Spin foam models of quantum gravity are based on Plebanski's formulation of general relativity as a constrained BF theory. We give an alternative formulation of gravity as BF theory plus a certain potential term for the B-field. When the potential is taken to be infinitely steep one recovers general relativity. For a generic potential the theory still describes gravity in that it propagates just two graviton polarizations. The arising class of theories is of the type amenable to spin foam quantization methods, and, we argue, may allow one to come to terms with renormalization in the spin foam context.
We show that the YARK theory of gravity, proposed in Eur. Phys. J. Plus 133, 261 (2018) by Kholmetskii et al. and in previous papers of the same research group is wrong.
The divergent part of the one-loop off-shell effective action is computed for a single scalar field coupled to the Ricci curvature of 2D gravity ($c ϕR$), and self interacting by an arbitrary potential term $V(ϕ)$. The Vilkovisky-DeWitt effective action is used to compute gauge-fixing independent results. In our background field/covariant gauge we find that the Liouville theory is finite on shell. Off-shell, we find a large class of renormalizable potentials which include the Liouville potential. We also find that for backgrounds satisfying $R=0$, the Liouville theory is finite off shell, as w…
This lecture consists of two parts. The first is a (totally unsystematic) survey of some of the high points in the evolution of gravity and its successors, primarily in the course of the past century. The second summarizes some new work on surprising properties of higher $(> 1)$ spin fields in cosmological backgrounds: the presence of $Ł$ gives rise to discrete sets of massive models endowed with gauge invariances, that divide the ($m^2, Ł$) plane into unitary and non-unitary phases. The unitary region common to fermions and bosons shrinks to flat space ($ Ł\to 0 $) as their spins increase.
By exploiting relations between gravity and gauge theories, we present two infinite sequences of one-loop n-graviton scattering amplitudes: the `maximally helicity-violating' amplitudes in N=8 supergravity, and the `all-plus' helicity amplitudes in gravity with any minimally coupled massless matter content. The all-plus amplitudes correspond to self-dual field configurations and vanish in supersymmetric theories. We make use of the tree-level Kawai-Lewellen-Tye (KLT) relations between open and closed string theory amplitudes, which in the low-energy limit imply relations between gravity and ga…
We analyze the GAIA release II data to demonstrate how one can measure the absolute total intrinsic redshifts of the main sequence stars and red giants. We remove the relative velocity components of the stars' motion with respect to the sun by doing the analysis in the local standard of rest (LSR) frame defined by the average stars' motion. We provide results for four different types of stars. F, G and K types of stars have about the same value of intrinsic redshift, which is however much smaller than the expected gravitational redshift. This indicates that the GAIA's data include convective b…
We investigate a minisuperspace model of Einstein gravity plus dilaton that describes a static spherically symmetric configuration or a Kantowski - Sachs like universe. We develop the canonical formalism and identify canonical quantities that generate rigid symmetries of the Hamiltonian. Quantization is performed by the Dirac and the reduced methods. Both approaches lead to the same positive definite Hilbert space.
Topological field theory plus local Lorentz symmetry is gravity
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（佩里蒙特理论物理研究所）；University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学）；Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg（埃尔朗根-纽伦堡弗里德里希·亚历山大大学）
Classical point particles in Newtonian gravity obey, as they do in general relativity, the universality of free fall. However classical structured particles, (for instance with a mass quadrupole moment), need not obey the universality of free fall. Quantum mechanically, an elementary "point" particle (in the particle physics sense) can be described by a localized wave-packet, for which we can define a probability quadrupole moment. This probability quadrupole can, under plausible hypotheses, affect the universality of free fall. (So point-like elementary particles, in the particle physics sens…
An alternative to usual dimensional reduction for gravity is analyzed, in the vielbein-spin connection formulation. Usual 4d Einstein gravity plus a topological term (the "Born-Infeld" Lagrangian for gravity), is shown to be obtained by a generalized dimensional reduction from 5d Chern-Simons gravity. Chern-Simons gravity in d=2n+1 is dimensionally reduced to CS gravity in d=2n-1 via a mechanism similar to descent equations. The consistency of the dimensional reduction in both cases is analyzed. The dimensional reduction of d=2n+2 Born-Infeld gravity to d=2n BI gravity, as well as d=2n BI grav…
Gauge fields associated to the Dirac matrix algebra used with the standard quadratic gauge field Lagrangian lead to an extended gravitational Lagrangian which includes the Einstein-Hilbert one, plus quadratic, cosmological constant and torsion terms. This note looks at three cases : the static central symmetric field, the isotropic expanding universe, and the asymptotic field of a rotating body, and show that, in weak gravitational fields, there is no contradiction with General Relativity results.
