Related papers: Gravity as the breakdown of conformal invariance
The two-dimensional theory of gravity describing a graviton-dilaton system is considered. The graviton-dilaton coupling can be fixed such that the quantum theory remains free of the conformal anomaly for any conformal dimension of the…
This short review is addressed to cosmologists. General relativity predicts that space-time comes to an end and physics comes to a halt at the big-bang. Recent developments in loop quantum cosmology have shown that these predictions cannot…
Our conventional understanding of space-time, as well as our notion of geometry, break down once we attempt to describe the very early stages of the evolution of our universe. The extreme physical conditions near the Big Bang necessitate an…
I argue that the essence of gravity can be understood only in the context of the universe and that unrecognised implicit retention of Newtonian absolute scale and the impact of thermodynamics have obscured it. Typical attempts to resolve…
Cosmology in extended theories of gravity is considered assuming the Palatini variational principle, for which the metric and connection are independent variables. The field equations are derived to linear order in perturbations about the…
It has been recently proposed that gravity might be an entropic force. Although a well defined fundamental description for such a mechanism is still lacking, it is still possible to address the viability of phenomenological models of…
We consider different deductions of the mysterious Weinberg formula and show that this leads us back to the model of fluctuational cosmology which correctly predicted in advance, dark energy driven, accelerating universe with a small…
Unimodular gravity is a compelling modified theory of gravity that offers a natural solution to the cosmological constant problem. However, for unimodular gravity to be considered a viable theory of gravity, one has to show that it has a…
We discuss cosmological solutions for a diffeomorphism invariant gauge theory of the non-compact Lorentz group $SO(1,3)$. Besides the gauge bosons our model of pregeometry contains a vector field in the vector representation of $SO(1,3)$…
Quantum effects are expected to modify the cosmological dynamics of the early universe while maintaining some (potentially discrete) notion of space-time structure. In one approach, loop quantum cosmology, current models are shown here to…
Despite their diversity, many of the most prominent candidate theories of quantum gravity share the property to be effectively lower-dimensional at small scales. In particular, dimension two plays a fundamental role in the finiteness of…
Possibility of gravitational repulsion in General Relativity is discussed and astronomical data in favor of cosmological acceleration are described. The problem of vacuum energy is emphasized and possible ways of its solution are indicated.…
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…
In the present article, which is the first part of a work in three parts, we build an equation of quantum gravity. This equation is tensorial, is equivalent to general relativity in vacuum, but differs completely from general relativity…
With attempts to quench the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ having so far failed, we instead investigate what could be done if $\Lambda$ is not quenched and actually gets to be as big as elementary particle physics suggests. Since the…
Based on a Planck scale underpinning for the universe, we deduce an expression for the gravitational constant which exhibits it as a distributional effect over all the particles of the universe. This solves a long standing puzzle, the so…
A fundamental element of scale-dependent gravity is the scale-setting procedure. We present a new covariant expression to set the scale that arises when examining the field equations. Considering the renormalization group equations and…
We consider a model for gravity that is invariant under global scale transformations. It includes one extra real scalar field coupled non-minimally to the gravity fields. In this model all the dimensionful parameters like the gravitational…
A classical dynamical system in a four-dimensional Euclidean space with universal time is considered. The space is hypothesized to be originally occupied by a uniform substance, pictured as a liquid, which at some time became supercooled.…
The era of high precision Cosmology has shown our ignorance about the composition of the Universe. In this context, there has been a renewed interest on Alternative Theories of Gravity. Through the experience of a graviton measured by the…