We compare the metric and the Palatini formalism to obtain the Einstein equations in the presence of higher-order curvature corrections that consist of contractions of the Riemann tensor, but not of its derivatives. We find that there is a class of theories for which the two formalisms are equivalent. This class contains the Palatini version of Lovelock theory, but also more Lagrangians that are not Lovelock, but respect certain symmetries. For the general case, we find that imposing the Levi-Civita connection as an Ansatz, the Palatini formalism is contained within the metric formalism, in the sense that any solution of the former also appears as a solution of the latter, but not necessarily the other way around. Finally we give the conditions the solutions of the metric equations should satisfy in order to solve the Palatini equations.
A Palatini-type action for Einstein and Gauss-Bonnet gravity with non-trivial torsion is proposed. Three-form flux is incorporated via a deformation of the Riemann tensor, and consistency of the Palatini variational principle requires the flux to be covariantly constant and to satisfy a Jacobi identity. Studying gravity actions of third order in the curvature leads to a conjecture about general Palatini-Lovelock-Cartan gravity. We point out potential relations to string-theoretic Bianchi identities and, using the Schouten-Nijenhuis bracket, derive a set of Bianchi identities for the non-geomet…
We compare the metric and the Palatini formalism to obtain the Einstein equations in the presence of higher-order curvature corrections that consist of contractions of the Riemann tensor, but not of its derivatives. We find that in general the two formalisms are not equivalent and that the set of solutions of the Palatini equations is a non-trivial subset of the solutions of the metric equations. However we also argue that for Lovelock gravities, the equivalence of the two formalism holds completely and give an explanation of why it holds precisely for these theories.
We present a comparative study of inflation in two theories of quadratic gravity with {\it gauged} scale symmetry: 1) the original Weyl quadratic gravity and 2) the theory defined by a similar action but in the Palatini approach obtained by replacing the Weyl connection by its Palatini counterpart. These theories have different vectorial non-metricity induced by the gauge field ($w_μ$) of this symmetry. Both theories have a novel spontaneous breaking of gauged scale symmetry, in the absence of matter, where the necessary scalar field is not added ad-hoc to this purpose but is of geometric orig…
We derive the field equations and the equations of motion for massive test particles in modified theories of gravity with an arbitrary coupling between geometry and matter by using the Palatini formalism. We show that the independent connection can be expressed as the Levi-Civita connection of an auxiliary, matter Lagrangian dependent metric, which is related with the physical metric by means of a conformal transformation. Similarly to the metric case, the field equations impose the non-conservation of the energy-momentum tensor. We derive the explicit form of the equations of motion for massi…
Using a dynamical system approach we study the cosmological phase space of the generalized hybrid metric-Palatini gravity theory, characterized by the function $f\left(R,\mathcal R\right)$, where $R$ is the metric scalar curvature and $\mathcal R$ the Palatini scalar curvature of the spacetime. We formulate the propagation equations of the suitable dimensionless variables that describe FLRW universes as an autonomous system. The fixed points are obtained for four different forms of the function $f\left(R,\mathcal R\right)$, and the behavior of the cosmic scale factor $a(t)$ is computed. We sho…
Recently D. Vollick [Phys. Rev. D68, 063510 (2003)] has shown that the inclusion of the 1/R curvature terms in the gravitational action and the use of the Palatini formalism offer an alternative explanation for cosmological acceleration. In this work we show not only that this model of Vollick does not have a good Newtonian limit, but also that any f(R) theory with a pole of order n in R=0 and its second derivative respect to R evaluated at Ro is not zero, where Ro is the scalar curvature of background, does not have a good Newtonian limit.
We examine the generation of primordial perturbations during an inflationary epoch in generalised theories of gravity when the equations of motion are derived using the Palatini variational principle. Both f(R) and Scalar-Tensor theories are considered and we compare our results with those obtained under the conventional metric formalism. Non-linear generalisations of the action lead to different theories under the two variational choices and we obtain distinct results for scalar and tensor spectral indices and their ratio. We find the following general result; inflation driven solely by f(R) …
Einstein's General Relativity (GR) is possibly one of the greatest intellectual achievements ever conceived by the human mind. In fact, over the last century, GR has proven to be an extremely successful theory, with a well established experimental footing. However, the discovery of the late-time cosmic acceleration, which represents a new imbalance in the governing gravitational field equations, has forced theorists and experimentalists to question whether GR is the correct relativistic theory of gravitation, and has spurred much research in modified gravity, where extensions of the Hilbert-Ei…
Although several models of $f(R)$ theories of gravity within the Palatini approach have been studied already, the interest was concentrated on those that have an effect on the late-time evolution of the universe, by the inclusion for example of terms inversely proportional to the scalar curvature in the gravitational action. However, additional positive powers of the curvature also provide interesting early-time phenomenology, like inflation, and the presence of such terms in the action is equally, if not more, probable. In the present paper models with both additional positive and negative po…
A modified model of gravity with additional positive and negative powers of the scalar curvature, $R$, in the gravitational action is studied. This is done using the Palatini variational principle. It is demonstrated that using such a model might prove useful to explain both the early time inflation and the late time cosmic acceleration without the need for any form of dark energy.
