Related papers: Causal structure and diffeomorphismsm in Ashtekar'…
We show that the phase space of three-dimensional gravity contains two layers of dualities: between diffeomorphisms and a notion of "dual diffeomorphisms" on the one hand, and between first order curvature and torsion on the other hand.…
We discuss the quantum theory of 1+1 dimensional dilaton gravity, which is an interesting model with analogous features to the spherically symmetric gravitational systems in 3+1 dimensions. The functional measures over the metrics and the…
Four-dimensional Einstein gravity in the Palatini first order formalism is shown to possess a vector supersymmetry of the same type as found in the topological theories for Yang-Mills fields. A peculiar feature of the gravitational theory,…
The evolution of a generally covariant theory is under-determined. One hundred years ago such dynamics had never before been considered; its ramifications were perplexing, its future important role for all the fundamental interactions under…
We study a generally covariant model in which local Lorentz invariance is broken "spontaneously" by a dynamical unit timelike vector field $u^a$---the "aether". Such a model makes it possible to study the gravitational and cosmological…
Canonical vacuum gravity is expressed in generally-covariant form in order that spacetime diffeomorphisms be represented within its equal-time phase space. In accordance with the principle of general covariance, the time mapping ${\T}:…
We argue that the structure general relativity (GR) as a theory of affine defects is deeper than the standard interpretation as a metric theory of gravitation. Einstein-Cartan theory (EC), with its inhomogenous affine symmetry, should be…
The current paper is dedicated to developing a (3+1) decomposition for the minimal gravitational Standard-Model Extension. Our setting is explicit diffeomorphism violation and we focus on the background fields known in the literature as $u$…
We give an SU(2) covariant representation of the constraints of Euclidean general relativity in the Ashtekar variables. The guiding principle is the use of triads to transform all free spatial indices into SU(2) indices. A central role is…
Among the general class of metric-affine theories of gravity, there is a special class conformed by those endowed with a projective symmetry. Perhaps the simplest manner to realise this symmetry is by constructing the action in terms of the…
A starting point for the present work was the statement recently discussed in the literature that two Hamiltonian formulations for the theory of gravity, the one proposed by Dirac and the other by Arnowitt - Deser - Misner, may not be…
We discuss two scenarios of emergent gravity. In one of them the quantum vacuum is considered as superplastic crystal, and the effective gravity describes the dynamical elastic deformations of this crystal. In the other one the…
The problem of observables in classical and quantum gravity is a long-standing one. It is sometimes argued that observable quantities should be diffeomorphsm invariant, following the philosophy of Dirac. We argue that diffeomorphism…
We study the dynamics of a modified-gravity theory, which is supplemented by an extended Gibbons-Hawking-York boundary term and incorporates diffeomorphism violation through nondynamical background fields denoted as $u$ and $s^{\mu\nu}$ in…
Off-diagonal vacuum and nonvacuum configurations in Einstein gravity can mimic physical effects of modified gravitational theories of $f(R,T,R_{\mu \nu}T^{\mu \nu})$ type. To prove this statement, exact and approximate solutions are…
Using Fedosov theory of deformation quantization of endomorphism bundle we construct several models of pure geometric, deformed vacuum gravity, corresponding to arbitrary symplectic noncommutativity tensor. Deformations of Einstein-Hilbert…
Spherically symmetric gravity in Ashtekar variables coupled to Yang-Mills theory in two dimensions and its relation to dilaton gravity and Poisson sigma models are discussed. After introducing its loop quantization, quantum corrections for…
We present a second order gravity action which consists of ordinary Einstein action augmented by a first-order, vector like, Chern-Simons quasi topological term.This theory is ghost-free and propagates a pure spin-2 mode. It is…
It is well known that in a generally covariant gravitational theory the choice of spacetime scalars as coordinates yields phase-space observables (or "invariants"). However their relation to the symmetry group of diffeomorphism…
An outline of a proof of the decomposition of linear metric perturbations into gauge-invariant and gauge-variant parts on an arbitrary background spacetime which admits ADM decomposition is briefly discussed. We explicitly construct the…