Related papers: Recovering the cosmological constant from affine g…
In the presence of a cosmological constant, interpreted as a purely geometric entity, absence of matter is represented by a de Sitter spacetime. As a consequence, ordinary Poincare' special relativity is no longer valid and must be replaced…
The main aim of this thesis is to reveal some interesting aspects of the purely affine theory of gravity and its cosmological implication. A particular attention will be devoted to its consequences when applied to cosmological inflation.…
We present a solution to the cosmological constant, the zero-point energy, and the quantum gravity problems within a single comprehensive framework. We show that in quantum theories of gravity in which the zero-point energy density of the…
Trace-free Einstein gravity, in the absence of matter fields and using the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric, is solvable both classically and quantum mechanically. This is achieved by using the conformal time as the time variable and…
As quotient spaces, Minkowski and de Sitter are fundamental, non-gravitational spacetimes for the construction of physical theories. When general relativity is constructed on a de Sitter spacetime, the usual Riemannian structure is replaced…
The positive energy theorem precludes the possibility of Minkowski flat space decaying by any mechanism. In certain circumstances, however, large quantum fluctuations of the gravitational field could arise---not only at the Planck scale,…
We investigate, in the framework of (2+1) dimensional gravity, stationary, rotationally symmetric gravitational sources of the perfect fluid type, embedded in a space of arbitrary cosmological constant. We show that the matching conditions…
Recently a scale invariant theory of gravity was constructed by imposing a conformal symmetry on general relativity. The imposition of this symmetry changed the configuration space from superspace - the space of all Riemannian 3-metrics…
A central aspect of the cosmological constant problem is to understand why vacuum energy does not gravitate. In order to account for this observation, while allowing for nontrivial dynamics of the quantum vacuum, we motivate a novel…
We develop the $n$-dimensional cosmology for $f(\mathcal{G})$ gravity, where $\mathcal{G}$ is the \emph{Gauss-Bonnet} topological invariant. Specifically, by the so-called Noether Symmetry Approach, we select $f(\mathcal{G})\simeq…
The four dimensional spacetime continuum, as first conceived by Minkowski, has become the dominant framework within which to describe physical laws. In this paper, we show how this four-dimensional structure is a natural property of…
The quest for a quantum gravity phenomenology has inspired a quantum notion of space-time, which motivates us to study the fate of the relativistic symmetries of a particular model of quantum space-time, as well as its intimate connection…
The principles of quantum field theory in flat spacetime suggest that gravity is mediated by a massless particle with helicity $\pm2$, the so-called graviton. It is regarded as textbook knowledge that, when the self-coupling of a particle…
This contribution reports on the continued formalisation of an axiomatic system for Minkowski spacetime (as used in the study of Special Relativity) which is closer in spirit to Hilbert's axiomatic approach to Euclidean geometry than to the…
We present a model with an infinite volume bulk in which a braneworld with a cosmological constant evolves to a static, 4-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. This evolution occurs for a generic class of initial conditions with positive energy…
The Poincare Gauge Theory of gravitation with a Lagrangian quadratic in the field strengths is applied to a classical cosmological model. It predicts a constant value of the non-riemannian curvature scalar, which acts as a cosmological…
We consider the critical gravity theory with a scalar field in four dimensions. We find that this theory has the solution corresponding to the de Sitter (dS), anti-de Sitter (AdS), and Minkowski background depending on whether the action…
It is possible that relativistic symmetries become deformed in the semiclassical regime of quantum gravity. Mathematically, such deformations lead to the noncommutativity of spacetime geometry and non-vanishing curvature of momentum space.…
Dynamical systems methods are used to investigate a cosmological model with non-minimally coupled scalar field and asymptotically quadratic potential function. We found that for values of the non-minimal coupling constant parameter…
We solve the equations of topologically massive gravity with potentially non-vanishing cosmological constant for homogeneous metrics without isotropy. We only reproduce known solutions. We also discuss their homogeneous deformations,…