Related papers: The Axion-Instanton Weak Gravity Conjecture and Sc…
We consider a scenario in which the inflaton $\phi$ is a pseudoscalar field non-minimally coupled to gravity through a term of the form ${\cal X} R \phi^2$. The pseudoscalar is also coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field (or an ensemble of ${\cal…
The authors of arXiv:1610.01533 have recently proposed a stronger version of the weak gravity conjecture (WGC), based on which they concluded that all those non-supersymmetric AdS vacua that can be embedded within a constistent theory of…
Various extensions of standard inflationary models have been proposed recently by adding vector fields. Because they are generally motivated by large-scale anomalies, and the possibility of statistical anisotropy of primordial fluctuations,…
The axion particle may or may not exist, but the axion field can be used, as shown here, in an explicitly local formulation of a chiral U(1) gauge theory with both classical and quantum gauge invariance. Nonabelian analogues of axion…
We investigate whether there are any cosmological evidences for a scalar field with a mass and coupling to matter which change accordingly to the properties of the astrophysical system it "lives in", without directly focusing on the…
We construct a family of measures for random fields based on the iterated subdivision of simple geometric shapes (triangles, squares, tetrahedrons) into a finite number of similar shapes. The intent is to construct continuum limits of scale…
We present a novel equivalence between scale-dependent gravity and scalar-tensor theories that have only a single scalar field with a canonical kinetic term in the Einstein frame and a conformal coupling to the metric tensor. In particular,…
Static (not stationary) solutions of the Einstein-Klein-Gordon (EKG) equations including matter are obtained for real scalar fields. The scalar field interaction with matter is considered. The introduced coupling allows the existence of…
We generalize the known equivalence between higher order gravity theories and scalar tensor theories to a new class of theories. Specifically, in the context of a first order or Palatini variational principle where the metric and connection…
We consider an Einstein-aether type Lorentz-violating theory of gravity in which the aether vector field $V_{\mu }$ is represented as the gradient of a scalar field $\phi $, $V_{\mu }=\nabla _{\mu }\phi $. A self interacting potential for…
We demonstrate the existence of a single pseudo-scalar (PS) field in the mathematically backed and parity preserving modifications of the standard St${\ddot u}$ckelberg formalism (SSF) in the context of the Lagrangian formulation of the (i)…
False vacuum decay in field theory may be formulated as a boundary value problem in Euclidean space. In a previous work, we studied its solution in single scalar field theories with quadratic gravity and used it to find obstructions to…
We consider higher-dimensional massive Brans-Dicke theory with Ricci-flat internal space. The background model is perturbed by a massive gravitating source which is pressureless in the external (our space) but has an arbitrary…
We derive constraints facing models of axion inflation based on decay constant alignment from a string-theoretic and quantum gravitational perspective. In particular, we investigate the prospects for alignment and `anti-alignment' of $C_4$…
It is argued that quantum gravity has an interpretation as a topological field theory provided a certain constraint from the path intergral measure is respected. The constraint forces us to couple gauge and matter fields to gravity for…
A gauge theory model in which there exists a specific interaction between instantons is considered. An effective action describing this interaction possesses a minimum when the instantons have identical orientation. The considered…
We derive new positivity bounds for scattering amplitudes in theories with a massless graviton in the spectrum in four spacetime dimensions, of relevance for the weak gravity conjecture and modified gravity theories. The bounds imply that…
We consider effective theories with massive fields that have spins larger than or equal to two. We conjecture a universal cutoff scale on any such theory that depends on the lightest mass of such fields. This cutoff corresponds to the mass…
Recent study in [1] discovered that introducing a massive charged scalar field and requiring the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) to hold can eliminate a class of Weak Cosmic Censorship Conjecture (WCCC) counterexamples in anti-de Sitter…
We examine the minimal constraints imposed by the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) on the particle spectrum of a quantum gravity theory. Towers of super-extremal states have previously been argued to be required for consistency of the WGC…