Related papers: Ghost and singularity free theories of gravity
General Relativity (GR) is an effective field theory valid in the infrared regime. Quadratic curvature extensions intended to probe ultraviolet physics generically propagate a massive spin-$2$ ghost and are therefore non-unitary. One route…
Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) provides the best available description of gravity. The recent detection of gravitational waves and the first picture of a black hole have provided spectacular confirmations of GR, as well as…
We review some of the recent results which can be useful for better understanding of the problem of stability of vacuum and in general classical solutions in higher derivative quantum gravity. The fourth derivative terms in the purely…
Theory of general relativity (GR) has been scrutinized by experts for almost a century and describes accurately all gravitational phenomena ranging from the solar system to the universe. However, this success is achieved provided one admits…
An alternative approach to Einstein's theory of General Relativity (GR) is reviewed, which is motivated by a range of serious theoretical issues inflicting the theory, such as the cosmological constant problem, presence of non-Machian…
The nature of gravity is fundamental to understand the scaffolding of the Universe and its evolution. Einstein's general theory of relativity has been scrutinized for over ninety five years and shown to describe accurately all phenomena…
The introduction of General Relativity (GR) in 1915 revolutionized our understanding of gravity, but over time, its limitations in explaining phenomena like dark energy, dark matter, and quantum gravity have motivated alternative theories.…
Adding terms quadratic in the curvature to the Einstein-Hilbert action renders gravity renormalizable. This property is preserved in the presence of the most general renormalizable couplings with (and of) a generic quantum field theory…
The existence of a ghost free theory of massive gravity begs for an interpretation as a Higgs phase of General Relativity. We revisit the study of massive gravity as a Higgs phase. Absent a compelling microphysical model of spontaneous…
The Einsteinian Theory of Gravitation ("General Theory of Relativity") is founded essentially; on the reception that the geometrical properties of the 4-dimensional space-time continuum are defined from the matter in it. Contrary to this,…
The objective of this thesis is to present a viable extension of general relativity free from cosmological singularities. A viable cosmology, in this sense, is one that is free from ghosts, tachyons or exotic matter, while staying true to…
In this work we shall address the ghost issue of $F\left( R,\mathcal{G} \right)$ gravity, which is known to be plagued with ghost degrees of freedom. These ghosts occur due to the presence of higher than two derivatives in the field…
General Relativity (GR) was proven via the direct detection of gravitational waves from the mergers of the binary black holes and binary neutron stars by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. These detections confirmed the…
Einstein's General theory of relativity permits spacetime singularities, where null geodesic congruences focus in the presence of matter, which satisfies an appropriate energy condition. In this paper, we provide a minimal defocusing…
Two of the most fundamental problems at the nexus of Einstein's classical General Relativity (GR) and Quantum Field Theory (QFT) are: (1) complete gravitational collapse, presumed in classical GR to lead to a Black Hole (BH) horizon and…
Understanding the role of higher derivatives is probably one of the most relevant questions in quantum gravity theory. Already at the semiclassical level, when gravity is a classical background for quantum matter fields, the action of…
For nearly a century, Einstein's theory of gravity has been the standard theory for describing gravitational phenomena in our universe. Along with its successes, limitations of the theory from theoretical (e.g., singularities) and…
We show that generalized gravity theories involving the curvature invariants of the Ricci tensor and the Riemann tensor as well as the Ricci scalar are equivalent to multi- scalar-tensor gravities with four derivatives terms. By expanding…
Einstein's General Relativity (GR) is a dynamical theory of the spacetime metric. We describe an approach in which GR becomes an SU(2) gauge theory. We start at the linearised level and show how a gauge theoretic Lagrangian for…
We show that general infrared modifications of the Einstein-Hilbert action obtained by addition of curvature invariants are not viable. These modifications contain either ghosts or light gravity scalars. A very specific fine-tuning might…