Related papers: Discrete scalar field and general relativity
Well known scaling laws among the structural properties of the dark and the luminous matter in disc systems are too complex to be arisen by two inert components that just share the same gravitational field. This brings us to critically…
The notions of mass and range of a Brans-Dicke-like scalar field in scalar-tensor and f(R) gravity are subject to an ambiguity that hides a potential trap. We spell out this ambiguity and identify a physically meaningful and practical…
It is shown, for the self-consistent system of scalar, electro-magnetic and gravitational fields in general relativity, that the equations of motion admit a special kind of solutions with spherical or cylindrical symmetry. For these…
Scalar-tensor theories of gravity are known to allow significant deviations from general relativity through various astrophysical phenomena. In this paper, we formulate a scalar-connection gravity by setting up scalars and connection…
The interaction between singular and regular fields is considered for Lorentz-invariant scalar and vector wave equations. The singular field is generated by a Dirac source term. Its dynamics are deduced from the total field Lagrangian. At…
In the search for an explanation for the current acceleration of the Universe, scalar fields are the most simple and useful tools to build models of dark energy. This field, however, must in principle couple with the rest of the world and…
We study the physics of a single discrete gravitational extra dimension using the effective field theory for massive gravitons. We first consider a minimal discretization with 4D gravitons on the sites and nearest neighbor hopping terms. At…
The best motivated alternatives to general relativity are scalar-tensor theories, in which the gravitational interaction is mediated by one or several scalar fields together with the usual graviton. The analysis of their various…
In various areas of modern physics and in particular in quantum gravity or foundational space-time physics it is of great importance to be in the possession of a systematic procedure by which a macroscopic or continuum limit can be…
We study the dynamics of scalar fields with compact field spaces, or axions, in de Sitter space. We argue that the field space topology can qualitatively affect the physics of these fields beyond just which terms are allowed in their…
False vacuum decay in field theory may be formulated as a boundary value problem in Euclidean space. In a previous work, we studied its solution in single scalar field theories with quadratic gravity and used it to find obstructions to…
General relativity describes the gravitational field geometrically and in a self-interacting way because it couples to all forms of energy, including its own. Both features make finding a quantum theory difficult, yet it is important in the…
We discuss the properties of a cosmology dominated by a charged scalar field with a repulsive, long-range self-interaction. The interaction, in the form of a vector field with a tiny mass, can have a dramatic effect on the evolution of the…
Scalar fields with inverse power-law effective potentials may provide a negative pressure component to the energy density of the universe today, as required by cosmological observations. In order to be cosmologically relevant today, the…
Ultra-light scalar fields may explain the nature of the dark matter in our universe. If such scalars couple quadratically to particles of the Standard Model the scalar acquires an effective mass which depends on the local matter energy…
Dark matter in the universe seems to be one of the most important puzzles science has to face in this moment. In this essay we point out that dark matter could be a spin-0 fundamental interaction of Nature rather than a simple particle.…
The cold dark matter (DM) paradigm describes the large-scale structure of the universe remarkably well. However, there exists some tension with the observed abundances and internal density structures of both field dwarf galaxies and…
Why are there no fundamental scalar fields actually observed in physics today? Scalars are the simplest fields, but once we go beyond Galilean-Newtonian physics they appear only in speculations, as possible determinants of the gravitational…
We consider an effective field theory description of gravity coupled to a scalar field with volume-preserving diffeomorphism and Weyl invariances. The smallness of the cosmological constant is achieved when the potential of the scalar is…
We investigate, in the framework of a recently introduced new class of invariant geometrical scalar-tensor theory of gravity, the possibility that a viscous dark fluid can be described in a unified manner by a single scalar field. Thus we…