Related papers: The complete action for $\mathcal{N}=2$ de Sitter …
We study theories of the "General Relativity + Yang-Mills" type in 4d spacetime with cosmological constant, focusing on formulations where the basic variables are connections and curvatures (but no metric). We present a new Lagrangian for…
An effective Lagrangian approach, partly inspired by Quantum Loop Cosmology (QLC), is presented and formulated in a non flat FLRW space-times, making use of modified gravitational models. The models considered are non generic, and their…
The finite entropy of de Sitter space suggests that in a theory of quantum gravity there are only finitely many states. It has been argued that in this case there is no action of the de Sitter group consistent with unitarity. In this note…
We obtain a general class of time-dependent, asymptotically de Sitter backgrounds which solve the first order bosonic equations that extremize the action for supergravity with gauged non-compact $R$-symmetry. These backgrounds correspond…
I describe our understanding of physics near the planck length, in particular the great progress of the last four years in string theory. Superstring theory, and a recent extension called M theory, are leading candidates for a quantum…
The most general gravity Lagrangian in four dimensions contains three topological densities, namely Nieh-Yan, Pontryagin and Euler, in addition to the Hilbert-Palatini term. We set up a Hamiltonian formulation based on this Lagrangian. The…
We construct supersymmetric field theories on Riemannian three-manifolds M, focusing on N=2 theories with a U(1)_R symmetry. Our approach is based on the rigid limit of new minimal supergravity in three dimensions, which couples to the…
Semiclassical gravity predicts that de Sitter space has a finite entropy. We suggest a picture for Euclidean de Sitter space in string theory, and use the AdS/CFT correspondence to argue that de Sitter entropy can be understood as the…
It was recently proposed that type IIA string theory may allow classical de Sitter solutions with O8-planes as the only localized sources. We show that such solutions are incompatible with the integrated supergravity equations of motion,…
I present a point of view about what M Theory is and how it is related to the real world, which departs in certain crucial respects from conventional wisdom. I argue against the possibility of a background independent formulation of the…
Decomposition of the solvable Lie algebras of maximal supergravities in D=4, 5 and 6 indicates, at least at the geometrical level, the existence of an N=(4,2) chiral supergravity theory in D=6 dimensions. This theory, with 24 supercharges,…
We give here a list of exact classical solutions of a large class of weakly nonlocal theories of gravity, which are unitary and super-renormalizable (or finite) at quantum level. It is explicitly shown that flat and Ricci-flat spacetimes as…
Multidimensionality of our Universe is one of the most intriguing assumption in modern physics. It follows naturally from theories unifying different fundamental interactions with gravity, e.g. M/string theory. The idea has received a great…
Recently, the complete action for an N=1 pure supergravity action in 4 dimensions that allows a positive, negative or zero cosmological constant has been constructed. The action is the generalization of a Volkov-Akulov action for the…
We study static spherically symmetric solutions of Einstein gravity plus an action polynomial in the Ricci scalar, $R$, of arbitrary degree, $n$, in arbitrary dimension, $D$. The global properties of all such solutions are derived by…
We study an $SO(1,3)$ pure connection formulation in four dimensions for real-valued fields, inspired by the Capovilla, Dell and Jacobson complex self-dual approach. By considering the CMPR BF action, also, taking into account a more…
The status of exponential scalar potentials in supergravity is reviewed, and updated. One version of N=8 D=4 supergravity with a positive exponential potential, obtainable from a `non-compactification' of M-theory, is shown to have an…
We investigate N=2, D=5 supersymmetry and matter-coupled supergravity theories in a superconformal context. In a first stage we do not require the existence of a Lagrangian. Under this assumption, we already find at the level of rigid…
We propose a theory of quantum gravity which formulates the quantum theory as a nonperturbative path integral, where each spacetime history appears with a weight given by the exponentiated Einstein-Hilbert action of the corresponding causal…
In this contribution, we review a general argument showing that de Sitter critical points of extended supergravity are in tension with the magnetic weak gravity conjecture if the gravitino mass is vanishing. Motivated by this assumption, we…