We investigate the thick brane model in Palatini $f(\mathcal{R})$ gravity. The brane is generated by a real scalar field with a scalar potential. We solve the system analytically and obtain a series of thick brane solutions for the $f(\mathcal{R})=\mathcal{R}+α\mathcal{R}^2$-brane model. It is shown that tensor perturbations of the metric are stable for $df({\mathcal{R}})/d{\mathcal{R}}>0$. For nonconstant curvature solutions, the graviton zero mode can be localized on the brane, which indicates that the four-dimensional gravity can be recovered on the brane. Mass spectrum of graviton KK modes…
We reconsider the problem of $f(R)$ theories of gravity coupled to Born-Infeld theory of electrodynamics formulated in a Palatini approach, where metric and connection are independent fields. By studying electrovacuum configurations in a static and spherically symmetric space-time, we find solutions which reduce to their Reissner-Nordström counterparts at large distances but undergo important non-perturbative modifications close to the center. Our new analysis reveals that the point-like singularity is replaced by a finite-size wormhole structure, which provides a geodesically complete and thu…
We study non-minimal Coleman-Weinberg inflation in the Palatini formulation of gravity in the presence of an $R^2$ term. The Planck scale is dynamically generated by the vacuum expectation value of the inflaton via its non-minimal coupling to the curvature scalar $R$. We show that the addition of the $R^2$ term in Palatini gravity makes non-minimal Coleman-Weinberg inflation again compatible with observational data.
We present two scale invariant models of inflation in which the addition of quadratic in curvature terms in the usual Einstein-Hilbert action, in the context of Palatini formulation of gravity, manages to reduce the value of the tensor-to-scalar ratio. In both models the Planck scale is dynamically generated via the vacuum expectation value of the scalar fields.
An instability in the presence of matter in theories of gravity which include a 1/R correction in the gravitational action has been found by Dolgov and Kawasaki. In the present paper this instability is discussed for f(R) gravity in general. We focus on the Palatini formalism of the theory and it is shown that no such instability occurs in this version of f(R) gravity. The reasons for the appearance of the instability in the metric but not in the Palatini formalism are fully investigated.
Corrections to Einstein's equations that become important at small curvatures are considered. The field equations are derived using a Palatini variation in which the connection and metric are varied independently. In contrast to the Einstein-Hilbert variation, which yields fourth order equations, the Palatini approach produces second order equations in the metric. The Lagrangian $L(R)=R-α^2/R$ is examined and it is shown that it leads to equations whose solutions approach a de Sitter universe at late times. Thus, the inclusion of 1/R curvature terms in the gravitational action offers an altern…
We prove the equivalence in the covariant phase space of the metric and connection formulations for Palatini gravity, with nonmetricity and torsion, on a spacetime manifold with boundary. To this end, we will rely on the cohomological approach provided by the relative bicomplex framework. Finally, we discuss some of the physical implications derived from this equivalence in the context of singularity identification through curvature invariants.
