Related papers: The Big Constant Out, The Small Constant In
In Chapter 1 I present the current picture of the universe and briefly review the cosmological constant problem and some of the theories proposed to solve it. The following Chapters essentially contain the published papers with some…
We consider a two-dimensional model of gravity with the cosmological constant as a dynamical variable. The effective cosmological constant is derived when the universe has no initial boundary. It turns out to be extremely small if the…
We consider various mechanisms of modifying the effect of intrinsic curvature in gravity with respect to general relativity. Two primary approaches are studied. First, by considering a Lagrange multiplier or an auxiliary field. Second, by…
We argue that the Lagrangian for gravity should remain bounded at large curvature, and interpolate between the weak-field tested Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian L_EH = R /16 pi G and a pure cosmological constant for large R with the…
A new way is proposed to cancel the cosmological constant. The proposal involves the metric determinant acting as a type of self-adjusting $q$-field without need of a fine-tuned chemical potential. Since the determinant of the metric now…
We develop the principle of nongravitating vacuum energy, which is implemented by changing the measure of integration from $\sqrt{-g}d^{D}x$ to an integration in an internal space of $D$ scalar fields $\phi_{a}$. As a consequence of such a…
The late time acceleration of the Universe has challenged contemporary cosmology since its discovery. General Relativity explains this phenomenon by introducing the cosmological constant, named the standard cosmological model…
We study cosmological perturbations around self-accelerating solutions to two extensions of nonlinear massive gravity: the quasi-dilaton theory and the mass-varying theory. We examine stability of the cosmological solutions, and the extent…
In this thesis the cosmological constant is investigated from two points of view. First, we study the influence of a time-dependent cosmological constant on the late-time expansion of the universe. Thereby, we consider several combinations…
The imposition of a constraint between the metric tensor elements in both three- and four-dimensional, rotating AdS space-times is shown to reduce the number of independent equations of motion and to result in new families of solutions to…
Motivated by quantum mechanical considerations we earlier suggested an alternative action for discretised quantum gravity which has a dimension of length. It is the so called "linear" action. The proposed action is a "square root" of the…
In a series of recent papers Kaloper and Padilla proposed a mechanism to sequester standard model vacuum contributions to the cosmological constant. We study the consequences of embedding their proposal into a fully local quantum theory. In…
A finite and unitary nonlocal formulation of quantum gravity is applied to the cosmological constant problem. The entire functions in momentum space at the graviton-standard model particle loop vertices generate an exponential suppression…
In the Newtonian limit of general relativity force acting on a test mass in a central gravitational field is conventionally defined by the attractive Newtonian gravity (inverse square) term plus a small repulsive cosmological force, which…
We construct an effective action for gravity in which all homogeneous solutions are nonsingular. In particular, there is neither a big bang nor a big crunch. The action is a higher derivative modification of Einstein's theory constructed in…
An alternative to dark energy as an explanation for the present phase of accelerated expansion of the Universe is that the Friedmann equation is modified, e.g. by extra dimensional gravity, on large scales. We explore a natural…
In this paper we show that by considering a slightly modified Horava-Lifshitz gravity one can find self-tuning cosmological scenarios. Since in the proposed model the cosmological constant cancels out, then regardless of its value it cannot…
One of the greatest problems of standard cosmology is the Big Bang singularity. Previously it has been shown that non-local ghostfree higher-derivative modifications of Einstein gravity in the ultra-violet regime can admit non-singular…
We consider perturbative modifications of the Friedmann equations in terms of energy density corresponding to modified theories of gravity proposed as an alternative route to comply with the observed accelerated expansion of the universe.…
The $f(T,T_G)$ class of gravitational modification, based on the quadratic torsion scalar $T$, as well as on the new quartic torsion scalar $T_G$ which is the teleparallel equivalent of the Gauss-Bonnet term, is a novel theory, different…