Related papers: Regular Geometries from Singular Matter in Quasi-T…
A number of recent proposals for a quantum theory of gravity are based on the idea that spacetime geometry and gravity are derivative concepts and only apply at an approximate level. There are two fundamental challenges to any such…
A model for quantized gravity coupled to matter in the form of a single scalar field is investigated in four dimensions. For the metric degrees of freedom we employ Regge's simplicial discretization, with the scalar fields defined at the…
We consider covariant metric theories of coupled gravity-matter systems satisfying the following two conditions: First, it is assumed that, by a hyperbolic reduction process, a system of first order symmetric hyperbolic partial differential…
In this work we study a more restricted class of quasi-topological gravity theories where the higher curvature terms have no contribution to the equation of motion on general static spherically symmetric metric where $g_{tt} g_{rr} \ne…
The original theory of quasi-metric gravity, admitting only a partial coupling between space-time geometry and the active stress-energy tensor, is too restricted to allow the existence of gravitational waves in vacuum. Therefore, said…
Regularity theorems are presented for cosmology and gravitational collapse in non-Riemannian gravitational theories. These theorems establish conditions necessary to allow the existence of timelike and null path complete spacetimes for…
Starting from a topological gauge theory in two dimensions with symmetry groups $ISO(2,1)$, $SO(2,1)$ and $SO(1,2)$ we construct a model for gravity with non-trivial coupling to matter. We discuss the equations of motion which are connected…
General Relativity (GR), with or without matter fields, admits a natural extension to a scale invariant theory that requires a dilaton. Here we show that the recently formulated massive GR, minimally coupled to matter, possesses a new…
We investigate the possibility that the behavior of the rotational velocities of test particles gravitating around galaxies can be explained in the framework of modified gravity models with non-minimal matter-geometry coupling. Generally,…
In this work we have proposed some spherically symmetric, static spacetimes in a theory of gravity which permits non-minimal coupling (NMC) between curvature of spacetime and fluid variables. It is shown that these non-minimally coupled…
It is widely believed that classical gravity breaks down and quantum gravity is needed to deal with a singularity. We show that there is a class of spacetime curvature singularities which can be resolved with metric and matter field…
Any approach to pure quantum gravity must eventually face the question of coupling quantum matter to the theory. In the past, several ways of coupling matter to spin foam quantum gravity have been proposed, but the dynamics of the coupled…
It is shown that the initial singularities in spatially compact spacetimes with spherical, plane or hyperbolic symmetry admitting a compact constant mean curvature hypersurface are crushing singularities when the matter content of spacetime…
In this paper, the issue how to introduce matter in Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz theories of gravity is addressed. This is a key point in order to complete the proper definition of these theories and, what is very important, to study their possible…
Wormhole geometries in curvature-matter coupled modified gravity are explored, by considering an explicit nonminimal coupling between an arbitrary function of the scalar curvature, R, and the Lagrangian density of matter. It is the…
Lovelock theory of gravity provides a tractable model to investigate the effects of higher-curvature terms in the context of AdS/CFT. Yielding second order, ghost-free field equations, this theory represents a minimal setup in which…
Gravitational collapse singularities are undesirable, yet inevitable to a large extent in General Relativity. When matter satisfying null energy condition collapses to the extent a closed trapped surface is formed, a singularity is…
Fractons and other subdimensional particles are an exotic class of emergent quasi-particle excitations with severely restricted mobility. A wide class of models featuring these quasi-particles have a natural description in the language of…
The properties of the quantum universe on extremely small spacetime scales are studied in the semi-classical approach to the well-defined quantum model. It is shown that near the initial cosmological singularity point quantum gravity…
In this thesis, we focus on higher-curvature extensions of Einstein gravity as toy models to probe universal properties of conformal field theory (CFT) using the gauge/gravity duality. In this context, we are particularly interested in…