We have studied spacetime structures of static solutions in the $n$-dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet-Maxwell-$Λ$ system. Especially we focus on effects of the Maxwell charge. We assume that the Gauss-Bonnet coefficient $α$ is non-negative and $4{\tilde α}/\ell^2\leq 1$ in order to define the relevant vacuum state. Solutions have the $(n-2)$-dimensional Euclidean sub-manifold whose curvature is $k=1,~0$, or -1. In Gauss-Bonnet gravity, solutions are classified into plus and minus branches. In the plus branch all solutions have the same asymptotic structure as those in general relativity with a…
After the recent historical discovery of gravitational wave, it is curious to speculate upon the detection prospect of the quantum graviton in the terrestrial accelerator-based experiment. We carefully investigate the "golden" channels, $J/ψ(Υ)\toγ+\text{graviton}$, which can be pursued at \textsf{BESIII} and \textsf{Belle 2} experiments, by searching for single-photon plus missing energy events. Within the effective field theory (EFT) framework of General Relativity (GR) together with Nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD), we are capable of making solid predictions for the corresponding decay rates. It…
A class of exact solutions of the field equations with higher derivative terms is presented when the matter field is a pressureless null fluid plus a Maxwellian static electric component. It is found that the stable solutions are black holes in anti de Sitter background. The issue of the stability of the Cauchy horizon is discussed.
We give a model of the higher-dimensional spherically symmetric gravitational collapse of a dust cloud in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. A simple formulation of the basic equations is given for the spacetime $M \approx M^2 \times K^{n-2}$ with a perfect fluid and a cosmological constant. This is a generalization of the Misner-Sharp formalism of the four-dimensional spherically symmetric spacetime with a perfect fluid in general relativity. The whole picture and the final fate of the gravitational collapse of a dust cloud differ greatly between the cases with $n=5$ and $n \ge 6$. There are two …
A configuration whose density profile coincides with the Newtonian potential for spiral galaxies is constructed from a 4D isotropic metric plus extra dimensional components. A Miyamoto-Nagai ansatz is used to solve Einstein equations. The stable rotation curves of such system are computed and, without fitting techniques, we recover with accuracy the observational data for flat or not asymptotically flat galaxy rotation curves. The density profiles are reconstructed and compared to that obtained from the Newtonian potential.
A perturbative regime based on contorsion as a dynamical variable and metric as a (classical) fixed background, is performed in the context of a pure Yang-Mills formulation based on $GL(3,R)$ gauge group. In the massless case we show that the theory propagates three degrees of freedom and only one is a non-unitary mode. Next, we introduce quadratical terms dependent on torsion, which preserve parity and general covariance. The linearized version reproduces an analogue Hilbert-Einstein-Fierz-Pauli unitary massive theory plus three massless modes, two of them non-unitary ones.
Recentely, it is shown that the quantum effects of matter determine the conformal degree of freedom of the space-time metric. This was done in the framework of a scalar-tensor theory with one scalar field. A point with that theory is that the form of quantum potential is preassumed. Here we present a scalar-tensor theory with two scalar fields, and no assumption on the form of quantum potential. It is shown that using the equations of motion one gets the correct form of quantum potential plus some corrections.
