Related papers: Quadratic Curvature Gravity with Second Order Trac…
There exists a large class of generally covariant metric Lagrangians that contain only local terms and describe two propagating degrees of freedom. Trivial examples can be be obtained by applying a local field redefinition to the Lagrangian…
A discussion of the number of degrees of freedom, and their dynamical properties, in higher derivative gravitational theories is presented. The complete non-linear sigma model for these degrees of freedom is exhibited using the method of…
We study the degrees of freedom of the metric in a general class of higher derivative gravity models, which are interesting in the context of quantum gravity as they are (super)renormalizable. First, we linearize the theory for a flat…
Within the general framework of spatially covariant theories of gravity, we study the conditions for having only the two tensorial degrees of freedom. Generally, there are three degrees of freedom propagating in the theory, of which two are…
We derive the gravitational Lagrangian to all orders of curvature when the canonical constraint algebra is deformed by a phase space function as predicted by some studies into loop quantum cosmology. The deformation function seems to be…
We consider the effects of higher curvature terms on a holographic dual description of boundary conformal field theory. Specifically, we consider three-dimensional gravity with a specific combination of Ricci tensor square and curvature…
We construct black hole solutions in four-dimensional quadratic gravity, supported by a scalar field conformally coupled to quadratic terms in the curvature. The conformal matter Lagrangian is constructed with powers of traces of a…
Previous work in the literature has studied the Hamiltonian structure of an R-squared model of gravity with torsion in a closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. Within the framework of Dirac's theory, torsion is found to lead to a…
Consistent nontrivial interactions within a special class of covariant mixed-symmetry type tensor gauge fields of degree three are constructed from the deformation of the solution to the master equation combined with specific cohomological…
We give a novel description of the recently proposed theory of new massive gravity (NMG) in three dimensions. We show that in terms of a Dirac type differential operator acting on the traceless Ricci tensor, the field equations of the…
In this thesis, we focus on higher-curvature extensions of Einstein gravity as toy models to probe universal properties of conformal field theory (CFT) using the gauge/gravity duality. In this context, we are particularly interested in…
A modified Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in four dimensions where the quadratic Gauss-Bonnet term is coupled to a scalar field is considered. The field equations of the model are obtained by variational methods by making use of the…
We discuss the choice of the Lagrangian in the Poincar\'e gauge theory of gravity. Drawing analogies to earlier de Sitter gauge models, we point out the possibility of deriving the Einstein-Cartan Lagrangian {\it without} cosmological term…
We study the condition that the theory is unitary and stable in three-dimensional gravity with most general quadratic curvature, Lorentz-Chern-Simons and cosmological terms. We provide the complete classification of the unitary theories…
We present a three-dimensional gravitational Born-Infeld theory which reduces to the recently found New Massive Gravity (NMG) at the quadratic level in the small curvature expansion and at the cubic order reproduces the deformation of NMG…
By attaching basis vectors to the components of matter fields, one may render free action densities fully covariant. Both the connection and the tetrads are quadratic forms in these basis vectors. The metric of spacetime, which is quadratic…
We show that the first-order D=4, N=1 pure supergravity lagrangian four-form can be obtained geometrically as a quadratic expression in the curvatures of the Maxwell superalgebra. This is achieved by noticing that the relative coefficient…
The issues of quintessence and cosmic acceleration can be discussed in the framework of higher order theories of gravity. We can define effective pressure and energy density directly connected to the Ricci scalar of curvature of a generic…
We study various aspects of higher-curvature theories of gravity built from contractions of the metric, the Riemann tensor and the covariant derivative, $\mathcal{L}(g^{ab},R_{abcd},\nabla_a)$. We characterise the linearized spectrum of…
In a space of 4-dimensions, I will examine constrained variational problems in which the Lagrangian, and constraint scalar density, are concomitants of a (pseudo-Riemannian) metric tensor and its first two derivatives. The Lagrange…