We discuss some interesting holographical aspects of three-dimensional higher-spin gravity with a negative cosmological constant in the framework of SL(4, R) \times SL(4, R) Chern-Simons theory. Using a recently found technique, we construct explicitly a solution that can be interpreted as spin-4 generalization of the BTZ solution, and demonstrate how W_4 symmetry and the higher-spin Ward identities arise from the bulk equations of motion coupled to spin-3 and spin-4 currents. We match the eigenvalues of a Wilson loop along the time-like direction of the BTZ to that of the spin-4 solution, and show that this yields remarkably consistent gravitational thermodynamics for the latter. This furnishes an important, concrete supporting example for a recent proposal to understand spacetime geometries in three-dimensional higher-spin gravity formulated via SL(N, R) \times SL(N, R) Chern-Simons theories.
Infinite derivative theory of gravity is a modification to the general theory of relativity. Such modification maintains the massless graviton as the only true physical degree of freedom and avoids ghosts. Moreover, this class of modified gravity can address classical singularities. In this thesis some essential aspects of an infinite derivative theory of gravity are studied. Namely, we considered the Hamiltonian formalism, where the true physical degrees of freedom for infinite derivative scalar models and infinite derivative gravity are obtained. Furthermore, the Gibbons-Hawking-York boundar…
We present a 3-dimensional model for massive gravity with masses induced by topological (Chern-Simons) and Proca-like mass terms. Causality and unitarity are discussed at tree-level. Power-counting renormalizability is also contemplated.
We discuss some features of Einstein-Proca gravity in D=3 and 4 space-times. Our study includes a discussion on the tree-level unitarity and on the issue of light deflection in 3D gravity in the presence of a mass term.
After reviewing the basic aspects of the exactly solvable quantum-corrected dilaton-gravity theories in two dimensions, we discuss a (subjective) selection of other aspects: a) supersymmetric extensions, b) canonical formalism, ADM-mass, and the functional integral measure, and c) a positive energy theorem and its application to the ADM- and Bondi-masses.
Cubic Galileon massive gravity is a development of de Rham-Gabadadze-Tolly (dRGT) massive gravity theory is which the space of the Stueckelberg field is broken. We consider the cubic Galileon term as a scalar field coupled to the graviton filed. We present a detailed study of the cosmological aspects of this theory of gravity. We analyze self-accelerating solutions of the background equations of motion to explain the accelerated expansion of the Universe. Exploiting the latest Union2 Type Ia Supernovea (SNIa) dataset, which consists of 557 SNIa, we show that cubic Galileon massive gravity theo…
We consider the effect of quantum interactions on Pauli-Fierz massive gravity. With generic graviton cubic interactions, we observe that the 1-loop counterterms do not conform to the tree level structure of Pauli-Fierz action, resulting in the reappearance of the 6th mode ghost. Then to explore the quantum effects to the full extent, we calculate the resummed graviton propagator with an arbitrary interaction and analyze its complete structure, from which a minimal condition for the absence of the ghost is obtained.
In the first part of the thesis, and after an introduction to certain models of modified gravity, we study consistent Lagrangians for Lorentz invariant (massive and massless) spin-2 and spin-3/2 particles in flat space. The second part of the dissertation is devoted to non-linear extensions for the spin-2 case, focusing on unimodular gravity and bigravity. Both theories lead to modifications of General Relativity at large distances and we will study exact solutions, causal structure of those solutions, and perturbation theory (specially for the Lorentz breaking case). Some comments on quantiza…
With the discovery of gravitational waves, the search for the quantum of gravity, the graviton, is imminent. We discuss the current status of the bounds on graviton mass from experiments as well as the theoretical understanding of these particles. We provide an overview of current experiments in astrophysics such as the search for Hawking radiation in gamma-ray observations and neutrino detectors, which will also shed light on the existence of primordial black holes. Finally, the semiclassical corrections to the image of the event horizon are discussed.
