Related papers: Constraints are not enough
We propose a 3 + 1 dimensional model of gravity which results in inflation at early times, followed by radiation- and matter-dominated epochs and a subsequent acceleration at late times. Both the inflation and late time acceleration are…
When considering how self-interaction affects an object's motion, it can be convenient to decompose the self-force into conservative and dissipative pieces. As a toy model for understanding such decompositions of the gravitational…
Hilbert spaces in theories of gravity are notoriously subtle due to the Hamiltonian constraints, particularly regarding the inner product. To demystify this subject, we review and extend a collection of ideas in canonical gravity, and…
One method of studying the asymptotic structure of spacetime is to apply Penrose's conformal rescaling technique. In this setting, the Einstein equations for the metric and the conformal factor in the unphysical spacetime degenerate where…
It is well known that the Einstein-Hilbert action in two dimensions is topological and yields an identically vanishing Einstein tensor. Consequently one is faced with difficulties when formulating a non-trivial gravity model. We present a…
We consider asymptotically anti de Sitter gravity coupled to a scalar field with mass slightly above the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound. This theory admits a large class of consistent boundary conditions characterized by an arbitrary function…
We describe a simple gauge-fixing that leads to a construction of a quantum Hilbert space for quantum gravity in an asymptotically Anti de Sitter spacetime, valid to all orders of perturbation theory. The construction is motivated by a…
Attempts to merge Einsteinian gravity with Newtonian run into inconsistencies because in Newton's gravity time is absolute and the speed of gravity is infinite. Such an assumption was in a focus of attention of scientists in 19th century…
We consider the Riemann-Hilbert factorization approach to solving the field equations of dimensionally reduced gravity theories. First we prove that functions belonging to a certain class possess a canonical factorization due to properties…
We consider an Einstein-Scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravitational theory, and argue that at early times the Ricci scalar can be safely ignored. We then demonstrate that the pure scalar-Gauss-Bonnet theory, with a quadratic coupling function,…
A modified theory of gravity with the function $F(R) = (1-\sqrt{1-2\lambda R})/\lambda$ is suggested and analyzed. At small value of the parameter $\lambda$ introduced the action is converted into Einstein$-$Hilbert action. The theory is…
If the presence of a gravitational field breaks the Lorentz symmetry valid for special relativity, an "absolute motion" might be detectable. We summarize a scalar theory of gravity with a such "ether", which starts from a tentative…
We compute the spectrum of primordial gravitational wave perturbations in open de Sitter spacetime. The background spacetime is taken to be the continuation of an O(5) symmetric instanton saddle point of the Euclidean no boundary path…
Asymptotically safe theories of gravitation have received great attention in recent times. In this framework an effective action embodying the basic features of the renormalized flow around the non-gaussian fixed point is derived and its…
We explore the scenario that the observable universe emerged from the vicinity of a negative mass ring singularity, and all content of the universe travels at the same group velocity close to the speed of light on a geodesic trajectory…
The dimensionful nature of the coupling in the Einstein-Hilbert action in four dimensions implies that the theory is non-renormalizable; explicit calculation shows that beginning at two loop order, divergences arise that cannot be removed…
We investigate the cosmology of a recently proposed deformation of Einstein gravity, emerging from quantum gravity heuristics. The theory is constructed to have de Sitter space as a vacuum solution, and thus to be relevant to the…
A Wick rotation in the lapse (not in time) is introduced that interpolates between Riemannian and Lorentzian metrics on real manifolds admitting a codimension-one foliation. The definition refers to a fiducial foliation but covariance under…
We first note that, at least in perturbation theory, there is a well-defined (subject to regularization) Lorentzian definition of the quantum effective action in both flat and curved space including (perturbative) gravity. The advantage of…
The Einstein action for the gravitational field has some properties which make of it, after quantization, a rare prototype of systems with quantum configurations that do not have a classical analogue. Assuming spherical symmetry in order to…