We study boundary conditions for 3-dimensional higher spin gravity that admit asymptotic symmetry algebras expected of 2-dimensional induced higher spin theories in the light cone gauge. For the higher spin theory based on sl(3, R) plus sl(3,R) algebra, our boundary conditions give rise to one copy of classical W3 and a copy of sl(3,R) or su(1,2) Kac-Moody symmetry algebra. We propose that the higher spin theories with these boundary conditions describe appropriate chiral induced W-gravity theories on the boundary. We also consider boundary conditions of spin-3 higher spin gravity that admit u…
In this paper, we consider the bulk plus boundary phase space for three-dimensional gravity with negative cosmological constant for a particular choice of conformal boundary conditions: the conformal class of the induced metric at the boundary is kept fixed and the mean extrinsic curvature is constrained to be one. Such specific conformal boundary conditions define so-called Bryant surfaces, which can be classified completely in terms of holomorphic maps from Riemann surfaces into the spinor bundle. To study the observables and gauge symmetries of the resulting bulk plus boundary system, we in…
We study the spacetime structures of the static solutions in the $n$-dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet-$Λ$ system systematically. We assume the Gauss-Bonnet coefficient $α$ is non-negative. The solutions have the $(n-2)$-dimensional Euclidean sub-manifold, which is the Einstein manifold with the curvature $k=1,~0$ and -1. We also assume $4{\tilde α}/\ell^2\leq 1$, where $\ell$ is the curvature radius, in order for the sourceless solution (M=0) to be defined. The general solutions are classified into plus and minus branches. The structures of the center, horizons, infinity and the singular poin…
Among relativistic theories of gravitation the closest ones to general relativity are the scalar-tensor ones and these with Lagrangians being any function f(R) of the curvature scalar. A complete chart of relationships between these theories and general relativity can be delineated. These theories are mathematically (locally) equivalent to general relativity plus a minimally coupled self-interacting scalar field. Physically they describe a massless spin-2 field (graviton) and a spin-0 component of gravity. It is shown that these theories are either physically equivalent to general relativity p…
We study perturbative quantum gravity in the first-order tetrad formalism. The lowest order action corresponds to Einstein-Cartan plus a parity-odd term, and is known in the literature as the Holst action. The coupling constant of the parity-odd term can be identified with the Immirzi parameter of loop quantum gravity. We compute the quantum effective action in the one-loop expansion. As in the metric second-order formulation, we find that in the case of pure gravity the theory is on-shell finite, and the running of Newton's constant and the Immirzi parameter is inessential. In the presence of…
We study a parity violating Metric-Affine gravitational theory given by the Einstein-Hilbert action plus the so-called Holst term in vacuum. We find out that for a certain value of the Barbero-Immirzi parameter the total action possesses a remarkable invariance under particular transformations of the affine connection. We prove that in all cases, with appropriate gauge choices, the connection reduces to the Levi-Civita one and that the theory turns out to be equivalent to general relativity in vacuum. Subsequently, we generalize our discussion and analyze the case of Metric-Affine $f(R)$ gravi…
The Melnikov method is applied to periodically perturbed open systems modeled by an inverse--square--law attraction center plus a quadrupolelike term. A compactification approach that regularizes periodic orbits at infinity is introduced. The (modified) Smale-Birkhoff homoclinic theorem is used to study transversal homoclinic intersections. A larger class of open systems with degenerated (nonhyperbolic) unstable periodic orbits after regularization is also briefly considered.
