Related papers: Nucleation and evolution of false vacuum bubbles i…
We describe the non-relativistic time evolution of an ultra-cold degenerate quantum gas (bosons/fermions) falling in Earth's gravity during long times (10 sec) and over large distances (100 m). This models a drop tower experiment that is…
We develop semiclassical methods for studying bubble nucleation in models with parameters that vary slowly in time. Introducing a more general rotation of the time contour allows access to a larger set of final states, and typically a…
In the present work we present the full treatment of scalar and vector cosmological perturbations in a non-singular bouncing universe in the context of metric $f(R)$ cosmology. Scalar metric perturbations in $f(R)$ cosmology were previously…
A new approach to vacuum decay in quantum field theory, based on a simple variational formulation in field space using a tunneling potential, is ideally suited to study the effects of gravity on such decays. The method allows to prove in…
We consider flat Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker cosmological models in the framework of general scalar-tensor theories of gravity with arbitrary coupling functions, set in the Jordan frame, in the cosmological epoch when the…
We present calculations of Post-Newtonian parameters for Brans-Dicke tensor-scalar gravity in an arbitrary number of compact extra dimensions in both the Jordan and Einstein conformal frames. We find that the parameter gamma, which measures…
We study stochastic inflation in the presence of a dynamical gravitational constant. We describe the Arnowitt--Deser--Misner formalism for Jordan--Brans--Dicke theory of gravity with an inflaton field. The inflaton and dilaton scalar fields…
Constructing an explicit compactification yielding a metastable de Sitter (dS) vacuum in a UV consistent string theory is an incredibly difficult open problem. Motivated by this issue, as well as the conjecture that all non-supersymmetric…
We investigate static spherically symmetric solutions in the Palatini kinetically coupled scalar-tensor theory, which reduces to gravity minimally coupled to a scalar field in Einstein frame. Using the fact that the Jordan and Einstein…
We consider first generation scalar-tensor theories of gravitation in a completely generic form, keeping the transformation functions of the local rescaling of the metric and the scalar field redefinition explicitly distinct from the…
We calculate the bubble nucleation rate in a fourth-order gravity theory whose action contains an $R^2$ term, under the thin-wall approximation, by two different methods. First the bounce solution is found for the Euclidean version of the…
We present a new isocurvature mode present in scalar-tensor theories of gravity that corresponds to a regular growing solution in which the energy of the relativistic degrees of freedom and the scalar field that regulates the gravitational…
It has been argued by several authors that the space-time curvature observed in gravitational fields, and the same idea of forms of physical equivalence different from the Lorentz group, might emerge from the dynamical properties of the…
According to previous work, topological defects expand exponentially without an end if the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field is of the order of the Planck mass. We extend the study of inflating topological defects to the…
It is very much intriguing if the Planck scale $M_{\rm{Pl}}$ is not a fundamental parameter. The Brans-Dicke gravity is nothing but the theory where the Planck scale $M_{\rm{Pl}}$ is indeed an illusional parameter. The theory predicts a…
The $f(R)$ gravity and scalar-tensor theory are known to be equivalent at the classical level. We study if this equivalence is valid at the quantum level. There are two descriptions of the scalar-tensor theory in the Jordan and Einstein…
We consider two spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetimes divided by a time-like thin shell in the nontrivial case in which the inner region of finite extension contains radiation and the outer region is filled with dust. We will…
The transition from a false vacuum to the true vacuum is a real-time phenomenon of interest in many contexts. It represents a special challenge for strongly interacting non-Abelian gauge theories because standard spacetime lattices…
We study the dynamics of false vacuum bubbles. A nonminimally coupled scalar field gives rise to the effect of negative tension. The mass of a false vacuum bubble from outside observer's point of view can be positive, zero, or negative. The…
Non-minimal scalar-tensor (ST) theories may admit an Einstein frame representation, where gravity is described by the Einstein-Hilbert action plus the scalar sector. Some STs become just {\em minimal} Einstein-scalar (MES) theories, notable…