We study radial perturbations of a wormhole in $R^2$ gravity to determine regions of stability. We also investigate massive and massless particle orbits and tidal forces in this space-time for a radially infalling observer.
We investigate perturbative aspects of gravity with a general F(R) Lagrangian, as well as nonperturbative dilatonic solutions. For the first part, we are interested in stability and the definition of asymptotic charges. The main result of this study is that, while generic F(R) theories are stable under metric perturbations, they are expected to show instabilities against curvature perturbations when the Lagrangian includes 1/R terms. For the second part, one is interested on exact solutions, and we explicitly construct kink-like solutions of the Liouville type for the dilaton field for F(R) ha…
Some classical aspects of Metric-Affine Gravity are reviewed in the context of the $F^{(n)}(R)$ type models (polynomials of degree $n$ in the Riemann tensor) and the topologically massive gravity. At the non-perturbative level, we explore the consistency of the field equations when the $F^{(n)}(R)$ models are reduced to a Riemann-Christoffel (RCh) space-time, either via a Riemann-Cartan (RC) space or via an Einstein-Weyl (EW) space. It is well known for the case $F^{(1)}(R)=R$ that any path or reduction "classes" via RC or EW, leads to the same field equations with the exception of the $F^{(n)…
We study fixed points of quantum gravity with renormalisation group methods, and a procedure to remove convergence-limiting poles from the flow. The setup is tested within the $f(R)$ approximation for gravity by solving exact recursive relations up to order $R^{70}$ in the Ricci scalar, combined with resummations and numerical integration. Results include fixed points, scaling exponents, gap in the eigenvalue spectrum, dimensionality of the UV critical surface, fingerprints for weak coupling, and quantum equations of motion. Our findings strengthen the view that ``most of quantum gravity'' is …
We review and systematize recent attempts to canonically quantize general relativity in 2+1 dimensions, defined on space-times $\R\timesΣ^g$, where $Σ^g$ is a compact Riemann surface of genus $g$. The emphasis is on quantizations of the classical connection formulation, which use Wilson loops as their basic observables, but also results from the ADM formulation are summarized. We evaluate the progress and discuss the possible quantum (in)equivalence of the various approaches.
This thesis discusses the topological aspects of quantum gravity, focusing on the connection between 2D quantum gravity and 2D topological gravity. The mathematical background for the discussion is presented in the first two chapters. The possible gauge formulations of 2D topological gravity as a BF or a Super BF theory are presented and compared against 2D quantum gravity in the dynamical triangulation scheme. A new identification between topological gravity in the Super BF formulation and the reduced hermitian matrix model at genus zero is explained in depth.
We show that non-linear dynamics of a scalar field ϕ may be described as a mod- ification of the spacetime geometry. Thus, the self-interaction is interpreted as a coupling of the scalar field with an effective gravitational metric that is constructed with ϕ itself. We prove that this process is universal, that is, it is valid for arbi- trary Lagrangian. Our results are compared to usual analogue models of gravitation, where the emergence of a metric appears as a consequence of linear perturbation.
We describe the construction of quantum gravity, i.e. of a theory of self-interacting massless spin-2 quantum gauge fields, the gravitons, on flat space-time, in the framework of causal perturbation theory.
