Related papers: Four Dimensional Conformal Gravity, Confinement, a…
The effort to discover a quantum theory of gravity is motivated by the need to reconcile the incompatibility between quantum theory and general relativity. Here, we present an alternative approach by constructing a consistent theory of…
We set up a vacuum theory of gravity with an extra dimension of vanishing proper length. The most general solution to the field equations are presented. This formulation is free of Kaluza-Klein modes and does not allow the propagation of…
Taking the quantization of electromagnetism as the paradigm, we show how this procedure cannot work for Einstein gravity. However, it does work for conformal gravity, a fourth-order derivative, renormalizable theory of gravity that Bender…
This thesis studies modified theories of gravity from a geometric viewpoint. We review the motivations for considering alternatives to General Relativity and cover the mathematical foundations of gravitational theories in Riemannian and…
The configuration space of general relativity is superspace - the space of all Riemannian 3-metrics modulo diffeomorphisms. However, it has been argued that the configuration space for gravity should be conformal superspace - the space of…
Current generalizations of the classical Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian formulation of General Relativity are reviewed. Some alternative variational principles are known to reproduce Einstein's gravitational equations, and should therefore be…
We study two large classes of alternative theories, modifying the action through algebraic, quadratic curvature invariants coupled to scalar fields. We find one class that admits solutions that solve the vacuum Einstein equations and…
Finding effective theories of modified gravity that can resolve cosmological singularities and avoid other physical pathologies such as ghost and gradient instabilities has turned out to be a rather difficult task. The concept of limiting…
We perform canonical quantization of General Relativity, as an effective quantum field theory below the Planck scale, within the BRST-invariant framework. We show that the promotion of constraints to dynamical equations of motion for…
On the basis of an algebraic relation between torsion and a classical spinor field a new interpretation of Einstein-Cartan gravity interacting with classical spinor field is proposed. In this approach the spinor field becomes an auxiliary…
We explicitly calculate the induced gravity theory at the boundary of an asymptotically Anti-de Sitter five dimensional Einstein gravity. We also display the action that encodes the dynamics of radial diffeomorphisms. It is found that the…
We extend Maldacena's argument, namely, obtaining Einstein gravity from Conformal Gravity, to six dimensional manifolds. The proof relies on a particular combination of conformal (and topological) invariants, which makes manifest the fact…
We develop a semiclassical theory of modified gravity with nontrivial spacetime torsion. In particular, we show that the semiclassical treatment can be axiomatized in the case of Einstein--Cartan theory with a nonminimally coupled, free…
General Relativity in dimension $n = p + q$ can be formulated as a gauge theory for the conformal group $SO(p+1,q+1)$, along with an additional field reducing the structure group down to the Poincar\'e group $ISO(p,q)$. In this paper, we…
In a very recent paper [1], we have proposed a novel $4$-dimensional gravitational theory with two dynamical degrees of freedom, which serves as a consistent realization of $D\to4$ Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with the rescaled…
Modified gravity has attracted much attention over the last few years and remains a potential candidate for dark energy. In particular, the so-called viable f(R) gravity theories, which are able to both recover General Relativity (GR) and…
We derive curvature counterterms in two-dimensional gravity coupled to conformal matter up to infinite order. By construction the higher-order action is equivalent to a finite first-order theory with auxiliary scalar. Due to this…
Fefferman and Graham showed some time ago that four dimensional conformal geometries could be analyzed in terms of six dimensional, ambient, Riemannian geometries admitting a closed homothety. Recently it was shown how conformal geometry…
The modified Gauss-Bonnet gravity can be motivated by a number of physical reasons, including: the uniqueness of a gravitational Lagrangian in four and higher dimensions and the leading order $\alpha^\prime$ corrections in superstring…
Recently a non-trivial 4-dimensional theory of gravity that claims to circumvent Lovelock's theorem and avoid Ostrogradsky instability was formulated in [D. Glavan and C. Lin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 081301 (2020)]. This theory, named "$4D$…