We consider extensions of the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian to a general functional of metric and Riemann curvature tensor. A given such Lagrangian describes two different theories depending on considering connection and metric (Palatini formulation), or only the metric (metric formulation) as independent dynamical degrees of freedom. Equivalence of the Palatini and metric formulations at the level of equations of motion, which as we will argue is a manifestation of the Equivalence Principle, is the physical criterion that restricts form of the Lagrangians of modified gravity theories. We prove …
We study scalar field inflation in $F(R)$ gravity in the Palatini formulation of general relativity. Unlike in the metric formulation, in the Palatini formulation $F(R)$ gravity does not introduce new degrees of freedom. However, it changes the relations between existing degrees of freedom, including the inflaton and spacetime curvature. Considering the case $F(R)=R+αR^2$, we find that the $R^2$ term decreases the height of the effective inflaton potential. By adjusting the value of $α$, this mechanism can be used to suppress the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ without limit in any scalar field mod…
In Cuzinatto et al. [Phys. Rev. D 93, 124034 (2016)], it has been demonstrated that theories of gravity in which the Lagrangian includes terms depending on the scalar curvature $R$ and its derivatives up to order $n$, i.e. $f\left(R,\nabla_μR,\nabla_{μ_{1}}\nabla_{μ_{2}}R,\dots,\nabla_{μ_{1}}\dots\nabla_{μ_{n}}R\right)$ theories of gravity, are equivalent to scalar-multitensorial theories in the Jordan frame. In particular, in the metric and Palatini formalisms, this scalar-multitensorial equivalent scenario shows a structure that resembles that of the Brans-Dicke theories with a kinetic term …
It is known that in f(R) theories of gravity with an independent connection which can be both non-metric and non symmetric, this connection can always be algebraically eliminated in favour of the metric and the matter fields, so long as it is not coupled to the matter explicitly. We show here that this is a special characteristic of f(R) actions, and it is not true for actions that include other curvature invariants. This contradicts some recent claims in the literature. We clarify the reasons of this contradiction.
We investigate the UV-completion of the Higgs inflation in the metric and the Palatini formalisms. It is known that the cutoff scales for the perturbative unitarity of these inflation models become much smaller than the Planck scale to be consistent with observations. Expecting that the low cutoff scale originates in the curvature of a field-space spanned by the Higgs fields, we consider embedding the curved field-space into a higher dimensional flat space and apply this procedure to the metric-Higgs and the Palatini-Higgs scenarios. The new field introduced in this way successfully flattens t…
We compute the complete post-Newtonian limit of the Palatini form of f(R) gravities using a scalar-tensor representation. By comparing the predictions of these theories with laboratory and solar system experiments, we find a set of inequalities that any lagrangian f(R) must satisfy. The constraints imposed by those inequalities allow us to find explicit functions that bound from above and from below the possible nonlinear terms of the lagrangian. We conclude that the lagrangian f(R) must be almost linear in R and that nonlinear corrections that grow at low curvatures are incompatible with obse…
Pure $R^2$ gravity has been shown to be equivalent to Einstein gravity with non-zero cosmological constant and a massless scalar field. We show that the Palatini formulation of pure $R^2$ gravity is equivalent to Einstein gravity with non-zero cosmological constant as before but with no massless scalar field. This is an important new development because the massless scalar field is not readily identifiable with any known particle in nature or unknown particles like cold dark matter which are expected to be massive. We then include a non-minimally coupled Higgs field as well as fermions to disc…
With a scalar field non-minimally coupled to curvature, the underlying geometry and variational principle of gravity - metric or Palatini - becomes important and makes a difference, as the field dynamics and observational predictions generally depend on this choice. In the present paper we describe a classification principle which encompasses both metric and Palatini models of inflation, employing the fact that inflationary observables can be neatly expressed in terms of certain quantities which remain invariant under conformal transformations and scalar field redefinitions. This allows us to …
Wormhole solutions in a generalized hybrid metric-Palatini matter theory, given by a gravitational Lagrangian $f\left(R,\cal{R}\right)$, where $R$ is the metric Ricci scalar, and $\mathcal{R}$ is a Palatini scalar curvature defined in terms of an independent connection, and a matter Lagrangian, are found. The solutions are worked in the scalar-tensor representation of the theory, where the Palatini field is traded for two scalars, $φ$ and $ψ$, and the gravitational term $R$ is maintained. The main interest in the solutions found is that the matter field obeys the null energy condition (NEC) ev…
Palatini variational principle is implemented on a five dimensional quadratic curvature gravity model, rendering two sets of equations which can be interpreted as the field equations and the stress-energy tensor. Unification of gravity with electromagnetism and the scalar dilaton field is achieved through the Kaluza-Klein dimensional reduction mechanism. The reduced curvature invariant, field equations and the stress-energy tensor in four dimensional spacetime are obtained. The structure of the interactions among the constituent fields is exhibited in detail. It is shown that the Lorentz force…
We study new FRW type cosmological models of modified gravity treated on the background of Palatini approach. These models are generalization of Einstein gravity by the presence of a scalar field non-minimally coupled to the curvature. The models employ Starobinsky's term in the Lagrangian and dust matter. Therefore, as a by-product, an exhausted cosmological analysis of general relativity amended by quadratic term is presented. We investigate dynamics of our models, confront them with the currently available astrophysical data as well as against LCDM model. We have used the dynamical system m…
