Related papers: Unimodular-like times, evolution and Brans-Dicke G…
Cosmological solutions of the Brans-Dicke theory are investigated by including a quantum effect coming from 1-loop correction of matter fields that couple to the scalar field. As the most serious result we face a cosmological ``constant''…
In this letter, we consider the possibility of reconciling metric theories of gravitation with violation of the conservation of energy-momentum. Under some circumstances, this can be achieved in the context of unimodular gravity, and it…
The so-called unimodular version of General Relativity is revisited. Unimodular gravity is constructed by fixing the determinant of the metric, what leads to the trace-free part of the equations instead of the usual Einstein field…
The dynamics of the Brans-Dicke theory with a scalar field potential function is investigated. We show that the system with a barotropic matter content can be reduced to an autonomous three-dimensional dynamical system. For an arbitrary…
The Brans-Dicke Theory of Gravity is one of the most promising alternatives to the Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. We have examined an action term with wrong signs for both the kinetic and mass terms for the scalar field and have…
We analyze the observational constraints on the effective Brans-Dicke parameter and on the temporal variation of the effective gravitational constant within the context of the oscillating G model, a cosmological model based on a massive…
We consider a modification of the Brans-Dicke gravitational Action Integral inspired by the existence of a minimum length uncertainty for the scalar field. In particular, the kinetic part of the Brans-Dicke scalar field is modified such…
The relational formalism based on geometrical clocks and Dirac observables in linearized canonical cosmological perturbation theory is used to introduce an efficient method to find evolution equations for gauge invariant variables. Our…
Despite the enormous significance of the Higgs potential in the context of the Standard Model of electroweak interactions and in Grand Unified Theories, its ultimate origin is fundamentally unknown and must be introduced by hand in…
A seminar given about 30 years ago by Ruben Aldrovandi motivates this text where some reflexions about constructing theories that modify General Relativity are made. Two particular cases, the Brans-Dicke and Unimodular Gravity ones, are…
Using the idea of regularisation of singularities due to the variability of the fundamental constants in cosmology we study the cyclic universe models. We find two models of oscillating and non-singular mass density and pressure…
Higher-dimensional theories imply that some constants, such as the gravitational constant and the strength of the gauge-couplings, are not fundamental constants. Instead they are related to the sizes of the extra--dimensional space, which…
Unimodular gravity is a compelling modified theory of gravity that offers a natural solution to the cosmological constant problem. However, for unimodular gravity to be considered a viable theory of gravity, one has to show that it has a…
Astrophysical indications that the fine structure constant has undergone a small time variation during the cosmological evolution are discussed within the framework of the standard model of the electroweak and strong interactions and of…
The evolution of a universe with Brans-Dicke gravity and nonzero curvature is investigated here. We present the equations of motion and their solutions during the radiation dominated era. In a Friedman-Robertson-Walker cosmology we show…
A fundamental description of time can be consistent not only with the usual monotonic behavior but also with a periodic physical clock variable, coupled to the degrees of freedom of a system evolving in time. Generically, one would in fact…
The loop quantization of the conformal Brans-Dicke cosmology is explored in the spatially flat and Bianchi-I setting. The scalar and conformal constraints governing the canonical model are quantized using the loop techniques. The physical…
Any quantum theory of gravity which treats the gravitational constant as a dynamical variable has to address the issue of superpositions of states corresponding to different eigenvalues. We show how the unobservability of such…
A discrete space-time structure lying at about the Planck scale may become manifest in the form of very small violations of the conservation of the matter energy-momentum tensor. In order to include such kind of violations, forbidden within…
Motivated by the Dirac idea that fundamental constant are dynamical variables and by conjectures on quantum structure of spacetime at small distances, we consider the possibility that Planck constant $\hbar$ is a time depending quantity,…