Related papers: Traversing Cosmological Singularities, Complete Jo…
We study the early-time behavior of isotropic and homogeneous solutions in vacuum as well as radiation-filled cosmological models in the full, effective, four dimensional gravity theory with higher derivatives. We use asymptotic methods to…
A new approach to tackle Einstein equations for an isotropic and homogeneous Friedmann--Robertson--Walker Universe in the presence of a quintessence scalar field is devised. It provides a way to get a simple exact solution to these…
Gravitation and the standard model of particle physics are incorporated within a single conformal scalar-tensor theory, where the scalar field is complex. The Higgs field has a dynamical expectation value, as has the Planck mass, but the…
This essay addresses the issue of gravitational phase transitions in the early universe. We suggest that a second order phase transition observed in the Causal Dynamical Triangulations approach to quantum gravity may have a cosmological…
In the last decade, progress on quantization of homogeneous cosmological spacetimes using techniques of loop quantum gravity has led to insights on various fundamental questions and has opened new avenues to explore Planck scale physics.…
In the last four decades different programs have been carried out aiming at understanding the final fate of gravitational collapse of massive bodies once some prescriptions for the behaviour of gravity in the strong field regime are…
We conjecture that space-like singularities are simply regions in which all available degrees of freedom are excited, and the system cycles randomly through generic quantum states in its Hilbert space. There is no simple geometric…
We argue that standard tools of holography can be used to describe fully non-perturbative microscopic models of cosmology in which a period of accelerated expansion may result from the positive potential energy of time-dependent scalar…
Gravitation as a fundamental interaction that governs all phenomena at large and very small scales, but still not well understood at a quantum level, is a missing cardinal link to unification of all physical interactions. Problems of the…
We consider branes $N=I\times\so$, where $\so$ is an $n$\ndash dimensional space form, not necessarily compact, in a Schwarzschild-AdS_{(n+2)} bulk $\mc N$. The branes have a big crunch singularity. If a brane is an ARW space, then, under…
Close to the Planck energy scale, the quantum nature of space-time reveals itself and all forces, including gravity, should be unified so that all interactions correspond to just one underlying symmetry. In the absence of a full quantum…
We show that the f(T) gravitational paradigm, in which gravity is described by an arbitrary function of the torsion scalar, can provide a mechanism for realizing bouncing cosmologies, thereby avoiding the Big Bang singularity. After…
We propose a gravitational model with a Brans-Dicke-type scalar field having, in the would-be action, a "wrong-sign" kinetic term and a quartic interaction term. In a cosmological context, we obtain, depending on the boundary conditions,…
The spatially flat and isotropic cosmological model of Brans-Dicke theory with coupling parameter $\omega\neq-3/2$ is quantized by the approach of loop quantum cosmology. An interesting feature of this model is that, although the…
We present the geodesical completion of the Schwarzschild black hole in four dimensions which covers the entire space in (u,v) Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates, including the spacetime behind the black and white hole singularities. The…
We consider two-dimensional quantum gravity endowed with a positive cosmological constant and coupled to a conformal field theory of large and positive central charge. We study cosmological properties at the classical and quantum level. We…
The 1+3 covariant approach and the covariant gauge-invariant approach to perturbations are used to analyze in depth conformal transformations in cosmology. Such techniques allow us to obtain very interesting insights on the physical content…
We present solutions describing homogeneous and isotropic cosmologies in the massive gravity theory with two dynamical metrics recently proposed in arXiv:1109.3515 and claimed to be ghost free. These solutions can be spatially open, closed,…
We study a particular exact solution to the Born-Infeld determinantal gravity consisting of a cosmological model which undergoes a brusque bounce. The latter consists of an event characterized by a non-null (but finite) value of the squared…
Since the past Iagrg meeting in December 2004, new developments in loop quantum cosmology have taken place, especially with regards to the resolution of the Big Bang singularity in the isotropic models. The singularity resolution issue has…