Related papers: Possible resolution of a spacetime singularity wit…
We continue the study of the non-metric theory of gravity introduced in hep-th/0611182 and gr-qc/0703002 and obtain its general spherically symmetric vacuum solution. It respects the analog of the Birkhoff theorem, i.e., the vacuum…
We argue that the polynomial degeneracies of curvature invariants can act as geometric selection rules for spacetime singularities in modified theories of gravity. The degeneracies arise purely from the algebraic structure of Riemannian…
In general, a global and unique vacuum state cannot be constructed for a curved space. As a remedy, we introduce a curved space background geometry with a Minkowski metric tensor and locally non-zero curvature and torsion. Based on this…
A metric-affine approach is employed to study higher-dimensional modified gravity theories involving different powers and contractions of the Ricci tensor. It is shown that the field equations are \emph{always} second-order, as opposed to…
We discuss the modified gravity which may produce the current cosmic aceleration of the universe and eliminates the need for dark energy. It is shown that such models where the action quickly grows with the decrease of the curvature define…
The divergence of curvature invariants at a given point signals the impossibility of extending the spacetime to that point, with the derivative order of these diverging invariants determining the differentiability class of the considered…
We show how quantum fields can be used to measure the curvature of spacetime. In particular, we find that knowledge of the imprint that spacetime curvature leaves in the correlators of quantum fields suffices, in principle, to reconstruct…
We give here a list of exact classical solutions of a large class of weakly nonlocal theories of gravity, which are unitary and super-renormalizable (or finite) at quantum level. It is explicitly shown that flat and Ricci-flat spacetimes as…
When describing gravity at high energies it is natural to introduce terms quadratic in the curvature as first corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action. Static, spherically symmetric classical solutions are studied in the case of the…
A new class of gravity-matter models defined in terms of two independent non-Riemannian volume forms (alternative generally covariant integration measure densities) on the space-time manifold are studied in some detail. These models involve…
If Einstein's equations are to describe a field theory of gravity in Minkowski spacetime, then causality requires that the effective curved metric must respect the flat background metric's null cone. The kinematical problem is solved using…
It is shown that gravity can be incorporated into the Standard Model (SM) in a way solving the hierarchy problem. For this, the SM effective action in flat spacetime is adapted to curved spacetime via not only the general covariance but…
The construction of a theory of quantum gravity is an outstanding problem that can benefit from better understanding the laws of nature that are expected to hold in regimes currently inaccessible to experiment. Such fundamental laws can be…
We consider a model of Quantum Gravity phenomenology, based on the idea that space-time may have some unknown granular structure that respects the Lorentz symmetry. The proposal involves non-trivial couplings of curvature to matter fields…
Isotropic cosmological singularities are singularities which can be removed by rescaling the metric. In some cases already studied (gr-qc/9903008, gr-qc/9903009, gr-qc/9903018) existence and uniqueness of cosmological models with data at…
The improved dynamics of loop quantum cosmology is extended to include the Bianchi type II model. Because these space-times admit both anisotropies and non-zero spatial curvature, certain technical difficulties arise over and above those…
A unique description of the Big Crunch-Big Bang transition is given at the classical gravity level, along with a complete set of homogeneous, isotropic, analytic solutions in scalar-tensor cosmology, with radiation and curvature. All…
It is more than a century-old concept that the Minkowski spacetime is flat. From the pure geometric point of view, we explicitly address the issue of whether a noncommutative Minkowski spacetime is flat or not. In the framework of the…
Quantum inequalities are bounds on negative time-averages of the energy density of a quantum field. They can be used to rule out exotic spacetimes in general relativity. We study quantum inequalities for a scalar field with a background…
We analyze the persistence of curvature singularities when analyzed using quantum theory. First, quantum test particles obeying the Klein-Gordon and Chandrasekhar-Dirac equation are used to probe the classical timelike naked singularity. We…