Related papers: The march towards no-scale supergravity
We propose new massive gravity theories with 5 dynamical degrees of freedom. We evade uniqueness theorems regarding the form of the kinetic and potential terms by adopting the "generalized massive gravity" framework, where a global…
We study quintessence models using low energy supergravity inspired from string theory. We consider effective supergravity with two scales m_S, the string scale, and m_PL, the Planck scale and show that quintessence naturally arises from a…
We show that the minimal D = 5, N = 2 gauged supergravity set-up may encode naturally the recently proposed clockwork mechanism. The minimal embedding requires one vector multiplet in addition to the supergravity multiplet and the clockwork…
We construct the non-linear realisation of the semi-direct product of E11 and its vector representation in its decomposition into the subalgebra GL(7)x SL(5) to find a seven dimensional theory. The resulting equations of motion essentially…
We propose a novel class of $\mathcal{N}=1$ supergravity (called ``Relaxed supergravity'') that can enlarge the space of scalar potentials, relaxing the strongly-constrained form of the prototype supergravity potential. It has very long…
String theory avoids the ultraviolet infinities that arise in trying to quantize gravity. It is also more predictive than conventional quantum field theory, one aspect of this being the way that it contributed to the emergence of the…
The recent interest in modified theories of gravity, involving some type of non-minimal coupling to the Ricci scalar, and the calculation of cosmological observables in the Einstein or the Jordan frame, motivate the formulation of these…
I describe the conceptual and mathematical basis of an approach which describes gravity as an emergent phenomenon. Combining principle of equivalence and principle of general covariance with known properties of local Rindler horizons,…
Quantum Gravity by Causal Dynamical Triangulation has over the last few years emerged as a serious contender for a nonperturbative description of the theory. It is a nonperturbative implementation of the sum-over-histories, which relies on…
New results from the new variables/loop representation program of nonperturbative quantum gravity are presented, with a focus on results of Ashtekar, Rovelli and the author which greatly clarify the physical interpretation of the quantum…
The hypothesis of a discrete fabric of the universe--the "Planck scale"--is always on stage, since it solves mathematical and conceptual problems in the infinitely small. However, it clashes with special relativity, which is designed for…
We consider four supergravities with 16+16, 32+32, 64+64, 128+128 degrees of freedom displaying some curious properties: (1) They exhibit minimal supersymmetry (N=1, 2, 2, 1) but maximal rank (r=7, 6, 4, 0) of the scalar coset in D=4, 5, 7,…
The biggest question in beyond the standard model physics is what are the scales of new physics. Ideas about scales, as well as experimental evidence and constraints, are surveyed for a variety of possible forms of new physics:…
We derive a scalar potential in the recently proposed N=1 supersymmetric generalization of f(R) gravity in four space-time dimensions. Any such higher-derivative supergravity is classically equivalent to the standard N=1 supergravity…
It was recently shown that the decoupling limits leading to matrix (gauge) theories on D-branes give rise to non-Lorentzian target space geometries. Perturbatively, matrix theory describes a quantum gravity theory whose low-energy…
Starting from $E_{11}$ and the space-time translations we construct an algebra that promotes the global $E_{11}$ symmetries to local ones, and consider all its possible massive deformations. The Jacobi identities imply that such…
The extreme smallness of both the Planck length, on the one side, and the ratio of the gravitational to the electrical forces between, say, two electrons, on the other side has led to a widespread belief that the realm of quantum gravity is…
We propose a theory of quantum gravity which formulates the quantum theory as a nonperturbative path integral, where each spacetime history appears with a weight given by the exponentiated Einstein-Hilbert action of the corresponding causal…
Recently a correspondence between non-propagating degrees of freedom in maximal supergravity and the very extended algebra E_11 has been found. We perform a similar analysis for a supergravity theory with eight supercharges and very…
A quantum-mechanical theory of gravitation is presented, where the motion of particles is based on the optics of de Broglie waves. Here the large-scale geometry of the universe is inherently flat, and its age is not constrained to < 13 Gyr.…