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 of gravity which is yet to have a proper understanding. In this work, on the contrary, we consider three different approaches, each of which goes beyond General Relativity but remain within the domain of classical cosmological scenario, to address this problem. The hallmark of all these approaches is that the origin of the bouncing mechanism is somewhat natur…
In the context of the late time cosmic acceleration phenomenon, many geometrically modified theories of gravity have been proposed in recent times. In this paper, we have investigated the role of a recently proposed extension of symmetric teleparallel gravity dubbed as f(Q,T) gravity in getting viable cosmological models, where Q and T respectively denote the non-metricity and the trace of energy momentum tensor. We stress upon the mathematical simplification of the formalism in the f(Q,T) gravity and derived the dynamical parameters in more general form in terms of the Hubble parameter. We co…
We study the classical solutions of three dimensional topologically massive gravity (TMG) and its higher spin generalization, in the first order formulation. The action of higher spin TMG has been proposed in arXiv:1110.5113 to be of a Chern-Simons-like form. The equations of motion are more complicated than the ones in pure higher spin AdS$_3$ gravity, but are still tractable. As all the solutions in higher spin gravity are automatically the solutions of higher spin TMG, we focus on other solutions. We manage to find the AdS pp-wave solutions with higher spin hair, and find that the nonvanish…
In this paper, we reassess the issue of deriving the propagators and identifying the spectrum of excitations associated to the vielbein and spin connection of (1+2)-D gravity in the presence of dynamical torsion, while working in the first-order formulation. A number of peculiarities is pointed out whenever the Chern-Simons term is taken into account along with a combination of bilinear terms in the torsion tensor. We present a procedure to derive the full set of propagators, based on an algebra of enlarged spin-type operators, and we discuss under which conditions the poles of the tree-level …
We describe the freedom of choosing a square root in massive gravity from algebraic point of view. This contribution is based on the talk given by one of us (AG) at the Geometric Foundations of Gravity conference in Tartu in August 2017.
We discuss various aspects of anisotropic gravity in $(d+D)$-dimensional spacetime where $D$ dimensions are treated as extra dimensions. It is based on the foliation preserving diffeomorphism invariance and anisotropic conformal invariance. The anisotropy is embodied by introducing a factor $z$ which discriminates the scaling degree of the extra $D$ dimensions against the $d$-dimensional base spacetime and Weyl scalar field which mediates the anisotropic scaling symmetry. There is no intrinsic scale but a physical scale $M_*$ emerges as a consequence of spontaneous conformal symmetry breaking.…
We investigate the quantum aspects of three-dimensional gravity with a positive cosmological constant. The reduced phase space of the three-dimensional de Sitter gravity is obtained as the space which consists of the Kerr-de Sitter space-times and their Virasoro deformations. A quantization of the phase space is carried out by the geometric quantization of the coadjoint orbits of the asymptotic Virasoro symmetries. The Virasoro algebras with real central charges are obtained as the quantum asymptotic symmetries. The states of globally de Sitter and point particle solutions become the primary s…
We use the Chern-Simons formulation of higher spin theories in three dimensions to study aspects of holographic W-gravity. Concepts which were useful in studies of pure bulk gravity theories, such as the Fefferman-Graham gauge and the residual gauge transformations, which induce Weyl transformations in the boundary theory and their higher spin generalizations, are reformulated in the Chern-Simons language. Flat connections that correspond to conformal and lightcone gauges in the boundary theory are considered.
I describe several conceptual aspects of a particular paradigm which treats the field equations of gravity as emergent. These aspects are related to the features of classical gravitational theories which defy explanation within the conventional perspective. The alternative interpretation throws light on these features and could provide better insights into possible description of quantum structure of spacetime. This review complements the discussion in arXiv:1207.0505, which describes space itself as emergent in the cosmological context.
In Eddington gravity, the action principle involves only the symmetric parts of the connection and the Ricci tensor, with a metric that emerges proportionally to the latter. Here, we relax this symmetric character, prolong the action with the antisymmetric parts of the Ricci term, and allow for various couplings with scalar fields. We propose two possible invariant actions formed by distinct combinations of the independent Ricci tensors and show that the generated metric must involve an additional antisymmetric part due to the relaxation of the symmetrization property. The comprehensive study …
A class of theories of gravity based on a Lagrangian which depends on the curvature and metric - but not on the derivatives of the curvature tensor - is of interest in several contexts including in the development of the paradigm that treats gravity as an emergent phenomenon. This class of models contains, as an important subset, all Lanczos-Lovelock models of gravity. I derive several identities and properties which are useful in the study of these models and clarify some of the issues that seem to have received insufficient attention in the past literature.
