Related papers: Viscous gravitational aether and the cosmological …
We outline the evaluation of the cosmological constant in the framework of the standard field-theoretical treatment of vacuum energy and discuss the relation between the vacuum energy problem and the gauge-group spontaneous symmetry…
A modified-gravity theory is considered with a four-form field strength F, a variable gravitational coupling parameter G(F), and a standard matter action. This theory provides a concrete realization of the general vacuum variable q as the…
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…
Following a short discussion of some unresolved issues in the standard model of cosmology (considered to be a generic LCDM model with flat geometry and an early period of inflation), an update on the current state of research regarding the…
I try to revive, and possibly reconcile, a debate started a few years ago, about the relative roles of a bare cosmological constant and of a vacuum energy, by taking the attitude to try to get the most from the physics now available as…
We work in the framework of a simple vector-tensor theory. The parametrized post-Newtonian approximation of this theory is identical to that of general relativity. Our attention is focused on cosmology. In an homogeneous isotropic universe,…
We assume cold dark matter to possess a small bulk-viscous pressure which typically attenuates the growth of inhomogeneities. Explicit calculations, based on Eckart's theory of dissipative processes, reveal that for viscous cold dark matter…
Associated with the cosmic acceleration are the old and new cosmological constant problems, recently put into the more general context of the dark energy problem. In broad terms, the old problem is related to an unexpected order of…
Physics invites the idea that space contains energy whose gravitational effect approximates that of Einstein's cosmological constant, Lambda; nowadays the concept is termed dark energy or quintessence. Physics also suggests the dark energy…
We review the underpinnings of the standard Newton-Einstein theory of gravity, and identify where it could possibly go wrong. In particular, we discuss the logical independence from each other of the general covariance principle, the…
In order to explain weak gravitation in our 4-dimensional universe, a 6-dimensional model with a small extra 2D sphere is proposed. The traceless energy-momentum tensor is quite naturally appeared in our 6-dimensional model. The warp factor…
Within the framework of the minimum quadratic Poincare gauge theory of gravity in the Riemann-Cartan spacetime we study the influence of gravitational vacuum energy density (a cosmological constant) on the dynamics of various gravitating…
General relativity postulates the Minkowski space-time to be the standard flat geometry against which we compare all curved space-times and the gravitational ground state where particles, quantum fields and their vacuum states are primarily…
Near the horizon of a black brane solution in Anti-de Sitter space, the long-wavelength fluctuations of the metric exhibit hydrodynamic behaviour. For Einstein's theory, the ratio of the shear viscosity of near-horizon metric fluctuations…
We consider a dynamical approach to the cosmological constant. There is a scalar field with a potential whose minimum occurs at a generic, but negative, value for the vacuum energy, and it has a non-standard kinetic term whose coefficient…
The gravitino problem is revisited in the framework of cosmological models in which the primordial cosmic matter is described by a relativistic imperfect fluid. Dissipative effects (or bulk viscosity effects) arise owing to the different…
Isaac Newton is usually associated with the idea of absolute space and time, and with ballistic light-corpuscle arguments. However, Newton was also a proponent of wave/particle duality, and published a "new" variable-density aether model in…
Atomic interferometry methods used to measure the Newtonian gravitational constant. To improve the accuracy, one should measure the phase of an atomic interferometer at extreme values of atomic vertical velocities and coordinates. Owing to…
Assuming that Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) is the correct theory of gravity on all length scales we use analytical results from nonperturbative renormalization group (RG) equations as well as experimental input in order to characterize…
We consider static cosmological solutions along with their stability properties in the framework of a recently proposed theory of massive gravity. We show that the modifcation introduced in the cosmological equations leads to several new…