inspiral gravitational wave signal of binary systems. In order to study these effects, we…