We report here on two works on Lorentz invariant massive gravity. In the first part, we derive the decoupling limit of massive gravity on de Sitter, relying on embedding de Sitter into an higher dimensional Minkowski spacetime. This enables us to identify the unique candidate for a partially massless gravity theory, in which only four degrees of freedom propagate, although further work showed that this property does not hold beyond the decoupling limit. In the second part, we study the fate of the Vainshtein mechanism in the minimal model of massive gravity, in which we show the limits of the …
Some thermodynamical properties of Lovelock gravity are discussed in several space-time dimensions, the holographic principle being one of the ingredients of the discussion. As it turns out, the area law and the brickwall method, though correct for the Einstein-Hilbert theory, may fail to work in general.
A geometric torsion (GT) underlying a $2$-form in a $(4$$+$$1)$-dimensional $U(1)$ gauge theory is revisited with a renewed perspective for a non-perturbation (NP) gravity in $d$$=$$4$. In the context we provide evidences to a holographic correspondence between a bulk GT and a boundary NP gravity. Interestingly the Killing symmetries in General Relativity (GR) are shown to provide a subtle clue to the quantum gravity. The NP gravity is shown to incorporate a $(B_{2}$$ \wedge $$F_{2})$ coupling, sourced by a non-Newtonian potential, to an exact geometry in GR. Remarkably the NP correction is id…
We investigate the non-Pauli-Fierz(nPF) theory, a linearized massive gravity with a generic graviton mass term, which has been ignored due to a ghost in its spectrum and the resultant loss of unitarity. We first show that it is possible to use the Lee-Wick mechanism, a unitarization through the decay of a ghost, in order to handle the sixth mode ghost of nPF, and then check for the quantum consistency. Once proven to be consistent, nPF could become a viable candidate for a large distance modification of gravity, because it naturally solves the intrinsic problems that most dark energy/modified …
In these lectures we give a review of recent attempts to understand quantum gravity on de Sitter spaces. In particular, we discuss the holographic correspondence between de Sitter gravity and conformal field theories proposed by Hull and by Strominger, and how this may be reconciled with the finite-dimensional Hilbert space proposal by Banks and Fischler. Furthermore we review the no-go theorems that forbid an embedding of de Sitter spaces in string theory, and discuss how they can be circumvented. Finally, some curious issues concerning the thermal nature of de Sitter space are elucidated.
Some solutions describing vacuum decay exhibit a catastrophic instability. This, so-called negative mode problem in quantum tunneling with gravity, was discovered 34 years ago and in spite of the fact that in these years many different groups worked on this topic, it has still not been resolved. Here, we briefly summarize the current status of the problem and investigate properties of the bounces, numerically and analytically for physically interesting potentials. In the framework of the Hamiltonian approach we show that for generic polynomial potentials the negative mode problem could arise a…
We discuss the backreaction force exerted by quantum fluctuations in dilute Bose-Einstein condensates onto the motion of the classical background, derived by an ab initio approach from microscopic physics. It is shown that the effective-action method, widely employed in semiclassical quantum gravity, fails to give the full backreaction force. The failure of the effective-action method is traced back, inter alia, to the problem of the correct choice of the fundamental variables and the related operator ordering issues.
