Related papers: Bouncing Universes in String-inspired Gravity
In String Theory there often appears a rather interesting class of higher derivative theories containing an infinite set of derivatives in the form of an exponential. These theories may provide a way to tame ultraviolet divergences without…
String theory provides the only consistent framework so far that unifies all interactions including gravity. We discuss gravity and cosmology in string theory. Conventional notions from general relativity like geometry, topology etc. are…
Motivated by the quantum description of gauge theories, we study the cosmological effects of relaxing the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints in general relativity and Gauss' law in electromagnetism. We show that the unconstrained theories…
Analysis of string interactions indicates a weakening of gravity at the string length scale, thus avoiding black holes and their singularities.
We consider a modified gravity model with a massive graviton, but which nevertheless only propagates two gravitational degrees of freedom and which is free of ghosts. We show that non-singular bouncing cosmological background solutions can…
We complement the low-energy gravi-dilaton effective action of string theory with a non-local, general-covariant dilaton potential, and obtain homogeneous solutions describing a non-singular (bouncing-curvature) cosmology. We then compute,…
I briefly discuss the challenges presented by attempting to modify general relativity to obtain an explanation for the observed accelerated expansion of the universe. Foremost among these are the questions of theoretical consistency - the…
We show that, in the presence of a string gas, simple higher-derivative modifications to the effective action for gravity can lead to bouncing and cyclic cosmological models. The modifications bound the expansion rate and avoid…
The formation of singularities in certain situations, such as the collapse of massive stars, is one of the unresolved issues in classical general relativity. Although no complete theory of quantum gravity exists it is often suggested that…
The properties of a string-inspired two-dimensional theory of gravity are studied. The post-Newtonian and weak-field approximations, `stellar' structure and cosmological solutions of this theory are developed. Some qualitative similarities…
We propose that at the beginning of the universe gravity existed in a limbo either because it was switched off or because it was only conformally coupled to all particles. This picture can be reverse-engineered from the requirement that the…
We review a few off-the-beaten-track ideas in cosmology. They solve a variety of fundamental problems; also they are fun. We start with a description of non-singular dilaton cosmology. In these scenarios gravity is modified so that the…
In recent work, it was shown that velocity-dependent forces between moving strings or branes lead to an accelerating expanding universe without assuming the existence of a cosmological constant. Here we show that the repulsive…
Scenario of a bouncing universe is one of the most active area of research to arrive at singularity free cosmological models. Different proposals have been suggested to avoid the so called 'big bang' singularity through the quantum aspect…
A bouncing universe is a viable candidate to solve the initial singularity problem. Here we consider bouncing solutions in the context of $f(R,\mathcal{G})$ gravity by using an order reduction technique which allows one to find solutions…
A bouncing Universe avoids the big-bang singularity. Using the time-like and null Raychaudhhuri equations, we explore whether the bounce near the big-bang, within a broad spectrum of modified theories of gravity, allows for cosmologically…
In string gas cosmology, the extra dimensions of the underlying theory are kept at a microscopic scale by a gas of strings. In the matter-dominated era, however, dust pressure can lead to oscillations of the extra dimensions and to…
A ghost-free theory of gravity with two dynamical metrics both coupled to matter is shown to be consistent and viable. Its cosmological implications are studied, and the models, in particular in the context of partially massless gravity,…
We consider perturbative modifications of the Friedmann equations in terms of energy density corresponding to modified theories of gravity proposed as an alternative route to comply with the observed accelerated expansion of the universe.…
We consider a two-dimensional model of gravity with the cosmological constant as a dynamical variable. The effective cosmological constant is derived when the universe has no initial boundary. It turns out to be extremely small if the…