Related papers: Mathematical problems in higher order gravity and …
We present a generalization of the first-order formalism used to describe the dynamics of a classical system. The generalization is then applied to the first-order action that describes General Relativity. As a result we obtain equations…
I explain the difficulty of making various concepts of and relating to probability precise, rigorous and physically significant when attempting to apply them in reasoning about objects (e.g., spacetimes) living in infinite-dimensional…
We argue that a consistent coupling of a quantum theory to gravity requires an extension of ordinary `first order' Riemannian geometry to second order Riemannian geometry, which incorporates both a line element and an area element. This…
We review the study of inhomogeneous perturbations about a homogeneous and isotropic background cosmology. We adopt a coordinate based approach, but give geometrical interpretations of metric perturbations in terms of the expansion, shear…
We discuss qualitative features of the conformal relation between certain classes of gravity theories and general relativity, common to different themes such as $f(R)$, Brans-Dicke-type, and string theories. We focus primarily on the frame…
We analyse conformal gauge, or isotropic, singularities in cosmological models in general relativity. Using the calculus of tractors, we find conditions in terms of tractor curvature for a local extension of the conformal structure through…
The Standard Model of particle physics and the theory of General Relativity (GR) currently provide a good description of almost all phenomena of particle physics and gravitation that have received controlled experimental tests. However, the…
Based on a clear ontology of material individuals, we analyze in detail the factual semantics of quantum theory, and argue that the basic mathematical formalism of quantum theory is just okay with (a certain form of ) realism and that it is…
We review current theoretical cosmology, including fundamental and mathematical cosmology and physical cosmology (as well as cosmology in the quantum realm), with an emphasis on open questions.
Quantum gravity is expected to be necessary in order to understand situations where classical general relativity breaks down. In particular in cosmology one has to deal with initial singularities, i.e. the fact that the backward evolution…
Based on several recent developments in relativistic astrophysics and observational cosmology, this article discusses prospects of (1) theoretical structure of General Relativity (GR) in the new era and (2) submission of GR to new and…
Modifications to gravity can provide attractive alternatives to the dark components of the standard model of cosmology. These modifications to general relativity (GR) must be hidden at small scales where theory is well tested, and so one…
The previous version of this article was a first attempt to confront the Dark Gravity theory to cosmological data. However, more recent developments lead to the conclusion that the cosmological principle is probably not valid in Dark…
Recently\cite{BQG}, it was shown that quantum effects of matter could be identified with the conformal degree of freedom of the space-time metric. Accordingly, one can introduce quantum effects either by making a scale transformation (i.e.…
The interpretations of solutions of Einstein field's equations led to the prediction and the observation of physical phenomena which confirm the important role of general relativity, as well as other relativistic theories in physics. In…
Identifying an appropriate set of ``observables'' is a nontrivial task for most approaches to quantum gravity. We describe how it may be accomplished in the context of a recently proposed family of stochastic (but classical) dynamical laws…
The conformal equivalence of fourth-order gravity following from a non-linear Lagrangian L(R) to theories of other types is widely known, here we report on a new conformal equivalence of these theories to theories of the same type but with…
Gravitation is described in the context of a dilatonic theory that is conformally related to general relativity. All dimensionless ratios of fundamental dimensional quantities, e.g. particle masses and the Planck mass, as well as the…
The present thesis is divided into two main research areas: Classical Cosmology and (Loop) Quantum Gravity. The first part concerns cosmological models with one phantom and one scalar field, that provide the `super-accelerated' scenario not…
We present general relativistic correction terms appearing in Newton's gravity to the second-order perturbations of cosmological fluids. In our previous work we have shown that to the second-order perturbations, the density and velocity…