Related papers: Boundary Terms, Variational Principles and Higher …
General relativity (GR) as described in terms of curvature by the Einstein-Hilbert action is dynamically equivalent to theories of gravity formulated in terms of spacetime torsion or non-metricity. This forms what is called the geometrical…
An obvious criterion to classify theories of modified gravity is to identify their gravitational degrees of freedom and their coupling to the metric and the matter sector. Using this simple idea, we show that any theory which depends on the…
From a covariant Hamiltonian formulation, by using symplectic ideas, we obtain certain covariant boundary expressions for the quasilocal quantities of general relativity and other geometric gravity theories. The contribution from each of…
The field equations of a generalized $f(R)$ type gravity model, in which there is an arbitrary coupling between matter and geometry, are obtained. The equations of motion for test particles are derived from a variational principle in the…
After reviewing the Lagrangian-Hamiltonian unified formalism (i.e, the Skinner-Rusk formalism) for higher-order (non-autonomous) dynamical systems, we state a unified geometrical version of the Variational Principles which allows us to…
Expanding the work of arXiv:1504.08040, we show that black holes obey a second law for linear perturbations to bifurcate Killing horizons, in any covariant higher curvature gravity coupled to scalar and vector fields. The vector fields do…
This thesis details an effort to generate astrophysically interesting solutions to the two-body problem in General Relativity. The thesis consists of two main parts. The first part presents an analytical variational principle for describing…
In this paper, we explore wormhole solutions in a higher-derivative theory of gravity where the action depends not only on the Ricci scalar \(R\), but also on its d'Alembertian, \(\Box R\). Such \(f(R,\Box R)\) models are motivated by…
The Euclidean path integral for gravity is enriched by the addition of boundaries, which provide useful probes of thermodynamic properties. Common boundary conditions include Dirichlet conditions on the boundary induced metric;…
Variational principle is the main approach to obtain complete and self-consistent field equations in gravitational theories. This method works well in pure field cases such as $f(R)$ and Horndeski gravities. However, debates exist in the…
We discuss BF theories defined on manifolds with spatial boundaries. Variational arguments show that one needs to augment the usual action with a boundary term for specific types of boundary conditions. We also show how to use this…
This dissertation investigates three main topics, all of which dealing with alternative, higher-order gravity theories in four dimensions. Firstly, we study the variational and conformal structure of those theories. Next, we analyse their…
The Weiss variational principle in mechanics and classical field theory is a variational principle which allows displacements of the boundary. We review the Weiss variation in mechanics and classical field theory, and present a novel…
When generalizing the principle of least action for fields containing higher order derivatives, in general, it is not possible not to take into account the surface integrated term since it gives direct contribution to the forms of the…
The Hamiltonian for a gravitating region includes a boundary term which determines not only the quasi-local values but also, via the boundary variation principle, the boundary conditions. Using our covariant Hamiltonian formalism, we found…
Considering a generalization of the Gibbons-Hawking-York covariant boundary action that depends on both the extrinsic and the intrinsic geometry of the boundary, we derive boundary conditions for the cosmological background and tensor…
Effective field theory provides a way of parameterizing strong-field deviations from General Relativity that might be observable in the gravitational waves emitted in a black hole merger. To perform numerical simulations of mergers in such…
Einstein's vierbein formulation of general relativity based on the notion of distant parallelism (teleparallelism) naturally introduces a covariant surface term in addition to the Einstein-Hilbert action. We investigate the action principle…
Modifications to the primordial power spectrum of inflationary density perturbations have been studied recently using a boundary effective field theory approach. In the approximation of a fluctuating quantum field on a fixed background, the…
We derive new bounds on higher-dimension operator coefficients in four-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell theory. Positivity of classically-generated corrections to the Wald entropy of thermodynamically stable, rotating dyonic black holes implies…