Related papers: Ghost-free theories with arbitrary higher-order ti…

We discuss exactly solvable systems involving integrals of motion with higher powers of momenta. If one of these integrals is chosen for the Hamiltonian, we obtain a higher-derivative system involving ghosts, i.e. a system whose Hamiltonian…

We consider Higgs massive gravity [1,2] and investigate whether a nonlinear ghost in this theory can be avoided. We show that although the theory considered in [10,11] is ghost free in the decoupling limit, the ghost nevertheless reappears…

Recent work has shown that non-local modifications of the Einstein equations can have interesting cosmological consequences and can provide a dynamical origin for dark energy, consistent with existing data. At first sight these theories are…

We investigate a class of gravity theories respecting only spatial covariance, termed spatially covariant gravity, in the presence of an auxiliary scalar field. We examine the conditions on the Lagrangian required to eliminate scalar…

We consider the Lagrangian of a vector field with derivative self-interactions with a priori arbitrary coefficients. Starting with a flat space-time we show that for a special choice of the coefficients of the self-interactions the…

We present some gauge conditions to eliminate all second time derivative terms in the vierbein forms of the ten Einstein equations of general relativity; at the same time, we present the corresponding Lagrangian in which there is not any…

We describe in detail how to eliminate nonphysical degrees of freedom in the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of a constrained system. Two important and distinct steps in our method are the fixing of ambiguities in the dynamics and…

We introduce a new class of scalar-tensor theories that extend Horndeski, or "generalized galileon", models. Despite possessing equations of motion of higher order in derivatives, we show that the true propagating degrees of freedom obey…

We review how the (absence of) Ostrogradsky instability manifests itself in theories with multiple fields. It has recently been appreciated that when multiple fields are present, the existence of higher derivatives may not automatically…

We construct a fully covariant theory of massive gravity which does not require the introduction of an external reference metric, and overcomes the usual problems of massive gravity theories (fatal ghosts instabilities, acausality and/or…

We investigate the ghostfree scalar-tensor theory with a timelike scalar field, with derivatives of the scalar field up to the third order and with the Riemann tensor up to the quadratic order. We build two types of linear spaces. One is…

We construct a class of theories which extend New Massive Gravity to higher orders in curvature in any dimension. The lagrangians arise as limits of a new class of bimetric theories of Lovelock gravity, which are unitary theories free from…

The guiding-center reduction is studied using gyro-gauge-independent coordinates. The Lagrangian 1-form of charged particle dynamics is Lie transformed without introducing a gyro-gauge, but using directly the unit vector of the component of…

A discussion of the number of degrees of freedom, and their dynamical properties, in higher derivative gravitational theories is presented. The complete non-linear sigma model for these degrees of freedom is exhibited using the method of…

The "Auxiliary Extra Dimension" model was proposed in order to provide a geometrical interpretation to modifications of general relativity, in particular to non-linear massive gravity. In this context, the theory was shown to be ghost free…

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…

The combined effects of the Lorentz-symmetry violating Chern-Simons and Ricci-Cotton actions are investigated for the Einstein-Hilbert gravity in the second order formalism modified by higher derivative terms, and their consequences on the…

We study Lagrangian systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom that are non-local in time. We obtain an extension of Noether theorem and Noether identities to this kind of Lagrangians. A Hamiltonian formalism is then set up for this…

Canonical analysis leading to formal quantisation of the higher derivative theories are considered. The first order formalism is adopted where all the configuration space variables along with their higher time derivatives are considered to…

In the generalized Hamiltonian formalism by Dirac, the method of constructing the generator of local-symmetry transformations for systems with first- and second-class constraints (without restrictions on the algebra of constraints) is…