Related papers: Causality Constraints on Corrections to the Gravit…
A recently proposed theory of modified gravity with an explicit ``anomalous'' coupling of the Ricci curvature to matter is discussed, and an inequality is derived which expresses a necessary and sufficient condition to avoid the notorius…
The question of what gravitational theory could supersede General Relativity has been central in theoretical physics for decades. Many disparate alternatives have been proposed motivated by cosmology, quantum gravity and phenomenological…
A search for sidereal variations in the non-Newtonian force between two tungsten plates separated at millimeter ranges sets experimental limits on Lorentz invariance violation involving quadratic couplings of Riemann curvature. We show that…
Gravitational waves allow us to test general relativity in the highly dynamical regime. While current observations have been consistent with waves emitted by quasi-circular binaries, eccentric binaries may also produce detectable signals in…
Lorentz invariance plays a fundamental role in modern physics. However, tiny violations of the Lorentz invariance may arise in some candidate quantum gravity theories. Prominent signatures of the gravitational Lorentz invariance violation…
General Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with a cosmological constant allows two (A)dS spacetimes as its vacuum solutions. We find a critical point in the parameter space where the two (A)dS spacetimes coalesce into one and the linearized…
The General Relativity Effective Field Theory (GREFT) introduces higher-derivative interactions to parameterise the gravitational effects of massive degrees of freedom which are too heavy to be probed directly. The coefficients of these…
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 analyse the high-energy behavior of tree-level graviton Compton amplitudes for particles of mass m and arbitrary spin, concentrating on a combination of forward amplitudes that will be unaffected by eventual cross- couplings to other,…
We give an alternative description of the physical content of general relativity that does not require a Lorentz invariant spacetime. Instead, we find that gravity admits a dual description in terms of a theory where local size is…
After a brief review of current scenarios for the resolution and/or avoidance of the Big Bang, an alternative hypothesis is put forward implying an infinite increase in complexity towards the initial singularity. This may result in an…
This paper clarifies some aspects of Lorentzian topology change, and it extends to a wider class of spacetimes previous results of Geroch and Tipler that show that topology change is only to be had at a price. The scenarios studied here are…
In this thesis, we focus on higher-curvature extensions of Einstein gravity as toy models to probe universal properties of conformal field theory (CFT) using the gauge/gravity duality. In this context, we are particularly interested in…
Causality places nontrivial constraints on QFT in Lorentzian signature, for example fixing the signs of certain terms in the low energy Lagrangian. In d-dimensional conformal field theory, we show how such constraints are encoded in…
We consider the shift of charge-to-mass ratio for extremal black holes in the context of effective field theory, motivated by the Weak Gravity Conjecture. We constrain extremality corrections in different regimes subject to unitarity and…
We study graviton non-Gaussianities in the EFT of Inflation. At leading (second) order in derivatives, the graviton bispectrum is fixed by Einstein gravity. There are only two contributions at third order. One of them breaks parity. They…
It is shown that Einstein gravity tends to modify the electric and magnetic fields appreciably at distances of the order of the Compton wavelength. At that distance the gravitational field becomes spin dominated rather than mass dominated.…
Modified gravity theories with a nonminimal coupling between curvature and matter offer a compelling alternative to dark energy and dark matter by introducing an explicit interaction between matter and curvature invariants. Two of the main…
A graviton of a nonzero mass and decay width propagates five physical polarizations. The question of interactions of these polarizations is crucial for viability of models of massive/metastable gravity. This question is addressed in the…
We study the relation between the causality and the positivity of energy bounds in Gauss-Bonnet gravity in AdS_7 background and find a precise agreement. Requiring the group velocity of metastable states to be bounded by the speed of light…