Related papers: Agravity
We study the quantum dynamics of N=1 supergravity in four dimensions with a compact spatial circle. Supersymmetry ensures that the perturbative contributions to the Casimir energy on the circle cancel. However, instanton contributions…
Phenomenological approaches to quantum gravity try to infer model-independent laws by analyzing thought experiments and combining both quantum, relativistic, and gravitational ingredients. We first review these ingredients -three basic…
During inflation, higher derivative terms in the gravitational action may play a significant role. Building on new stable formulations of four-derivative scalar-tensor theories, we study the impact of these corrections in the case where the…
As part of our program to develop a general theory of relativity for open systems, we introduce a covariant theory that incorporates the effects of classical and quantum spacetime alterations in a new metric tensor that effectively includes…
It is well-known that perturbative quantum gravity is non-renormalizable. The metric or vierbein has generally been used as the variable to quantize in perturbative quantum gravity. In this essay, we show that one can use the spin…
A simple realization of inflation consists of adding the following operators to the Einstein-Hilbert action: (partial phi)^2, lambda phi^4, and xi phi^2 R, with xi a large non-minimal coupling. Recently there has been much discussion as to…
Quantum gravitational corrections to black holes are studied in four and higher dimensions using a renormalisation group improvement of the metric. The quantum effects are worked out in detail for asymptotically safe gravity, where the…
We consider models of chaotic inflation driven by the real parts of a conjugate pair of Higgs superfields involved in the spontaneous breaking of a grand unification symmetry at a scale assuming its Supersymmetric value. Employing Kaehler…
Motivated by the idea that quantum gravity corrections usually suppress the power of the scalar primordial spectrum (E-mode) more than the power of the tensor primordial spectrum (B-mode), in this paper we construct a concrete gravitational…
The cosmological relaxation of the electroweak scale has been proposed as a mechanism to address the hierarchy problem of the Standard Model. A field, the relaxion, rolls down its potential and, in doing so, scans the squared mass parameter…
We study the asymptotic behavior of a singular potential, and discuss the self-consistency condition for the spherical symmetric Klein-Gordon equation. In our view, gravity and the weak force are subsidiary, derived from electricity.…
It is a longstanding desire of cosmologists, and particle physicists as well, to connect inflation to low energy physics, culminating, for instance, in what is known as Higgs inflation. The condition for the standard Higgs boson playing the…
We consider models of chaotic inflation driven by the real parts of a conjugate pair of Higgs superfields involved in the spontaneous breaking of a grand unification symmetry at a scale assuming its supersymmetric value. We combine a…
Extensions of the Standard Model and general relativity featuring a UV fixed point can leave observable implications at accessible energies. Although mass parameters such as the Planck scale can appear through dimensional transmutation, all…
In this Letter, we address the question of whether the conformal invariance can be considered as a global symmetry of a theory of fundamental interactions. To describe Nature, this theory must contain a mechanism of spontaneous breaking of…
We propose a 3 + 1 dimensional model of gravity which results in inflation at early times, followed by radiation- and matter-dominated epochs and a subsequent acceleration at late times. Both the inflation and late time acceleration are…
We construct a model unifying gravity with weak $SU(2)$ gauge and "Higgs" scalar fields. We assume the existence of a visible and an invisible (hidden) sector of the Universe. We used the extension of Plebanski's 4-dimensional gravitational…
A viable quantum theory of gravity is one of the biggest challenges facing physicists. We discuss the confluence of two highly expected features which might be instrumental in the quest of a finite and renormalizable quantum gravity --…
We consider Higgs inflation with an $\alpha R^2$ term. It adds a new scalar degree of freedom, which leads to a two-field model of inflation. We do a complete slow-roll analysis of the three-dimensional parameter space of the $R^2$…
We show that a non-minimal coupling to gravity can not only make some inflationary models consistent with cosmological data, similar to the case of Higgs inflation, but can also invoke slow-roll violation to realize graceful exit from…