Related papers: Cosmological constraints on Lorentz violating dark…
We consider a scenario where local Lorentz invariance is violated by the existence of a preferred time direction at every space-time point. This scenario can arise in the context of quantum gravity and its description at low energies…
We study the influence of the fluctuations of a Lorentz invariant and conserved vacuum on cosmological metric perturbations, and show that they generically blow up in the IR. We compute this effect using the K\"all\'en-Lehmann spectral…
One hope to solve the cosmological constant problem is to identify a symmetry principle, based on which the cosmological constant can be reduced either to zero, or to a tiny value. Here, we note that requiring that the vacuum state is…
Notoriously, the two main problems of the standard $\Lambda$CDM model of cosmology are the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ and the cold dark matter, CDM. This essay shows that both the $\Lambda$ and the CDM arise as integration constants in…
The cosmological constant problem is one of the greatest challenges in contemporary physics, since it is deeply rooted in the problematic interplay between quantum fields and gravity. The aim of this work is to review the key conceptual…
We consider further consequences of recently [1] revealed role of cosmological constant \Lambda as of a physical constant, along with the gravitational one to define the gravity i.e. the General Relativity and its low-energy limit. We now…
We construct a model of dark energy with a technically natural small contribution to cosmic acceleration, i.e. this contribution does not receive corrections from other scales in the theory. The proposed acceleration mechanism appears…
We make the cosmological constant, {\Lambda}, into a field and restrict the variations of the action with respect to it by causality. This creates an additional Einstein constraint equation. It restricts the solutions of the standard…
We study the possibility to constrain deviations from Lorentz invariance in dark matter (DM) with cosmological observations. Breaking of Lorentz invariance generically introduces new light gravitational degrees of freedom, which we…
A new approach to the cosmological constant problem is proposed by modifying Einstein's theory of general relativity, using instead a scalar-tensor theory of gravitation. This theory of gravity crucially incorporates the concept of quantum…
The standard formulation of the cosmological constant problem is based on one critical assumption---the spacetime is homogeneous and isotropic, which is true only on cosmological scales. However, this problem is caused by extremely small…
This thesis focuses on late-time cosmic acceleration within modified theories of gravity, using various observational data sets and statistical analysis. The Universe is assumed to be spatially homogeneous and isotropic and is described by…
Horava-Lifshitz theory of gravity with detailed balance is plagued by the presence of a negative bare (or geometrical) cosmological constant which makes its cosmology clash with observations. We argue that adding the effects of the large…
After reviewing the modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) proposal, we advocate that the associated phenomenology may actually not result from a modification of Newtonian gravity, but from a mechanism of "gravitational polarization" of some…
An alternative to the postulate of dark energy required to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe is to adopt an inhomogeneous cosmological model to explain the supernovae data without dark energy. We adopt a void cosmology…
The fundamental laws of physics are required to be invariant under local spatial scale change. In 3-dimensional space, this leads to a variation in Planck constant \hbar and speed of light c. They vary as \hbar ~ a^(1/2) and c ~ a^(-1/2), a…
We investigate spacetimes in which the speed of light along flat 4D sections varies over the extra dimensions due to different warp factors for the space and the time coordinates (``asymmetrically warped'' spacetimes). The main property of…
The standard model of cosmology LCDM assumes general relativity, flat space, and the presence of a positive cosmological constant. We relax these assumptions allowing spatial curvature, time-dependent effective dark energy equation of…
Quantum theory, general relativity, the standard model of particle physics, and the $\Lambda$CDM model of cosmology have all been spectacularly successful within their respective regimes of applicability, but many central problems remain…
We study the growth of cosmological perturbations in the model of Lorentz-violating massive gravity. The Friedman equation in this model acquires an unconventional term due to the Lorentz-breaking condensates which has the equation of state…