Related papers: The Weak Gravity Conjecture and Scalar Fields

We naturally extend the theory of gravity with a conformally coupled scalar field by only requiring conformal invariance of the scalar field equation of motion and not of the action. The classically extended theory incorporates a…

It is generally believed that weak scale supersymmetry implies weak scale supergravity, in the sense that the masses of the gravitino and gravitationally coupled moduli have masses below 100 TeV. This paper presents a realistic framework…

General relativity is highly successful in explaining a wide range of gravitational phenomena including the gravitational waves emitted by binary systems and the shadows cast by supermassive black holes. From a modern perspective the theory…

Sub-horizon perturbations in scalar-tensor theories have been shown to grow generically faster than in uncoupled models due to a positive, additive Yukawa force. In such cases, the amount of clustering becomes larger than in the standard…

We readdress the question of whether any universal upper bound exists on the square mass m^2 of the lightest scalar around a supersymmetry breaking vacuum in generic N=2 gauged supergravity theories for a given gravitino mass m_3/2 and…

We elaborated the gravitational collapse of a self-gravitating complex charged scalar field in the context of the low-energy limit of the string theory, the so-called dilaton gravity. We begin with the regular spacetime and follow the…

We present the theory of weak gravitational lensing in cosmologies with generalized gravity, described in the Lagrangian by a generic function depending on the Ricci scalar and a non-minimally coupled scalar field. We work out the…

We consider a recently proposed class of extended teleparallel theories of gravity, which entail a scalar field which is non-minimally coupled to the torsion of a flat, metric-compatible connection. This class of scalar-torsion theories of…

In this note, we discuss the implications of the weak gravity conjecture (WGC) for general models of large-field inflation with a large number of axions $N$. We first show that, from the bottom-up perspective, such models admit a variety of…

Weak gravitational lensing provides a means of testing the long-range properties of gravity. Current measurements are consistent with standard Newtonian gravity and inconsistent with substantial modifications on Mpc scales. The data allows…

We calculate the scalar potential of supersymmetric QCD (in the regime N_f < N_c) coupled to N=1 supergravity with moduli-dependent gauge kinetic function and masses. The gauge dynamics are described by the Taylor-Veneziano-Yankielowicz…

The coupling of gravity to a scalar field raises a number of interesting questions of principle since the usual minimal coupling obtained by replacing ordinary derivatives with covariant derivatives is not available -- they are the same…

A scalar theory of gravity with a preferred reference frame is presented. It is insisted on the dynamics, which involves a (non-trivial) extension of Newton's second law, and on the new version (v2) with isotropic space metric. We display…

The construction of the scalar theory based on the concept of gravity as Archimedes' thrust is briefly summarized, emphasizing the two (extreme) possibilities that result from this concept for the gravitational rod contraction: it can…

We study a gravity theory where a scalar field with potential, beyond its minimal coupling, is also coupled through a non-minimal derivative coupling with the torsion scalar which is the teleparallel equivalent of Einstein gravity. This…

We study one-loop divergences in Einstein-Maxwell theory and their implications for the weak gravity conjecture. In particular, we show that renormalization of these divergences leads to positivity of higher-derivative corrections to the…

Gauge/gravity duality is the conjecture that string theories have dual descriptions as gauge theories. Weakly-coupled gravity is dual to strongly-coupled gauge theories, ideal for lattice calculations. I will show precision lattice…

In order to study the gravitational collapse of charged matter we analyze the simple model of an self-gravitating massless scalar field coupled to the electromagnetic field in spherical symmetry. The evolution equations for the…

We study the charge-to-mass ratios of BPS states in four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ supergravities arising from Calabi-Yau threefold compactifications of Type IIB string theory. We present a formula for the asymptotic charge-to-mass ratio…

We derive a model of constrained topological gravity, a theory recently introduced by us through the twist of N=2 Liouville theory, starting from the general BRST algebra and imposing the moduli space constraint as a gauge fixing. To do…