Related papers: Constraints on general second-order scalar-tensor …
Over the last few years, it was realised that non-canonical scalar fields can lead to the accelerated expansion in the early universe. The primordial spectrum in these scenarios not only shows near scale-invariance consistent with CMB…
Modern astrophysical and cosmological models are plagued with two severe theoretical difficulties, namely, the dark energy and the dark matter problems. Relative to the former, high-precision observational data have confirmed with startling…
In general relativity, it has been shown that the effective gravitational stress-energy tensor for short-wavelength metric perturbations acts just like that for a radiation fluid, and thus, in particular, cannot provide any effects that…
We discuss the possibility of constraining theories of gravity in which the connection is a fundamental variable by searching for observational consequences of the torsion degrees of freedom. In a wide class of models, the only modes of the…
High-precision observational data have confirmed with startling evidence that the Universe is currently undergoing a phase of accelerated expansion. This phase, one of the most important and challenging current problems in cosmology,…
Chern-Simons models for gravity are interesting because they provide with a truly gauge-invariant action principle in the fiber-bundle sense. So far, their main drawback has largely been the perceived remoteness from standard General…
A shift-symmetric Galileon model in presence of spacetime torsion has been constructed for the first time. This has been realized by localizing (or, gauging) the Galileon symmetry in flat spacetime in an appropriate manner. We have applied…
Explanations of the late-time cosmic acceleration within the framework of general relativity are plagued by difficulties. General relativistic models are mostly based on a dark energy field with fine-tuned, unnatural properties. There is a…
Alternative theories of gravity not only modify the polarization contents of the gravitational wave, but also affect the motions of the stars and the energy radiated away via the gravitational radiation. These aspects leave imprints in the…
This thesis investigates the characteristics of modified teleparallel gravity models that incorporate a scalar field and a trace of the energy-momentum tensor, with particular attention to their cosmological effects, especially regarding…
The cosmological propagation of tensor perturbations is studied in the context of parity-violating extensions of the symmetric teleparallel equivalent of General Relativity theory. This non-Riemannian formulation allows for a wider variety…
Degenerate scalar-tensor theories are recently proposed covariant theories of gravity coupled with a scalar field. Despite being characterised by higher order equations of motion, they do not propagate more than three degrees of freedom,…
The reason for the present accelerated expansion of the Universe stands as one of the most profound questions in the realm of science, with deep connections to both cosmology and fundamental physics. From a cosmological point of view,…
Modifying the Einstein's gravity at large distance scales is one of the interesting proposals to explain the late time acceleration of the universe. In this paper, we analyse scaling solutions in modified gravity models where the universe…
The scalar-tensor theory of gravitation has been and still is one of the most widely discussed "alternative theories" to General Relativity (GR). Despite nearly half a century of its age, it continues to attract renewed interests of not…
The hypothesis about possible existence of new class of particles able to travel faster then light as a source of dark matter, recently formulated by L. Gonzalez-Mesters, is analyzed. To this end the general geometrical model for several…
We explore the possibility of testing modified gravity exhibiting the Vainshtein mechanism against observations of cluster lensing. We work in the most general scalar-tensor theory with second-order field equations (Horndeski's theory), and…
The acceleration of the expansion of the Universe has led to the construction of Dark Energy models where a light scalar field may have a range reaching up to cosmological scales. Screening mechanisms allow these models to evade the tight…
In this paper, we establish a model-independent framework based on the Isaacson picture to analyze the gravitational-wave effects in the most general vector-tensor theory that yields second-order field equations. Within this framework, we…
In a recent paper, we have a shown that the flattening of galactic rotation curves can be explained by retardation. However, this will rely on a temporal change of galactic mass. In our previous work, we kept only second order terms of the…