We explore the cosmological viability of a theory of gravity defined by the Lagrangian $f(\mathcal{R})=\mathcal{R}^{n\left(\mathcal{R}\right)}$ in the Palatini formalism, where $n\left(\mathcal{R}\right)$ is a dimensionless function of the Palatini scalar curvature $\mathcal{R}$ that interpolates between general relativity when $n\left(\mathcal{R}\right)=1$ and a locally scale-invariant and superficially renormalizable theory when $n\left(\mathcal{R}\right)=2$. We refer to this model as asymptotically Weyl-invariant gravity (AWIG). We analyse perhaps the simplest possible implementation of AWI…
In the framework of classical scale invariance, we consider quadratic gravity in the Palatini formalism and investigate the inflationary predictions of the theory. Our model corresponds to a two-field scalar-tensor theory, that involves the Higgs field and an extra scalar field stemming from a gauge $U(1)_X$ extension of the Standard Model, which contains an extra gauge boson and three right-handed neutrinos. Both scalar fields couple nonminimally to gravity and induce the Planck scale dynamically, once they develop vacuum expectation values. By means of the Gildener-Weinberg approach, we desc…
The dynamical generation of wormholes within an extension of General Relativity (GR) containing (Planck's scale-suppressed) Ricci-squared terms is considered. The theory is formulated assuming the metric and connection to be independent (Palatini formalism) and is probed using a charged null fluid as a matter source. This has the following effect: starting from Minkowski space, when the flux is active the metric becomes a charged Vaidya-type one, and once the flux is switched off the metric settles down into a static configuration such that far from the Planck scale the geometry is virtually i…
The theory of General Relativity was established on a spacetime manifold equipped with a metric tensor, $(\mathcal{M}_4,\text{g})$, and the connection on $\mathcal{M}_4$ identified with the Levi-Civita one. Even though there are valid reasons to assume a torsionless manifold that preserves the metric, it was shown that dealing away with these assumptions the Levi-Civita condition can be reproduced at the level of equations of motion of GR. It was not long before the equivalence of General Relativity between the two descriptions, known as the Palatini or first-order formalism in which the conne…
It has been suggested that new massive gravity with higher order terms in the curvature may be renormalizable and thus a candidate for renormalizable quantum gravity. We show that three-dimensional gravity that contains quadratic scalar curvature and Ricci tensor is renormalizable, but those theories with special relation between their coefficients including new massive gravity are not.
This thesis presents research exploring aspects of inflation and cosmology in the context of inflation models in which an inflaton is non-minimally coupled to the Ricci scalar, or is considered in conjunction with a term quadratic in the Ricci scalar. We consider a $ϕ^{2}$ Palatini inflation model in $R^{2}$ gravity and investigate whether this model can overcome some of the problems of the original $ϕ^{2}$ chaotic inflation model. We investigate the compatibility of this model with the observed CMB when treated as an effective theory of inflation in quantum gravity by examining the constraint…
As is known from studies of gravity models in the Palatini formalism, there exist two inequivalent definitions of the generalized Ricci tensor in terms of the generalized curvature namely, $\widetilde{R}_{μν}=R^ρ_{μρν}$ and $R^μ_ν=g^{αβ}R^μ_{ανβ}$. A deep formal investigation of theories with lagrangians of the form $L=L(\widetilde{R}_{(μν)})$ was initiated in [4]. In that work, the authors leave the connection free, and find out that the torsion only appears as a projective mode. This agrees with the widely employed condition of vanishing torsion in these theories as a simple gauge choice. In…
The Covariant Canonical Gauge theory of Gravity is generalized by including at the Lagrangian level all possible quadratic curvature invariants. In this approach, the covariant Hamiltonian principle and the canonical transformation framework are applied to derive a Palatini type gauge theory of gravity. The metric $g_{μν}$, the affine connection $γ\indices{^λ_{μν}}$ and their respective conjugate momenta, $k^{μνσ}$ and $q\indices{_η^{αξβ}}$ tensors, are the independent field components describing the gravity. The metric is the basic dynamical field, and the connection is the gauge field. The t…
The present paper reconsiders the Newtonian limit of models of modified gravity including higher order terms in the scalar curvature in the gravitational action. This was studied using the Palatini variational principle in [Meng X. and Wang P.: Gen. Rel. Grav. {\bf 36}, 1947 (2004)] and [Domínguez A. E. and Barraco D. E.: Phys. Rev. D {\bf 70}, 043505 (2004)] with contradicting results. Here a different approach is used, and problems in the previous attempts are pointed out. It is shown that models with negative powers of the scalar curvature, like the ones used to explain the present accelera…
In this work we show that the gravity lagrangian f(R) at relatively low curvatures in both metric and Palatini formalisms is a bounded function that can only depart from the linearity within the limits defined by well known functions. We obtain those functions by analysing a set of inequalities that any f(R) theory must satisfy in order to be compatible with laboratory and solar system observational constraints. This result implies that the recently suggested f(R) gravity theories with nonlinear terms that dominate at low curvatures are incompatible with observations and, therefore, cannot rep…
We present the most general quadratic curvature action with torsion including infinite covariant derivatives and study its implications around the Minkowski background via the Palatini approach. Provided the torsion is solely given by the background axial field, the metric and torsion are shown to decouple, and both of them can be made ghost and singularity free for a fermionic source.
