Related papers: Developments in Topological Gravity
The recent interest in modified theories of gravity, involving some type of non-minimal coupling to the Ricci scalar, and the calculation of cosmological observables in the Einstein or the Jordan frame, motivate the formulation of these…
A covariant Hamiltonian description of Palatini's gravity on manifolds with boundary is presented. Palatini's gravity appears as a gauge theory satisfying a constraint in a certain topological limit. This approach allows the consideration…
Gravity theory is the basis of modern cosmological models. Thirring-Feynman's tensor field approach to gravitation is an alternative to General Relativity (GR). Though Field Gravity (FG) approach is still developing subject, it opens new…
We analyze 2+1-dimensional gravity in the framework of quantum gauge theory. We find that Einstein gravity has a trivial physical subspace which reflects the fact that the classical solution in empty space is flat. Therefore we study…
Colliding and intersecting hypersurfaces filled with matter (membranes) are studied in the Lovelock higher order curvature theory of gravity. Lovelock terms couple hypersurfaces of different dimensionalities, extending the range of possible…
We revise general relativity (GR) from the perspective of calculus for moving surfaces (CMS). While GR is intrinsically constructed in pseudo-Riemannian geometry, a complete understanding of moving manifolds requires embedding in a higher…
A generalization of two recently proposed general relativity Hamiltonians, to the case of a general (d+1)-dimensional dilaton gravity theory in a manifold with a timelike or spacelike outer boundary, is presented.
The constraint hypersurfaces defining the Witten and Ashtekar formulations for 2+1 gravity are very different. In particular the constraint hypersurface in the Ashtekar case is not a manifold but consists of several sectors that intersect…
We extend the idea of unimodular gravity to the modified $f(R,T)$ theories. A new class of cosmological solutions, that the unimodular constraint on the metric imposes on the $f(R,T)$ theories, are studied. This extension is done in both…
Since the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the present Universe, significant theoretical developments have been made in the area of modified gravity. In the meantime, cosmological observations have been providing more high-quality…
We show certain correlators in generic one-matrix models define a notion of ``discrete'' volumes of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces, generalizing the connection between random matrices and JT gravity. We prove they obey a discrete,…
It is known that the metric and Palatini formalisms of gravity theories have their own interesting features but also suffer from some different drawbacks. Recently, a novel gravity theory called hybrid metric-Palatini gravity was put…
A brief introduction to Topological Quantum Field Theory as well as a description of recent progress made in the field is presented. I concentrate mainly on the connection between Chern-Simons gauge theory and Vassiliev invariants, and…
A new class of modified theories of gravity, consisting of the superposition of the metric Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian with an $f(\cal R)$ term constructed \`{a} la Palatini was proposed recently. The dynamically equivalent scalar-tensor…
We study general relativity in the framework of non-commutative differential geometry. In particular, we introduce a gravity action for a space-time which is the product of a four dimensional manifold by a two-point space. In the simplest…
We review various classical unified theories of gravity and other interactions that have appeared in the literature, paying special attention to scenarios in which spacetime remains four-dimensional, while an "internal" space is enlarged.…
Multidimensional cosmological model describing the evolution of n+1 Einstein spaces in the theory with several scalar fields and forms is considered. When a (electro-magnetic composite) p-brane Ansatz is adopted the field equations are…
We report work done with T. Jayaraman (hep-th/9405146) in this talk. In a recent paper, Hitchin introduced generalisations of the Teichmuller space of Riemann surfaces. We relate these spaces to the Teichmuller spaces of W-gravity. We show…
We consider cosmological modelling in $f(R)$ theories of gravity, using both top-down and bottom-up constructions. The top-down models are based on Robertson-Walker geometries, and the bottom-up constructions are built by patching together…
The renormalization group flow in two--dimensional field theories that are coupled to gravity is discussed at the example of the sine-Gordon model. In order to derive the phase diagram in agreement with the matrix model results, it is…