Related papers: A note on diffeomorphism-invariance in gravitation…
We study the cosmological implications of gravity models which break diffeomorphisms (Diff) invariance down to transverse diffeomorphisms (TDiff). We start from the most general gravitational action involving up to quadratic terms in…
A Weyl invariant extension of Einstein gravity is studied. It simply consists in the group averaging of Einstein's action under Weyl transformations. Contradicting cherished beliefs, a conformal anomaly is found in the trace of the…
Diffeomorphism invariance is often considered to be a hallmark of the theory of general relativity (GR). But closer analysis reveals that this cannot be what makes GR distinctive. The concept of diffeomorphism invariance can be defined in…
A covariant reformulation of General Relativity is briefly considered from three points of view: geometrodynamics, Lagrange-Euler field theory, and gauge field theory. From a geometrodynamics perspective, a definition of the reference frame…
We study the behavior of a general gravitational action, including quadratic terms in the curvature, supplemented by a compact scalar field in 4+1 dimensions. The generalized Einstein equation for this system admits solutions which are…
As is well known, in order for the Einstein--Hilbert action to have a well defined variation, and therefore to be used for deriving field equation through the stationary action principle, it has to be amended by the addition of a suitable…
We reconsider the consistency constraints on a free massless symmetric, rank 2, tensor field in a background and confirm that they uniquely require it to be the linear deviation about (cosmological) Einstein gravity. Neither adding…
Diffeomorphism covariant theories with dynamical background metric, like gravity coupled to matter fields in the way expressed by Einstein-Hilbert's action or relativistic strings described by Polyakov's action, have `on-shell' vanishing…
We consider a model of gravity and matter fields which is invariant only under unimodular general coordinate transformations (GCT). The determinant of the metric is treated as a separate field which transforms as a scalar under unimodular…
We investigate the cosmological background evolution and perturbations in a general class of spatially covariant theories of gravity, which propagates two tensor modes and one scalar mode. We show that the structure of the theory is…
To guarantee the stability of the cosmological constant sector against radiative corrections coming from quantum matter fields, one of the most natural ingredients to invoke is the symmetry under scale transformations of the gravitational…
It is shown that when the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian is considered without any non-covariant modifications or change of variables, its Hamiltonian formulation leads to results consistent with principles of General Relativity. The…
Einstein gravity in the Palatini first order formalism is shown to possess a vector supersymmetry of the type encountered in the topological gauge theories. A peculiar feature of the gravitationel theory is the link of this vector…
This paper has been withdrawn by the author after further work showed the proposed theoretical approach cannot fit planetary perihelion precession data. As presented, the theory doesn't fit gravitational light deflection by the sun either,…
Unimodular gravity is classically equivalent to standard Einstein gravity, but differs when it comes to the quantum theory: The conformal factor is non-dynamical, and the gauge symmetry consists of transverse diffeomorphisms only.…
We explore a background-independent theory of composite gravity. The vacuum expectation value of the composite metric satisfies Einstein's equations (with corrections) as a consistency condition, and selects the vacuum spacetime. A…
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…
We study a deformation of infinitesimal diffeomorphisms of a smooth manifold. The deformation is based on a general twist. This leads to a differential geometry on a noncommutative algebra of functions whose product is a star-product. The…
We show that promoting the trace part of the Einstein equations to a trivial identity results in the Newton constant being an integration constant. Thus, in this formulation the Newton constant is a global dynamical degree of freedom which…
The $f(R,T)$ gravity field equations depend generically on both the Ricci scalar $R$ and trace of the energy-momentum tensor $T$. Within the assumption of perfect fluids, the theory carries an arbitrariness regarding the choice of the…