Related papers: Instabilities in field theories: Lecture notes wit…
The cosmological constant and its phenomenology remain among the greatest puzzles in theoretical physics. We review how modifications of Einstein's general relativity could alleviate the different problems associated with it that result…
We present a brief overview of the stability analysis of the Einstein static universe in various modified theories of gravity, like f(R) gravity, Gauss-Bonnet or f(G) gravity, and Horava-Lifshitz gravity.
Cosmology in extended theories of gravity is considered assuming the Palatini variational principle, for which the metric and connection are independent variables. The field equations are derived to linear order in perturbations about the…
A recently proposed theory of modified gravity with an explicit ``anomalous'' coupling of the Ricci curvature to matter is discussed, and an inequality is derived which expresses a necessary and sufficient condition to avoid the notorius…
We revisit the two-field mimetic gravity model with shift symmetries recently proposed in the literature, especially the problems of degrees of freedom and stabilities. We first study the model at the linear cosmological perturbation level…
Variational formalism in the extended phase space for fields is applied to gravity. It is shown that the requirement of invariance under arbitrary local inertial frames implies a coupling of torsion to a 3-form of matter fields on the one…
As in the case of the other gauge field theories, there is so called ``gauge'' also in general relativity. This ``gauge'' is unphysical degree of freedom. There are two kinds of ``gauges'' in general relativity. These are called the first-…
Off-diagonal vacuum and nonvacuum configurations in Einstein gravity can mimic physical effects of modified gravitational theories of $f(R,T,R_{\mu \nu}T^{\mu \nu})$ type. To prove this statement, exact and approximate solutions are…
This work explores an alternative solution to the problem of renormalizability in Einstein gravity. In the proposed approach, Einstein gravity is transformed into the renormalizable theory of four-derivative gravity by applying a field…
The understanding of stellar structure represents the crossroads of our theories of the nuclear force and the gravitational interaction under the most extreme conditions observably accessible. It provides a powerful probe of the strong…
Gravitational double layers, unlike their classical electromagnetic counterparts, are thought to be forbidden in gravity theories. It has been recently shown, however, that they are feasible in, for instance, gravity theories with a…
The equation of motion for test particles in $f(R)$ modified theories of gravity is derived. By considering an explicit coupling between an arbitrary function of the scalar curvature, $R$, and the Lagrangian density of matter, it is shown…
A modified Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in four dimensions where the quadratic Gauss-Bonnet term is coupled to a scalar field is considered. The field equations of the model are obtained by variational methods by making use of the…
A fundamental criterion of viability of any gravity theory is existence of a stable ground-state solution being either Minkowski, dS or AdS space. Stability of the ground state is independent of which frame is physical. In general, a given…
We consider the instabilities of field perturbations around a homogeneous background color-electric and/or -magnetic field in SU(2) pure gauge theory. We investigate a number of distinct cases of background magnetic and electric fields, and…
The stability issue of a large class of modified gravitational models is discussed with particular emphasis to de Sitter solutions. Three approaches are briefly presented and the generalization to more general cases is mentioned.
Extended Theories of Gravity can be considered a new paradigm to cure shortcomings of General Relativity at infrared and ultraviolet scales. They are an approach that, by preserving the undoubtedly positive results of Einstein's Theory, is…
The general relativistic perturbations of scalar-tensor theories (STT) of gravity are studied in a manifestly gauge invariant Hamiltonian formalism. After the derivation of the Hamiltonian equations of motion in this framework, the gauge…
A Lagrangian approach is proposed and developed to study defects within affine Toda field theories. In particular, a suitable Lax pair is constructed together with examples of conserved charges. It is found that only those models based on…
We propose a new point of view for interpreting Newton's and Einstein's theories of gravity. By taking inspiration from Continuum Mechanics and its treatment of anisotropies, we formulate new gravitational actions for modified theories of…