Related papers: Weakly-Gravitating Objects in dynamical Chern-Simo…
We study the weak-field limit of the conformal Weyl gravity suggested by Mannheim as an alternative to Einstein's General Relativity modeling both dark matter and dark energy. We solve the field equations of the theory in the weak-field…
It is more important than ever to push experimental tests of gravitational theory to the limits of existing technology in both range and sensitivity. This brief review focuses on spin-based tests of General Relativity and their implications…
Modifications of general relativity provide an alternative explanation to dark energy for the observed acceleration of the universe. We review recent developments in modified gravity theories, focusing on higher dimensional approaches and…
Gravitational parity violation is a possibility motivated by particle physics, string theory and loop quantum gravity. One effect of it is amplitude birefringence of gravitational waves, whereby left and right circularly-polarized waves…
Recently, gravitational microlensing has been investigated in the framework of the weak field limit of fourth order gravity theory. However, solar system data (i.e. planetary periods and light bending) can be used to put strong constraints…
The observed acceleration of the universe, explained through dark energy, could alternatively be explained through a modification of gravity that would also induce modifications in the evolution of cosmological perturbations. We use new…
The orbital Lense-Thirring precession is considered in the context of constraints for weak-field General Relativity involving the cosmological constant $\Lambda$. It is shown that according to the current accuracy of satellite measurements…
Parity violation in the gravitational interaction has an important impact on fundamental observables and the evolution of the universe. We here investigate for the first time our ability to probe the parity violating nature of the…
Chern-Simons models for gravity are interesting because they provide with a truly gauge-invariant action principle in the fiber-bundle sense. So far, their main drawback has largely been the perceived remoteness from standard General…
According to general relativity, a spinning body of mass M and angular momentum S, like a star or a planet, generates a gravitomagnetic field which induces, among other phenomena, also the Lense-Thirring effect, i.e. secular precessions 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…
Observations of the continuum spectrum emitted by accretion disks around black holes allows us to infer their properties, including possibly whether black holes are described by the Kerr metric. Some modified gravity theories do not admit…
An experimental test at the intersection of quantum physics and general relativity is proposed: measurement of relativistic frame dragging and geodetic precession using intrinsic spin of electrons. The behavior of intrinsic spin in…
We study slowly-rotating neutron stars in ghost-free massive bigravity. This theory modifies General Relativity by introducing a second, auxiliary but dynamical tensor field that couples to matter through the physical metric tensor through…
We present a numerical weak-lensing analysis that is fully relativistic and non-perturbative for the scalar part of the gravitational potential and first-order in the vector part, frame dragging. Integrating the photon geodesics backwards…
In this PhD thesis I make use of the "Effective Field Theory of Gravity for Extended Objects" by Goldberger and Rothstein in order to investigate theories of gravity and to take a different point of view on the physical information that can…
Observations of the black hole shadow of supermassive black holes, such as Sagittarius A* at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, allow us to study the properties of black holes and the nature of strong-field gravity. According to the Kerr…
A wide class of three-dimensional gravity models can be put into "Chern-Simons-like" form. We perform a Hamiltonian analysis of the general model and then specialise to Einstein-Cartan Gravity, General Massive Gravity, the recently proposed…
We explore the possibility of testing modified gravity exhibiting the Vainshtein mechanism against observations of cluster lensing. We work in the most general scalar-tensor theory with second-order field equations (Horndeski's theory), and…
The classical tests of general relativity - light deflection, time delay and perihelion shift - are applied, along with the geodetic precession test, to the five-dimensional extension of the theory known as Kaluza-Klein gravity, using an…