Related papers: Bounce in GR and higher-order derivative operators
Einstein's General theory of relativity permits spacetime singularities, where null geodesic congruences focus in the presence of matter, which satisfies an appropriate energy condition. In this paper, we provide a minimal defocusing…
An argument is presented that if a theory of quantum gravity is physically discrete at the Planck scale and the theory recovers General Relativity as an approximation, then, at the current stage of our knowledge, causal sets must arise…
It is well known that a closed universe with a minimally coupled massive scalar field always collapses to a singularity unless the initial conditions are extremely fine tuned. We show that the corrections to the equations of motion for the…
Modifications to gravity can provide attractive alternatives to the dark components of the standard model of cosmology. These modifications to general relativity (GR) must be hidden at small scales where theory is well tested, and so one…
The coupling of baryonic current to the derivative of the curvature scalar, $R$, inherent to gravitational baryogenesis (GBG), leads to a fourth order differential equation of motion for $R$ instead of the algebraic one of General…
We discuss the global properties of static, spherically symmetric configurations of a self-gravitating real scalar field $\phi$ in general relativity (GR), scalar-tensor theories (STT) and high-order gravity ($L=f(R)$) in various…
We revisit the status of scalar-tensor theories with applications to dark energy in the aftermath of the gravitational wave signal GW170817 and its optical counterpart GRB170817A. At the level of the cosmological background, we identify a…
We study a class of perturbative scalar quantum field theories where dynamics is characterized by Lorentz-invariant or Lorentz-breaking non-local operators of fractional order and the underlying spacetime has a varying spectral dimension.…
We present a framework for discussing the cosmology of dark energy and dark matter based on two scalar degrees of freedom. An effective field theory of cosmological perturbations is employed. A unitary gauge choice renders the dark energy…
Recently the global variation of the Planck mass in the General Relativistic Einstein-Hilbert action was proposed as a self-tuning mechanism of the cosmological constant preventing vacuum energy from freely gravitating. We show that this…
Scaling symmetries have previously been examined for classical field theories described by singular Lagrangians; in this article, we apply these results to the first-order formulation of General Relativity. It is shown that the dynamical…
Dark energy cosmologies with an equation of state parameter $w$ less than -1 are often found to violate the null energy condition and show unstable behaviour. A solution to this problem may require the existence of a consistent effective…
In this paper we construct a class of Degenerate Higher-Order Scalar-Tensor (DHOST) theories with an extra scalar field, which admits viable solutions of bouncing universe satisfying the following requirements: (i) absence of…
The modified Gauss-Bonnet gravity can be motivated by a number of physical reasons, including: the uniqueness of a gravitational Lagrangian in four and higher dimensions and the leading order $\alpha^\prime$ corrections in superstring…
Testing General Relativity and exploring possible departures has received further input with the possibility to do so through gravitational waves emitted in strongly gravitating/highly dynamical scenarios and also through the availability…
Most existing theories of dark energy and/or modified gravity, involving a scalar degree of freedom, can be conveniently described within the framework of the Effective Theory of Dark Energy, based on the unitary gauge where the scalar…
In general relativity all forms of energy contribute to gravity and not only just ordinary matter as in Newtonian Physics. This fact can be seen in the modified hydrostatic equilibrium equation for relativistic stars pervaded by magnetic…
We generalize the scale invariant gravity by allowing a negative kinetic energy term for the classical scalar field. This gives birth to a new scalar-tensor theory of gravity, in which the scalar field is in fact an auxiliary field. For a…
In hep-th/0506040 we discussed a classically constrained model of gravity. This theory contains known solutions of General Relativity (GR), and admits solutions that are absent in GR. Here we study cosmological implications of some of these…
One of the fundamental questions of theoretical cosmology is whether the universe can undergo a non-singular bounce, i.e., smoothly transit from a period of contraction to a period of expansion through violation of the null energy condition…