Our main aim in this paper is to promote the coframe variational method as a unified approach to derive field equations for any given gravitational action containing the algebraic functions of the scalars constructed from the Riemann curvature tensor and its contractions. We are able to derive a master equation which expresses the variational derivatives of the generalized gravitational actions in terms of the variational derivatives of its constituent curvature scalars. Using the Lagrange multiplier method relative to an orthonormal coframe, we investigate the variational procedures for modified gravitational Lagrangian densities in spacetime dimensions $n\geqslant 3$. We study well-known gravitational actions such as those involving the Gauss-Bonnet and Ricci-squared, Kretchmann scalar, Weyl-squared terms and their algebraic generalizations similar to generic $f(R)$ theories and the algebraic generalization of sixth order gravitational Lagrangians. We put forth a new model involving the gravitational Chern-Simons term and also give three dimensional New massive gravity equations in a new form in terms of the Cotton 2-form.
A method of calculation for the variational derivatives for gravitational actions in the pseudo-Riemannian case is proposed as a practical variant of the first order formalism with constraints. The method is then used to derive the metric field equations for a generic $f(R)$ model.
A model is proposed, according to which the metric tensor field in the standard gravitational Lagrangian is decomposed into a projection (generally - with a non-zero covariant derivative) tensor field, orthogonal to an arbitrary 4-vector field and a tensor part along the same vector field. A theorem has been used, according to which the variation and the partial derivative, when applied to a tensor field, commute with each other if and only if the tensor field and its variation have zero covariant derivatives, provided also the connection variation is zero. Since the projection field obviously…
The usual interpretation of Weyl geometry is modified in two senses. First, both the additive Weyl connection and its variation are treated as (1, 2) tensors under the action of Weyl covariant derivative. Second, a modified covariant derivative operator is introduced which still preserves the tensor structure of the theory. With its help, the Riemann tensor in Weyl geometry can be written in a more compact form. We justify this modification in detail from several aspects and obtain some insights along the way. By introducing some new transformation rules for the variation of tensors under the …
The prescription of Silva to derive superpotential equations from variational derivatives rather than from Lagrangian densities is applied to theories of gravity derived from Lovelock Lagrangians in the Palatini representation. Spacetimes are without torsion and isolated sources of gravity are minimally coupled. On a closed boundary of spacetime, the metric is given and the connection coefficients are those of Christoffel. We derive equations for the superpotentials in these conditions. The equations are easily integrated and we give the general expression for all superpotentials associated wi…
The actions for bosonic fields typically contain terms quadratic in the derivatives of the fields. This is not the case in the Palatini approach to general relativity. The action does not contain any derivatives of the metric and it only contains terms linear in the derivatives of the connection. In general relativity the covariant derivative of the metric vanishes, so it is not possible to include such terms in the action. However, in more general theories this is not the case. In this paper I consider an action which is quadratic in the derivatives of the metric and connection and show that …
We discuss the criteria that must be satisfied by a well-posed variational principle. We clarify the role of Gibbons-Hawking-York type boundary terms in the actions of higher derivative models of gravity, such as F(R) gravity, and argue that the correct boundary terms are the naive ones obtained though the correspondence with scalar-tensor theory, despite the fact that variations of normal derivatives of the metric must be fixed on the boundary. We show in the case of F(R) gravity that these boundary terms reproduce the correct ADM energy in the hamiltonian formalism, and the correct entropy f…
We present a method for the Hamiltonian formulation of field theories that are based on Lagrangians containing second derivatives. The new feature of our formalism is that all four partial derivatives of the field variables are initially considered as independent fields, in contrast to the conventional Ostrogradski method, where only the velocity is turned into an independent field variable. The consistency of the formalism is demonstrated by simple unconstrained and constrained second order scalar field theories. Its application to General Relativity is briefly outlined.