We obtain the Page curves of an eternal Reissner-Nordström black hole in the presence of higher derivative terms in four dimensions. We consider two cases: gravitational action with general ${\cal O}(R^2)$ terms plus Maxwell term and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity plus Maxwell term. In both the cases entanglement entropy of the Hawking radiation in the absence of island surface is increasing linearly with time. After including contribution from the island surface, we find that after the Page time, entanglement entropy of the Hawking radiation in both the cases reaches a constant value which is …
We study gravitational theory in 1+2 spacetime dimensions which is determined by the Lagrangian constructed as a sum of the Einstein-Hilbert term plus the two (translational and rotational) gravitational Chern-Simons terms. When the corresponding coupling constants vanish, we are left with the purely Einstein theory of gravity. We obtain new exact solutions for the gravitational field equations with the nontrivial material sources. Special attention is paid to plane-fronted gravitational waves (in case of the Maxwell field source) and to the circularly symmetric as well as the anisotropic cosm…
We consider noncommutative gravity on a space with canonical noncommutativity that is based on the commutative MacDowell-Mansouri action. Gravity is treated as gauge theory of the noncommutative $SO(1,3)_\star$ group and the Seiberg-Witten (SW) map is used to express noncommutative fields in terms of the corresponding commutative fields. In the commutative limit the noncommutative action reduces to the Einstein-Hilbert action plus the cosmological term and the topological Gauss-Bonnet term. After the SW expansion in the noncommutative parameter the first order correction to the action, as expe…
We compute the vacuum energy of three-dimensional asymptotically flat space based on a Chern-Simons formulation for the Poincare group. The equivalent action is nothing but the Einstein-Hilbert term in the bulk plus half of the Gibbons-Hawking term at the boundary. The derivation is based on the evaluation of the Noether charges in the vacuum. We obtain that the vacuum energy of this space has the same value as the one of the asymptotically flat limit of three-dimensional anti-de Sitter space.
A "quantum-first" approach to gravity is described, where rather than quantizing general relativity, one seeks to formulate the physics of gravity within a quantum-mechanical framework with suitably general postulates. Important guides are the need for appropriate mathematical structure on Hilbert space, and correspondence with general relativity and quantum field theory in weak-gravity situations. A basic physical question is that of "Einstein separability:" how to define mutually independent subsystems, e.g. through localization. Standard answers via tensor products or operator algebras conf…
We present an improved formulation of 4-dimensional Lorentzian spinfoam quantum gravity with cosmological constant. The construction of spinfoam amplitudes uses the state-integral model of PSL(2,$\mathbb{C}$) Chern-Simons theory and the implementation of simplicity constraint. The formulation has 2 key features: (1) spinfoam amplitudes are all finite, and (2) With suitable boundary data, the semiclassical asymptotics of the vertex amplitude has two oscillatory terms, with phase plus or minus the 4-dimensional Lorentzian Regge action with cosmological constant for the constant curvature 4-simpl…
We derive the gravitational waves for $f\left(T, B\right)$ gravity, an extension of teleparallel gravity containing the torsion scalar $T$ and the boundary term $B$, and demonstrate that it is equivalent to $f(R)$ gravity. Gravitational waves, in this theory, show three polarizations: the two standard, plus and cross, of General Relativity, which are purely transverse, massless tensor polarization modes with two-helicity, and an additional massive scalar mode with zero-helicity. The last one is a mix of a longitudinal mode and a transverse breathing mode. The boundary term $B$ excites the extr…
We show that the intrinsic angular momentum of matter in curved spacetime requires the metric-affine formulation of gravity, in which the antisymmetric part of the affine connection (the torsion tensor) is not constrained to be zero but is a variable in the principle of stationary action. Regarding the tetrad and spin connection (or the metric and torsion tensors) as independent variables gives the correct generalization of the conservation law for the total (orbital plus intrinsic) angular momentum to the presence of the gravitational field. The metric-affine formulation extends general relat…
Singularities in the dark energy late universe are discussed, under the assumption that the Lagrangian contains the Einstein term R plus a modified gravity term of the form R^α, where αis a constant. It is found, similarly as in the case of pure Einstein gravity [I. Brevik and O. Gorbunova, Gen. Rel. Grav. 37 (2005), 2039], that the fluid can pass from the quintessence region (w>-1) into the phantom region (w<-1) as a consequence of a bulk viscosity varying with time. It becomes necessary now, however, to allow for a two-fluid model, since the viscosities for the two components vary differentl…
In the non-relativistic theory of gravitation recently proposed by Horava, the Hamiltonian constraint is not a local equation satisfied at each spatial point but an equation integrated over a whole space. The global Hamiltonian constraint is less restrictive than its local version, and allows a richer set of solutions than in general relativity. We show that a component which behaves like pressureless dust emerges as an "integration constant" of dynamical equations and momentum constraint equations. Consequently, classical solutions to the infrared limit of Horava-Lifshitz gravity can mimic ge…
