Related papers: A note on diffeomorphism-invariance in gravitation…
The field equations of general relativity can be derived from the Einstein action, which is quadratic in connection coefficients, rather than the standard action involving the Gibbons-Hawking-York term and counterterm. We show that it is…
We generalize the scale invariant gravity by allowing a negative kinetic energy term for the classical scalar field. This gives birth to a new scalar-tensor theory of gravity, in which the scalar field is in fact an auxiliary field. For a…
Einstein's traceless 1919 gravitational theory is analyzed from a variational viewpoint. It is shown to be equivalent to a transverse (invariant only under diffeomorphisms that preserve the Lebesgue measure) theory, with an additional Weyl…
In a class of generalized Einstein's gravity theories we derive the equations and general asymptotic solutions describing the evolution of the perturbed universe in unified forms. Our gravity theory considers general couplings between the…
It is shown that the one-loop effective action of unimodular gravity is the same as that of ordinary gravity, restricted to unimodular metrics. The only difference is in the treatment of the global scale degree of freedom and of the…
We propose a phenomenological approach to the cosmological constant problem based on generally covariant non-local and acausal modifications of four-dimensional gravity at enormous distances. The effective Newton constant becomes very small…
We analyze the perturbative implications of the most general high derivative approach to quantum gravity based on a diffeomorphism invariant local action. In particular, we consider the super-renormalizable case with a large number of…
The question of building a local diff-invariant effective gravitational action for the trace anomaly is reconsidered. General Relativity (GR) combined with the existing action for the trace anomaly is an inconsistent low energy effective…
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…
Two different ways of generalizing Einstein's general theory of relativity with a cosmological constant to Brans-Dicke type scalar-tensor theories are investigated in the linearized field approximation. In the first case a cosmological…
We study the dynamics of Abelian gauge fields invariant under transverse diffeomorphisms (TDiff) in cosmological contexts. We show that in the geometric optics approximation, very much as for Diff invariant theories, the corresponding…
The concept of gauge invariance in classical electrodynamics assumes tacitly that Maxwell's equations have unique solutions. By calculating the electromagnetic field of a moving particle both in Lorenz and in Coulomb gauge and directly from…
We study a generally covariant model in which local Lorentz invariance is broken "spontaneously" by a dynamical unit timelike vector field $u^a$---the "aether". Such a model makes it possible to study the gravitational and cosmological…
Scale invariant (transverse) gravitational theories are introduced. They are invariant under pure metric rescalings (i.e. the matter fields are inert under those). This symmetry forbids the presence of a cosmological constant. Those…
Diffeomorphism invariance breaking has been investigated in the literature in several contexts, including emergent General Relativity (GR). If GR emerges from an underlying theory without diffeomorphism invariance, there may be small…
Several approaches to the dynamics of loop quantum gravity involve discretizing the equations of motion. The resulting discrete theories are known to be problematic since the first class algebra of constraints of the continuum theory…
Recently we have presented a new formulation of the theory of gravity based on an implementation of the Einstein Equivalence Principle distinct from General Relativity. The kinetic part of the theory - that describes how matter is affected…
It is commonly accepted that general relativity is the only solution to the consistency problem that appears when trying to build a theory of interacting gravitons (massless spin-2 particles). Padmanabhan's 2008 thought-provoking analysis…
The conformal invariance of unimodular gravity survives quantum corrections, even in the presence of conformal matter. Unimodular gravity can actually be understood as a certain truncation of the full Einstein-Hilbert theory, where in the…
A recently proposed variational approach for general relativity where, in addition to the metric tensor, two independent affine connections enter the action as dynamical variables, is revised. Field equations always reduce to the Einstein…