We consider an original variational approach for building new models of quintessence interacting with dark or baryonic matter. The coupling is introduced at the Lagrangian level using a variational formulation for relativistic fluids, where the interacting term generally depends on both the dynamical degrees of freedom of the theory and their spacetime derivatives. After deriving the field equations from the action, we consider applications in the context of cosmology. Two simple models are studied using dynamical system techniques showing the interesting phenomenology arising in this framewor…
We consider the variational principle in the covariant formulation of modified teleparallel theories with second order field equations. We vary the action with respect to the spin connection and obtain a consistency condition relating the spin connection with the tetrad. We argue that since the spin connection can be calculated using an additional reference tetrad, modified teleparallel theories can be interpreted as effectively bigravity theories. We conclude with discussion about the relation of our results and those obtained in the usual, non-covariant, formulation of teleparallel theories …
The purpose of the paper is to develop further a projection variational approach in relativistic hydrodynamics. The approach, previously proposed in [gr-qc/9908032], is based on the variation of the vector field and the projection tensor (instead of the given metric tensor) and their first partial derivatives. The previously proved property of non-commutativity of the variation and the partial derivative in respect to the projection tensor has been used to find all the variations. Subsequently, motivated by some analogy with the well-known (3+1) ADM projection formalism, an assumption has been…
We consider nonlocal modified Einstein gravity without matter, where nonlocal term has the form $P(R) F(\Box) Q(R)$. For this model, in this paper we give the derivation of the equations of motion in detail. This is not an easy task and presented derivation should be useful to a researcher who wants to investigate nonlocal gravity. Also, we present the second variation of the related Einstein-Hilbert modified action and basics of gravity perturbations.
In this note, we discuss the gravitational memory effect in higher derivative and infinite derivative gravity theories and give the detailed relevant calculations whose results were given in our recent works. We show that the memory effect in higher derivative gravity takes the same form as in pure GR at large distances, whereas at small distances, the results are different. We also demonstrated that, in infinite derivative gravity, the memory is reduced via error function as compared to Einstein's gravity. For the lower bound on the mass scale of non-locality, the memory is essentially reprod…
We construct $F(T,\left(\nabla{T}\right)^2,\Box {T})$ gravitational modifications, which are novel classes of modified theories arising from higher-derivative torsional terms in the action, and are different than their curvature analogue. Applying them in a cosmological framework we obtain an effective dark energy sector that comprises of the novel torsional contributions. We perform a detailed dynamical analysis for two specific examples, extracting the stable late-time solutions and calculating the corresponding observables. We show that the thermal history of the universe can be reproduced,…
A result of existence of homogeneous scalar field solutions between prescribed configurations is given, using a modified version of Euler--Maupertuis least action variational principle. Solutions are obtained as limit of approximating variational problems, solved using techniques introduced by Rabinowitz.
In this paper, we consider a recently proposed model of Dark Energy (DE) which contains three terms (one proportional to the squared Hubble parameter, one to the first derivative with respect to the cosmic time of the Hubble parameter and one proportional to the second derivative with respect to the cosmic time of the Hubble parameter) in the light of the $f\left(R,T \right)$ model of modified gravity, considering the particular model $f\left(R,T \right) = μR + νT$, with $μ$ and $ν$ two free positive constant parameters. Here $R$ and $T$ are the curvature and torsion scalars, respectively. In …
It is shown that when in a higher order variational principle one fixes fields at the boundary leaving the field derivatives unconstrained, then the variational principle (in particular the solution space) is not invariant with respect to the addition of boundary terms to the action, as it happens instead when the correct procedure is applied. Examples are considered to show how leaving derivatives of fields unconstrained affects the physical interpretation of the model. This is justified in particularl by the need of clarifying the issue for the purpose of applications to relativistic gravita…
We construct gravitational modifications that go beyond Horndeski, namely theories with extended nonminimal derivative couplings, in which the coefficient functions depend not only on the scalar field but also on its kinetic energy. Such theories prove to be ghost-free in a cosmological background. We investigate the early-time cosmology and show that a de Sitter inflationary phase can be realized as a pure result of the novel gravitational couplings. Additionally, we study the late-time evolution, where we obtain an effective dark energy sector which arises from the scalar field and its exten…
In literature there is a model of modified gravity in which the matter Lagrangian is coupled to the geometry via trace of the stress-energy momentum tensor $T=T_μ^μ$. This type of modified gravity is called as $f(R,T)$ in which $R$ is Ricci scalar $R=R_μ^μ$. We extend manifestly this model to include the higher derivative term $\Box R$. We derived equation of motion (EOM) for the model by starting from the basic variational principle. Later we investigate FLRW cosmology for our model. We show that de Sitter solution is unstable for a generic type of $f(R,\Box R, T)$ model. Furthermore we inves…
