Related papers: On supergravity theories, after ~40 years
Extended Theories of Gravity can be considered a new paradigm to cure shortcomings of General Relativity at infrared and ultraviolet scales. They are an approach that, by preserving the undoubtedly positive results of Einstein's Theory, is…
This is an introductory set of lecture notes on quantum cosmology, given in 1995 to an audience with interests ranging from astronomy to particle physics. Topics covered: 1. Introduction: 1.1 Quantum cosmology and quantum gravity; 1.2 A…
We introduce the general N=1 gauge theory superconformally coupled to supergravity. The theory has local SU(2,2|1) symmetry and no dimensional parameters. The superconformal origin of the Fayet-Iliopoulos terms is clarified. The phase of…
In general relativity (GR), spacetime geometry is no longer just a background arena but a physical and dynamical entity with its own degrees of freedom. We present an overview of approaches to quantum gravity in which this central feature…
The configuration space of general relativity is superspace - the space of all Riemannian 3-metrics modulo diffeomorphisms. However, it has been argued that the configuration space for gravity should be conformal superspace - the space of…
We give the N=2 gauged supergravity interpretation of a generic D=4, N=2 theory as it comes from generalized Scherk-Schwarz reduction of D=5, N=2 (ungauged) supergravity. We focus on the geometric aspects of the D=4 data such as the general…
We study two-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric actions describing general models of scalar and vector multiplets coupled to supergravity.
This paper proposes a method of unifying quantum mechanics and gravity based on quantum computation. In this theory, fundamental processes are described in terms of pairwise interactions between quantum degrees of freedom. The geometry of…
In three spacetime dimensions, general relativity drastically simplifies, becoming a ``topological'' theory with no propagating local degrees of freedom. Nevertheless, many of the difficult conceptual problems of quantizing gravity are…
In these two lectures, delivered at the XXXVII Karpacz Winter School, February 2001, I review some applications of superspace in various topics related to string theory and M-theory. The first lecture is mainly devoted to descriptions of…
The physical states of N=4 conformal supergravity in four dimensions occur in twistor-string theory by Berkovits and Witten(hep-th/0406051). We study two alternative versions of twistor-string theory based on the B-model of weighted…
The properties of a string-inspired two-dimensional theory of gravity are studied. The post-Newtonian and weak-field approximations, `stellar' structure and cosmological solutions of this theory are developed. Some qualitative similarities…
This report provides a pedagogical introduction to the description of the general Poincare supergravity/matter/Yang-Mills couplings using methods of Kahler superspace geometry. At a more advanced level this approach is generalized to…
In this work, which is a follow-up of arXiv:2102.06512, we document new cosmological solutions from four-dimensional $N=4$ matter-coupled supergravity. The solutions smoothly interpolate between a $dS_2\times S^2$ spacetime at $t\rightarrow…
We review the superspace technique to determine supersymmetric spacetimes in the framework of off-shell formulations for supergravity in diverse dimensions using the case of 3D N=2 supergravity theories as an illustrative example. This…
From four-dimensional $N=4$ matter-coupled gauged supergravity, we study smooth time-dependent cosmological solutions interpolating between a $dS_2\times \Sigma_2$ spacetime, with $\Sigma_2 = S^2$ and $H^2$, in the infinite past and a…
It is argued that quantum gravity has an interpretation as a topological field theory provided a certain constraint from the path intergral measure is respected. The constraint forces us to couple gauge and matter fields to gravity for…
Here is summarized the gauge theoretical formulation and quantization of two popular gravity theories in (1+1)-dimensional time.
In this paper we extend some previous results for a new proposal for gravity and place them into overall context. The basic fields of this proposal provide an off-shell realization of symmetry with respect to SO(3,C) gauge transformations…
This essay examines our fundamental conceptions of time, spacetime, the asymmetry of time, and the motion of a quantum mechanical particle. The concept of time has multiple meanings and these are often confused in the literature and must be…