Related papers: The Self-consistent Matter Coupling of a Class of …
In a recent paper [1], it was introduced a new class of gravitational theories with two local degrees of freedom. The existence of these theories apparently challenges the distinctive role of general relativity as the unique non-linear…
We study canonical transformations of general relativity (GR) to provide a novel matter coupling to gravity. Although the transformed theory is equivalent to GR in vacuum, the equivalence no longer holds if a matter field minimally couples…
Vacuum quasi-topological gravity with infinitely many terms in the action satisfies Markov's limiting curvature hypothesis: the spherically symmetric solutions are regular and all curvature invariants are bounded by solution-independent…
A discussion of the field content of quadratic higher-derivative gravitation is presented, together with a new example of a massless spin-two field consistently coupled to gravity. The full quadratic gravity theory is shown to be equivalent…
Emergent modified gravity is a post-Einsteinian gravitational theory where spacetime geometry is not fundamental but rather emerges from the gravitational degrees of freedom in a non-trivial way. The specific relationship between geometry…
We consider modified theories of gravity with a direct coupling between matter and geometry, denoted by an arbitrary function in terms of the Ricci scalar. Due to such a coupling, the matter stress tensor is no longer conserved and there is…
General Relativity can be reformulated as a diffeomorphism invariant gauge theory of the Lorentz group, with Lagrangian of the type $f(F\wedge F)$, where $F$ is the curvature 2-form of the spin connection. A theory from this class with a…
Degenerate scalar-tensor theories of gravity extend general relativity by a single degree of freedom, despite their equations of motion being higher than second order. In some cases, this is a mere consequence of a disformal field…
We consider a theory of scalars minimally coupled to an auxiliary background metric. The theory is generally covariant and subject to the constraint of vanishing energy-momentum tensor. Eliminating the auxiliary metric leads to a…
The way one chooses to couple gravity to matter is an essential characteristic of any gravitational theory. In theories where the gravitational field is allowed to have more degrees of freedom than those of General Relativity (e.g.…
As it stands, quantum gravity coupled with matter in three spacetime dimensions is not finite. In this paper I show that an algorithmic procedure that makes it finite exists, under certain conditions. To achieve this result, gravity is…
A model for quantized gravity coupled to matter in the form of a single scalar field is investigated in four dimensions. For the metric degrees of freedom we employ Regge's simplicial discretization, with the scalar fields defined at the…
The local $SL(2N,C)$ symmetry is shown to provide, when appropriately constrained, a viable framework for a consistent unification of the known elementary forces, including gravity. Such a covariant constraint implies that an actual gauge…
Matter is coupled to three-dimensional gravity such that the topological phase is allowed and the (anti-) de Sitter or Poincar\'e symmetry remains intact. Spontaneous symmetry breaking to the Lorentz group occurs if a scalar field is…
The "Minimal Massive Gravity" (MMG) model of massive gravity in three spacetime dimensions (which has the same anti-de Sitter (AdS) bulk properties as "Topologically Massive Gravity" but improved boundary properties) is coupled to matter.…
An infinite number of topological conformal algebras with varying central charges are explicitly shown to be present in $2d$ gravity (treated both in the conformal gauge and in the light-cone gauge) coupled to minimal matter. The central…
Theories with a non-minimal coupling between the space-time curvature and matter fields introduce an extra force due to the non-conservation of the matter energy momentum. In the present work the theoretical consistency of such couplings is…
A theory of the quasidilaton is an extension of massive gravity by a scalar field, nonlinearly realizing a certain new global symmetry of the Lagrangian. It has been shown that unlike pure massive gravity, this theory does admit homogeneous…
We examine the role of consistency with causality and quantum mechanics in determining the properties of gravitation. We begin by examining two different classes of interacting theories of massless spin 2 particles -- gravitons. One…
The theory of a single massive graviton has a cutoff much below its Planck scale, because the extra modes from the graviton multiplet involve higher derivative self-interactions, controlled by a scale convoluted from the small graviton…