Related papers: Sailing through the big crunch-big bang transition
The pre--big bang cosmological scenario is studied within the context of the Brans--Dicke theory of gravity. An epoch of superinflationary expansion may occur in the pre--big bang phase of the Universe's history in a certain region of…
We consider an effective field theory description of gravity coupled to a scalar field with volume-preserving diffeomorphism and Weyl invariances. The smallness of the cosmological constant is achieved when the potential of the scalar is…
Gravitation is described in the context of a dilatonic theory that is conformally related to general relativity. All dimensionless ratios of fundamental dimensional quantities, e.g. particle masses and the Planck mass, as well as the…
We consider conditions under which a universe contracting towards a big crunch can make a transition to an expanding big bang universe. A promising example is 11-dimensional M-theory in which the eleventh dimension collapses, bounces, and…
It was argued recently that conformal invariance in flat spacetime implies Weyl invariance in a general curved background for unitary theories and possible anomalies in the Weyl variation of scalar operators are identified. We argue that…
Field theoretical scheme of regular Big Bang in 4-dimensional physical space-time, built in the framework of gauge approach to gravitation, is discussed. Regular bouncing character of homogeneous isotropic cosmological models is ensured by…
The postulate of universal Weyl conformal symmetry for all elementary physical fields introduces nonclassical gravitational effects in both conformal gravitation(CG) and the conformal Higgs model (CHM). The resulting theory is found to…
By a uniform and simple Weyl invariant coupling of scale and matter fields, we construct theories that unify massless, massive, and partially massless excitations. Masses are related to tractor Weyl weights, and Breitenlohner-Freedman…
The big bang singularity could be understood as a breakdown of Einstein's General Relativity at very high energies. Adopting this viewpoint, other theories, that implement Einstein Cosmology at high energies, might solve the problem of the…
It is shown that gravitation naturally emerges from the standard model of particle physics if local scale invariance is imposed in the context of a single conformal (Weyl-symmetric) theory. Gravitation is then conformally-related to the…
We study the evolution of time-like congruences in the vacuum solutions of Weyl conformal theory of gravity. Using the Raycaudhuri equation, we show that for positive values of the coeffcient of the linear term in the solution and in the…
In the superconformal formulation of supergravity, the standard supergravity action appears as a result of spontaneous symmetry breaking when the conformal compensator scalar field, the conformon, acquires a nonzero value, giving rise to…
The aim of the current paper is to study the multiscalar-tensor theories of gravity without derivative couplings. We construct a few basic objects that are invariant under a Weyl rescaling of the metric and transform covariantly when the…
In the first part of the thesis we focus on local symmetries. We review a self-consistent framework that we employed in order to discuss the dynamics of the theories of interest. Its merit lies in that we can make the symmetry group act…
We propose a novel, higher-derivative, Weyl-invariant and generally-covariant theory for the cosmological constant. This theory is a mimetic construction with gauge fields playing the role of dynamical variables. These fields compose the…
We study Weyl conformal geometry as a general gauge theory of the Weyl group (of Poincar\'e and dilatations symmetries) in a manifestly Weyl gauge covariant formalism in which this geometry is automatically metric and physically relevant.…
We develop a new model for the Universe based on two key assumptions: first, the inertial energy of the Universe is a constant, and second, the total energy of a particle, the inertial plus the gravitational potential energy produced by the…
There is a common expectation that the big-bang singularity must be resolved in quantum gravity but it is not clear how this can be achieved. A major obstacle here is the difficulty of interpreting wave-functions in quantum gravity. The…
Singularities in general relativity such as the big bang and big crunch, and exotic singularities such as the big rip are the boundaries of the classical spacetimes. These events are marked by a divergence in the curvature invariants and…
Deser and Nepomechie established a relationship between masslessness and rigid conformal invariance by coupling to a background metric and demanding local Weyl invariance, a method which applies neither to massive theories nor theories…