We discuss aspects of generic 2-dimensional dilaton gravity theories. The 2-dim geometry is in general conformal to $AdS_2$ and has IR curvature singularities at zero temperature: this can be regulated by a black hole. The on-shell action is divergent: we discuss the holographic energy-momentum tensor by adding appropriate counterterms. For theories obtained by dimensional reduction of the gravitational sector of higher dimensional theories, for instance higher dimensional $AdS$ gravity as a concrete example, the 2-dimensional description dovetails with the higher dimensional one. We also disc…
We study the higher spin black holes in a truncated version of higher spin gravity in $AdS_3$. This theory contains only finite number of even spins s=2,4,...,2N. We mainly focus on the simplest case, so-called (Type I and II) spin ${\tilde 4}$ gravity, which contains only spin 2 and spin 4 fields. This spin ${\tilde 4}$ gravity is as simple as spin 3 gravity, thus provides another example to test various ideas on higher spin gravity. We find that the asymptotical symmetry of this spin ${\tilde 4}$ gravity is a classical W(2,4)-symmetry. Moreover, we study the black hole solution with pure spi…
Using the Chern-Simon formulation of (2+1) gravity, we derive, for the general asymptotic metrics given by the Fefferman-Graham-Lee theorems, the emergence of the Liouville mode associated to the boundary degrees of freedom of (2+1) dimensional anti de Sitter geometries.
In this work, we show that a class of metric-affine gravities can be reduced to a Riemann-Cartan one. The reduction is based on the cancelation of the nonmetricity against the symmetric components of the spin connection. A heuristic proof, in the Einstein-Cartan formalism, is performed in the special case of diagonal unitary tangent metric tensor. The result is that the nonmetric degrees of freedom decouple from the geometry. Thus, from the point of view of isometries on the tangent manifold, the equivalence might be viewed as an isometry transition from the affine group to the Lorentz group, …
The polynomial affine gravity is a model that is built up without the explicit use of a metric tensor field. In this article we reformulate the three-dimensional model and, given the decomposition of the affine connection, we analyse the consistently truncated sectors. Using the cosmological ansatz for the connection, we scan the cosmological solutions on the truncated sectors. We discuss the emergence of different kinds of metrics.
We provide a compact review on recent developments on axion $F(R)$ gravity. The axion field is a string theory originating theoretical particle that is a perfect candidate for low-mass particle dark matter. In this review we present how a viable inflationary phenomenology and a viable late-time evolution can be described by an axion $F(R)$ gravity theory, in which the $F(R)$ gravity part can drive in a geometric way the inflationary and the late-time era, and the axion field behaves as dark matter, with its energy density $ρ_a$ behaving as a function of the scale factor as $ρ_a\sim a^{-3}$. We…
Compact stars such as neutron stars and black holes are gravitationally bound many body systems. We investigate the importance of short and long range part of gravity for such systems. From our analysis, we conclude that the true essence of gravity lies with the long range nature of the interaction. At the end we show how these arguments in the manybody theory consistently leads to Dvali-Gomez picture of a black holes as a collective bound state of long wavelength gravitons.
We emphasize that a specific aspect of quantum gravity is the absence of a super-selection rule that prevents a linear superposition of different gravitational charges. As an immediate consequence, we obtain a tiny, but observable, violation of the equivalence principle, provided, inertial and gravitational masses are not assumed to be operationally identical objects. In this framework, the cosmic gravitational environment affects local experiments. A range of terrestrial experiments, from neutron interferometry to neutrino oscillations, can serve as possible probes to study the emergent quant…
Since Stephen Hawking discovered that black holes emit thermal radiation, black holes have become the theoretical laboratories for testing our ideas on quantum gravity. This dissertation is devoted to the study of singularities, the formation of black holes by gravitational collapse and the global structure of spacetime. All our investigations are in the context of a recently proposed approach to quantum gravity, which breaks Lorentz and diffeomorphism symmetries at very high energies.
We discuss the Gödel-type solutions within the dynamical Chern-Simons modified gravity in four dimensions. Within our study, we show that in the vacuum case the causal solutions are possible which cannot take place within the non-dynamical framework. Another our result consists in the possibility for completely causal solutions for all types of matters we study in the paper, that is, relativistic fluid, cosmological constant, scalar and electromagnetic fields.