The superspace formulation of N=1 conformal supergravity in four dimensions is demonstrated to be equivalent to the conventional component field approach based on the superconformal tensor calculus. The detailed correspondence between two approaches is explicitly given for various quantities; superconformal gauge fields, curvatures and curvature constraints, general conformal multiplets and their transformation laws, and so on. In particular, we carefully analyze the curvature constraints leading to the superconformal algebra and also the superconformal gauge fixing leading to Poincare supergr…
Using f (R) gravity in the Palatini formularism, the metric for a charged spherically symmetric black hole is derived, taking the Ricci scalar curvature to be constant. The generalized uncertainty principle is then used to calculate the temperature of the resulting black hole, through this the entropy is found correcting the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy in this case. Using the entropy the tunneling probability and heat capacity are calculated up to the order of the Planck length, which produces an extra factor that becomes important as black holes become small, such as in the case of mini black …
In General Relativity, there have been many proposals for defining the gravitational energy density, notably those proposed by Einstein, Tolman, Landau and Lifshitz, Papapetrou, Møller, and Weinberg. In this review, we firstly explored the energy--momentum complex in an $n^{th}$ order gravitational Lagrangian $L=L\left(g_{μν}, g_{μν,i_{1}}, g_{μν,i_{1}i_{2}},g_{μν,i_{1}i_{2}i_{3}},\cdots, g_{μν,i_{1}i_{2}i_{3}\cdots i_{n}}\right)$ and then in a gravitational Lagrangian as \mbox{$L_{g}=(\overline{R}+a_{0}R^{2}+\sum_{k=1}^{p} a_{k}R\Box^{k}R)\sqrt{-g}$}. Its gravitational part was obtained by in…
It has been recently shown that, in the first order (Palatini) formalism, there is universality of Einstein equations and Komar energy-momentum complex, in the sense that for a generic nonlinear Lagrangian depending only on the scalar curvature of a metric and a torsionless connection one always gets Einstein equations and Komar's expression for the energy-momentum complex. In this paper a similar analysis (also in the framework of the first order formalism) is performed for all nonlinear Lagrangians depending on the (symmetrized) Ricci square invariant. The main result is that the universalit…
It is shown that for a wide class of analytic Lagrangians which depend only on the scalar curvature of a metric and a connection, the application of the so--called ``Palatini formalism'', i.e., treating the metric and the connection as independent variables, leads to ``universal'' equations. If the dimension $n$ of space--time is greater than two these universal equations are Einstein equations for a generic Lagrangian and are suitably replaced by other universal equations at bifurcation points. We show that bifurcations take place in particular for conformally invariant Lagrangians $L=R^{n/2}…
We present a smooth extension of the Schwarzschild exterior geometry, where the singular interior is superceded by a vacuum phase with vanishing metric determinant. Unlike the Kruskal-Szekeres continuation, this solution to the first-order field equations in vacuum has no singularity in the curvature two-form fields, no horizon and no global time. The underlying non-analytic structure provides a distinct geometric realization of `mass' in classical gravity. We also find that the negative mass Schwarzschild solution does not admit a similar extension within the first-order theory. This is consi…
The quantization of the reduced phase-space of the Einstein-Hilbert action for gravity in $2+1D$ has been shown to bring about the emergence, at the quantum level, of a topological quantum field theory endowed with an $SU_q(2)$ quantum group symmetry structure. We hereby tackle the same problem, but start from the kinematical $SU(2)$ (quantum) Hilbert space of the theory of $2+1D$ gravity with non-zero cosmological constant in the Palatini formalism, and subsequently impose the constraints. We hence show the dynamical emergence of the $SU_q(2)$ quantum group at the quantum level within the spi…
