Related papers: Effective Theories and Modifications of Gravity

General Relativity is today the best theory of gravity addressing a wide range of phenomena. Our understanding of physical laws, from cosmology to local scales, cannot be properly formulated without taking into account it. It is based on…

Cosmological observations indicate that the Einstein equation may not be entirely correct to describe gravity. However, numerous modifications of these equations usually do not affect foundations of the theory. In this paper two important…

We consider the domain of applicability of general relativity (GR), as a classical theory of gravity, by considering its applications to a variety of settings of physical interest as well as its relationship with real observations. We argue…

Using as inspiration the well known chiral effective lagrangian describing the interactions of pions at low energies, in these lectures we review the quantization procedure of Einstein gravity in the spirit of effective field theories. As…

This thesis focuses on modifications on Einstein's theory of General Relativity, which could explain the current problems in gravitation and cosmology. More specifically, modifications of the affine structure of the spacetime, which is the…

Over the past decade, f(R) theories have been extensively studied as one of the simplest modifications to General Relativity. In this article we review various applications of f(R) theories to cosmology and gravity - such as inflation, dark…

The recent discovery of "dark energy" has challenged Einstein's general theory of relativity as a complete model for our macroscopic universe. From a theoretical view, the challenge is even stronger: general relativity clearly does not…

In this survey, we review some of the low energy quantum predictions of General Relativity which are independent of details of the yet unknown high-energy completion of the gravitational interaction. Such predictions can be extracted using…

Extended Theories of Gravity can be considered a new paradigm to cure shortcomings of General Relativity at infrared and ultraviolet scales. They are an approach that, by preserving the undoubtedly positive results of Einstein's Theory, is…

As confirmed by tests performed in the solar system, General Relativity (GR) presently represents the best description of gravitation. It is however challenged by observations at very large length scales, and already at the solar system…

In this lecture I address the issue of possible large distance modification of gravity and its observational consequences. Although, for the illustrative purposes we focus on a particular simple generally-covariant example, our conclusions…

Tests of gravity performed in the solar system show a good agreement with general relativity. The latter is however challenged by observations at larger, galactic and cosmic, scales which are presently cured by introducing "dark matter" or…

The theory of measurement is employed to elucidate the physical basis of general relativity. For measurements involving phenomena with intrinsic length or time scales, such scales must in general be negligible compared to the (translational…

In this lecture I build up the motivation for relativity and gravitation based on general principles and common sense considerations which should fall in the sphere of appreciation of a general reader. There is a novel way of looking at…

I give a pedagogical explanation of what it is about quantization that makes general relativity go from being a nearly perfect classical theory to a very problematic quantum one. I also explain why some quantization of gravity is…

Relativity is an integral part of positioning systems, and this is taken into account in today's practice by applying many "relativistic corrections" to computations performed using concepts borrowed from Galilean physics. A different,…

The cosmological constant problem can be understood as the failure of the decoupling principle behind effective field theory, so that some quantities in the low-energy theory are extremely sensitive to the high-energy properties. While this…

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…

This thesis embarks on a comprehensive investigation of modified gravity theories and their implications on the properties of compact objects. Our primary objective is to shed light on the fundamental nature of gravity by exploring…

We review the foundations of Einstein's general theory of relativity, discuss recent progress in the tests of relativistic gravity, and present motivations for new generation of high-accuracy gravitational experiments. We discuss the…