Related papers: Mach's Principle selects 4 space-time dimensions
It is pointed out that recent cosmological findings seem to support the view that the mass/energy distribution of the universe defines the Newtonian inertial frames as originally suggested by Mach. The background concepts of inertial frame,…
In the context of the recently proposed type-II minimally modified gravity theory, i.e. a metric theory of gravity with two local physical degrees of freedom that does not possess an Einstein frame, we study spherically symmetric vacuum…
In this article we will construct the most general torsion-free parity-invariant covariant theory of gravity that is free from ghost-like and tachyonic nstabilities around constant curvature space-times in four dimensions. Specifically,…
A 5-dimensional Einstein spacetime with (non)vanishing cosmological constant is analyzed in detail. The metric is in close analogy with the 4-dimensional massless uncharged C-metric in many aspects. The coordinate system, horizons and…
We analyze the first-order formulation of the ghost-free bigravity model in three-dimensions known as zwei-dreibein gravity. For a special choice of parameters, it was argued to have an additional gauge symmetry and give rise to a partially…
We revisit the integral formulation (or Green's function approach) of Einstein's equations in the context of braneworlds. The integral formulation has been proposed independently by several authors in the past, based on the assumption that…
A gauge-invariant treatment of the monopole- ($l=0$) and dipole ($l=1$) modes in linear perturbations of the Schwarzschild background spacetime is proposed. Through this gauge-invariant treatment, we derived the solutions to the linearized…
We use conformal, but ghostful, Weyl gravity to study its ghost-free, second derivative, partially massless (PM) spin 2 component in presence of Einstein gravity with positive cosmological constant. Specifically, we consider both…
Gauge invariant treatments of the second order cosmological perturbation in a four dimensional homogeneous isotropic universe filled with the perfect fluid are completely formulated without any gauge fixing. We derive all components of the…
The widely known but also somewhat esoteric Mach principle envisages a fully relational formulation of physical theories without any reference to a concept of `absolute space'. When applied to classical mechanics, under the guise of an…
Free field equations, with various spins, for space-time algebras with second-rank tensor (instead of usual vector) momentum are constructed. Similar algebras are appearing in superstring/M theories. The most attention is payed to the gauge…
In this thesis we take Einstein theory in dimension four seriously, and explore the special aspects of gravity in this number of dimension. Among the many surprising features in dimension four, one of them is the possibility of `Chiral…
Ghost-free bimetric theory can describe gravity in the presence of an extra spin-2 field. We study certain aspects of dynamics in this theory: (1) It is shown that if either of the metrics is an Einstein solution then the other is always…
Contrary to common belief, it is shown that theories whose field equations are higher than second order in derivatives need not be stricken with ghosts. In particular, the prototypical fourth-order derivative Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator model…
In their recent "Mach's principle and higher-dimensional dynamics", Mashhoon and Wesson argue that Mach's principle is not properly incorporated into general relativity and that in Einstein's theory "the origin of inertia remains…
Linear perturbations of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes with any curvature and cosmological constant are studied in a general gauge without decomposition into harmonics. Desirable gauges are selected as those which embody best Mach's…
Diffeomorphism covariant theories with dynamical background metric, like gravity coupled to matter fields in the way expressed by Einstein-Hilbert's action or relativistic strings described by Polyakov's action, have `on-shell' vanishing…
We set up an Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory in four dimensions, based on the recent formulation of pure gravity with extra dimensions of vanishing metrical length [1]. In absence of torsion, the effective field equations depend only on the…
We explore a background-independent theory of composite gravity. The vacuum expectation value of the composite metric satisfies Einstein's equations (with corrections) as a consistency condition, and selects the vacuum spacetime. A…
The formulation of General Relativity in which the 4-dimensional space-time is embedded in a flat host space of higher dimension is reconsidered. New classes of embeddings (modeled after Nash's classical free embeddings) are introduced.…