Related papers: Translation invariant time-dependent massive gravi…
We study the Hamiltonian formulation of a gravity model obtained from a Yang--Mills theory for a one-parameter family of (A)dS Lie algebras parametrized by $\alpha$, when the family of algebras is contracted to the Poincar\'e algebra in the…
The idea of this contribution is to suggest a way to get rid of gravity as a dynamical space time approximately in cosmology and thus be able to use Hamiltonian formulation ignoring the gravitational degrees of freedom, treating them just…
We study the constrained Ostrogradski-Hamilton framework for the equations of motion provided by mechanical systems described by second-order derivative actions with a linear dependence in the accelerations. We stress out the peculiar…
Within a gauge formulation of 3+1 gravity relying on a nonlinear realization of the group of isometries of space-time, a natural expansion of the metric tensor arises and a simple choice of the gravity dynamical variables is possible. We…
This dissertation investigates three main topics, all of which dealing with alternative, higher-order gravity theories in four dimensions. Firstly, we study the variational and conformal structure of those theories. Next, we analyse their…
We present a didactic derivation of the special theory of relativity in which Lorentz transformations are `discovered' as symmetry transformations of the Klein-Gordon equation. The interpretation of Lorentz boosts as transformations to…
We develop the formalism for canonical reduction of $(1+1)$--dimensional gravity coupled with a set of point particles by eliminating constraints and imposing coordinate conditions. The formalism itself is quite analogous to the…
We present a "Chern-Simons-like" action for the "general massive gravity" model propagating two spin-2 modes with independent masses in three spacetime dimensions (3D), and we use it to find a simple Hamiltonian form of this model. The…
We construct Lorentz-invariant massless/massive spin-2 theories in flat spacetime. Starting from the most generic action of a rank-2 symmetric tensor field whose Lagrangian contains up to quadratic in first derivatives of a field, we…
The Hamiltonian formulation for a non-Abelian gauge theory in two spatial dimensions is carried out in terms of a gauge-invariant matrix parametrization of the fields. The Jacobian for the relevant transformation of variables is given in…
An exact invariant is derived for $n$-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian systems with general time-dependent potentials. The invariant is worked out in two equivalent ways. In the first approach, we define a special {\it Ansatz\/} for the…
We perform a Hamiltonian analysis of a large class of scalar-tensor Lagrangians which depend quadratically on the second derivatives of a scalar field. By resorting to a convenient choice of dynamical variables, we show that the Hamiltonian…
The constrained Hamiltonian formalism is worked out for the theories where the gauge symmetry parameters are unfree, being restricted by differential equations. The Hamiltonian BFV-BRST embedding is elaborated for this class of gauge…
Besides the two fundamental postulates, (i) the principle of relativity and (ii) the constancy of the one-way velocity of light in all inertial frames of reference, the special theory of relativity employs another assumption. This…
We investigate a class of gravity theories respecting only spatial covariance, termed spatially covariant gravity, in the presence of an auxiliary scalar field. We examine the conditions on the Lagrangian required to eliminate scalar…
We study the Hamiltonian structure of unimodular-like theories, where the cosmological constant (or other supposed constants of nature) are demoted from fixed parameters to classical constants of motion. No new local degrees of freedom are…
We derive the interaction of fermions with a dynamical space-time based on the postulate that the description of physics should be independent of the reference frame, which means to require the form-invariance of the fermion action under…
This paper discusses the implementation of diffeomorphism invariance in purely Hamiltonian formulations of General Relativity. We observe that, if a constrained Hamiltonian formulation derives from a manifestly covariant Lagrangian, the…
It is well known that in a generally covariant gravitational theory the choice of spacetime scalars as coordinates yields phase-space observables (or "invariants"). However their relation to the symmetry group of diffeomorphism…
We take causality and uniqueness of events observation as our driving forces. They are built in in the way we define distinct observers, which then require a finite time to communicate between each other. This unavoidably leads to the…