Asymptotic safety, quantum gravity, and the swampland: a conceptual assessment
Arnold-Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics, Ludwig Maximilians Universität München（慕尼黑大学阿诺德-索末菲理论物理中心）；Max-Planck-Institut für Physik (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut)（马克斯·普朗克物理研究所（维尔纳·海森堡研究所））；Institute for Theoretical Physics, Heidelberg University（海德堡大学理论物理研究所）；Niels Bohr International Academy, The Niels Bohr Institute（尼尔斯·玻尔国际学院，尼尔斯·玻尔研究所）；High Energy Physics Department, Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics, and Particle Physics, Radboud University（拉德堡德大学数学、天体物理和粒子物理研究所高能物理系）
We provide a metric-like formulation of the spin-3 gravity in three dimensions. It is shown that the Chern-Simons formulation of the spin-3 gravity can be reformulated as a Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble theory coupled with the higher-spin matter fields. A duality-like transformation is also identified from this metric-like formulation.
Quantization of the gravity remains one of the most important, yet extremely illusive, challenges at the heart of modern physics. Any attempt to resolve this long-standing problem seems to be doomed, as the route to any direct empirical evidence (i.e., detecting gravitons) for shedding light on the quantum aspect of the gravity is far beyond the current capabilities. Recently, it has been discovered that gravitationally-induced entanglement, tailored in the interferometric frameworks, can be used to witness the quantum nature of the gravity. Even though these schemes offer promising tools for …
We construct a spin foam model of Yang-Mills theory coupled to gravity by using a discretized path integral of the BF theory with polynomial interactions and the Barret-Crane ansatz. In the Euclidian gravity case we obtain a vertex amplitude which is determined by a vertex operator acting on a simple spin network function. The Euclidian gravity results can be straightforwardly extended to the Lorentzian case, so that we propose a Lorentzian spin foam model of Yang-Mills theory coupled to gravity.
Massive gravity has seen a resurgence of interest due to recent progress which has overcome its traditional problems, yielding an avenue for addressing important open questions such as the cosmological constant naturalness problem. The possibility of a massive graviton has been studied on and off for the past 70 years. During this time, curiosities such as the vDVZ discontinuity and the Boulware-Deser ghost were uncovered. We re-derive these results in a pedagogical manner, and develop the Stükelberg formalism to discuss them from the modern effective field theory viewpoint. We review recent p…
Contributions from the G1 Working Group at the APS Summer Study on Particle and Nuclear Astrophysics and Cosmology in the Next Millennium, Snowmass, Colorado, June 29 - July 14, 1994. V. Frolov and L. Thorlacius: Quantum Aspects of Gravity. S.B. Giddings and L. Thorlacius: Introduction to the Information Problem. A. Strominger: Two-Dimensional Black Holes and the Information Puzzle. V. Frolov: Entropy of Black Holes. L. Thorlacius: Black Hole Complementarity. D.A. Lowe: Causality in String Theory. A.O. Barvinski: Nonlocal Effective Action and Black Holes. P.C. Argyres: Universality and Scaling…
We give an introductory account to the renormalization of models without metric background. We sketch the application to certain discrete models of quantum gravity such as spin foam models.
We introduce flat space spin-3 gravity in the presence of chemical potentials and discuss some applications to flat space cosmology solutions, their entropy, free energy and flat space orbifold singularity resolution. Our results include flat space Einstein gravity with chemical potentials as special case. We discover novel types of phase transitions between flat space cosmologies with spin-3 hair and show that the branch that continuously connects to spin-2 gravity becomes thermodynamically unstable for sufficiently large temperature or spin-3 chemical potential.
We calculate the one loop partition function for topologically massive higher spin gravity (TMHSG) for arbitrary spin by taking the spin-3 TMHSG action constructed in arXiv:1107.0915 and subsequently generalising it for an arbitrary spin. We find that the final result can be put into a product form which cannot be holomorphically factorized giving strong evidence that the topologically massive higher spin gravity is dual to a high spin extension of logarithmic CFT rather than a chiral one.
