Related papers: Volterra Distortions, Spinning Strings, and Cosmic…
It is known that some cosmological perturbations are conformal invariant. This facilitates the studies of perturbations within some gravitational theories alternative to general relativity, for example the scalar-tensor theory, because it…
We present a set of equations describing the evolution of the scalar-type cosmological perturbation in a gravity with general quadratic order curvature coupling terms. Equations are presented in a gauge ready form, thus are ready to…
In these lectures we review the constraints on particle physics models arising from cosmic defects. This includes constraints on theories where stable cosmic string loops, or vortons result. These can arise in supersymmetric theories. We…
We develop an exact functional method applied to the bosonic string on a shperical world sheet, in graviton and dilaton backgrounds, consistent with conformal invariance. In this method, quantum fluctuations are controled by the amplitude…
We investigate the cosmological background evolution and perturbations in a general class of spatially covariant theories of gravity, which propagates two tensor modes and one scalar mode. We show that the structure of the theory is…
Cosmological perturbations are generally described by quantum fields on (curved but) classical space-times. While this strategy has a large domain of validity, it can not be justified in the quantum gravity era where curvature and matter…
In this letter we discuss the possibility of treating the spacetime by itself as a kind of deformable body for which we can define an fundamental lattice, just like atoms in crystal lattices. We show three signs pointing in that direction.…
We study string propagation in a spacetime with positive cosmological constant, which includes a circle whose radius approaches a finite value as |t|\to\infty, and goes to zero at t=0. Near this cosmological singularity, the spacetime looks…
Non-singular two and three dimensional string cosmologies are constructed using the exact conformal field theories corresponding to SO(2,1)/SO(1,1) and SO(2,2)/SO(2,1). All semi-classical curvature singularities are canceled in the exact…
We study a universe filled with dust-like matter in the form of discrete inhomogeneities (e.g., galaxies and their groups and clusters) and two sets of perfect fluids with linear and nonlinear equations of state, respectively. The…
An important element in a model of non-singular string cosmology is a phase in which classical corrections saturate the growth of curvature in a deSitter-like phase with a linearly growing dilaton (an `algebraic fixed point'). As the form…
A gravitational scenario is proposed where the euclidean action is invariant under the isotropic and homogeneous version of the euclidean {\it U(1)} group of local transformations of the scale factor and scalar matter field, interpreting…
We propose a phenomenological approach to the cosmological constant problem based on generally covariant non-local and acausal modifications of four-dimensional gravity at enormous distances. The effective Newton constant becomes very small…
We investigate the gauge-invariant cosmological perturbations in the gravity and matter frames in the general scalar-tensor theory where two frames are related by the disformal transformation. The gravity and matter frames are the…
We investigate statistical properties of the distribution of matter at redshift zero in disformal gravity by using N-body simulations. The disformal model studied here consists of a conformally coupled symmetron field with an additional…
We argue that standard tools of holography can be used to describe fully non-perturbative microscopic models of cosmology in which a period of accelerated expansion may result from the positive potential energy of time-dependent scalar…
D-branes, topological defects in string theory on which string endpoints can live, may give new insight into the understanding of the cosmological evolution of the Universe at early epochs. We analyze the dynamics of D-branes in curved…
A covariant formalism for physical perturbations propagating along a string in an arbitrary curved spacetime is developed. In the case of a stationary string in a static background the propagation of the perturbations is described by a…
In this thesis, we discuss some of the applications of cosmological perturbation theory in the late universe. We begin by reviewing the tools used to understand the standard model of cosmology theoretically and to compute its observational…
A connection between non-perturbative formulations of quantum gravity and perturbative string theory is exhibited, based on a formulation of the non-perturbative dynamics due to Markopoulou. In this formulation the dynamics of spin network…