We describe what can be called the "universal" phase space of AdS3 gravity, in which the moduli spaces of globally hyperbolic AdS spacetimes with compact spatial sections, as well as the moduli spaces of multi-black-hole spacetimes are realized as submanifolds. The universal phase space is parametrized by two copies of the Universal Teichmüller space T(1) and is obtained from the correspondence between maximal surfaces in AdS3 and quasisymmetric homeomorphisms of the unit circle. We also relate our parametrization to the Chern-Simons formulation of 2+1 gravity and, infinitesimally, to the holographic (Fefferman-Graham) description. In particular, we obtain a relation between the generators of quasiconformal deformations in each T(1) sector and the chiral Brown-Henneaux vector fields. We also relate the charges arising in the holographic description (such as the mass and angular momentum of an AdS3 spacetime) to the periods of the quadratic differentials arising via the Bers embedding of T(1)xT(1). Our construction also yields a symplectic map from T*T(1) to T(1)xT(1) generalizing the well-known Mess map in the compact spatial surface setting.
We assume that the fourdimensional quantum gravity is scale invariant at short distances. We show through a simple scaling argument that correlation functions of quantum fields interacting with gravity have a universal (more regular) short distance behavior.
We study almost universal spacetimes - spacetimes for which the field equations of any generalized gravity with the Lagrangian constructed from the metric, the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives of arbitrary order reduce to one single differential equation and one algebraic condition for the Ricci scalar. We prove that all d-dimensional Kundt spacetimes of Weyl type III and traceless Ricci type N are almost universal. Explicit examples of Weyl type II almost universal Kundt metrics are also given. The considerable simplification of the field equations of higher-order gravity theories…
I wish to expound a novel perspective of probing universal character of gravity. To begin with, inclusion of zero mass particle in mechanics leads to special relativity while its interaction with a universal force shared by all particles leads to general relativity. The universal nature of force further suggests that it is intrinsically attractive, self interactive and higher dimensional. I argue that the principle of universality could serve as a good guide for future directions.
On the basis of the idea that gravity defines a universal UV-completion and using a form of UV/IR correspondence we revisit some Swampland conjectures, in particular de Sitter and infinite distance conjectures, from the point of view of renormalization group energy flow. The rol and limitations of non perturbative instanton effects to define a metastable cosmological constant are briefly discussed in this context.
We study the renormalization group flow of higher derivative gravity, utilizing the functional renormalization group equation for the average action. Employing a recently proposed algorithm, termed the universal renormalization group machine, for solving the flow equation, all the universal features of the one-loop beta-functions are recovered. While the universal part of the beta-functions admits two fixed points, we explicitly show that the existence of one of them depends on the choice of regularization scheme, indicating that it is most probably unphysical.
The universal thermodynamic relations between corrections to entropy and extremality for various black holes solutions have been studied. In this regard, we hereby consider a number of different black brane solutions in different structures for perturbative corrections to general relativity. These are, namely, black brane solution in Rastall AdS massive gravity, Einstein-Yang-Mills AdS black brane solution in massive gravity and general anisotropic black brane in Horava-Lifshitz gravity. We calculate both the entropy and extremality bound by introducing a small constant correction to the actio…
We search for a universal property of quantum gravity. By "universal", we mean the independence from any existing model of quantum gravity (such as the super string theory, loop quantum gravity, causal dynamical triangulation, and so on). To do so, we try to put the basis of our discussion on theories established by some experiments. Thus, we focus our attention on thermodynamical and statistical-mechanical basis of the black hole thermodynamics: Let us assume that the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy is given by the Boltzmann formula applied to the underlying theory of quantum gravity. Under this a…
We study some universal features of gravity in higher dimensions and by universal we mean a feature that remains true in all dimensions $\geq4$. They include: (a) the gravitational dynamics always follows from the Bianchi derivative of a homogeneous polynomial in Riemann curvature and it thereby characterizes the Lovelock polynomial action, (b) all the $Λ$-vacuum solutions of the Einstein-Lovelock as well as pure Lovelock equation have the same asymptotic limit agreeing with the $d$ dimensional Einstein solution and (c) gravity inside a uniform density sphere is independent of the spacetime di…
We show that several features of the Jackiw-Teitelboim model are in fact universal properties of two-dimensional Maxwell-dilaton gravity theories with a broad class of asymptotics. These theories satisfy a flow equation with the structure of a dimensionally reduced TTbar deformation, and exhibit chaotic behavior signaled by a maximal Lyapunov exponent. One consequence of our results is a no-go theorem for smooth flows from an asymptotically AdS2 region to a de Sitter fixed point.
We survey the applications of universal entropy relations in black holes with multi-horizons. In sharp distinction to conventional entropy product, the entropy relationship here not only improve our understanding of black hole entropy but was introduced as an elegant technique trick for handling various entropy bounds and sum. Despite the primarily technique role, entropy relations have provided considerable insight into several different types of gravity, including massive gravity, Einstein-Dilaton gravity and Horava-Lifshitz gravity. We present and discuss the results for each one.
In this paper, we have studied the thermodynamics of Gauss-Bonnet black holes in D-dimensional $AdS$ spacetime. Here, the cosmological constant ($Λ$), Newton's gravitational constant ($G$) and the Gauss-Bonnet parameter ($α$) are varied in the bulk, and a mixed first law is rewritten considering central charge ($C$) (of dual boundary conformal theory) and its conjugate variable utilising the gauge-gravity duality. A novel universal nature of central charge near the critical point of black hole phase transition in Einstein's gravity has been observed in \cite{mann1}. We observe that this univer…
We compute the second order transport coefficients of a hydrodynamic theory with Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity dual. We show the breakdown of the universal hydrodynamic relation $ -2 λ_0 + 4 λ_1 - λ_2 = 0 $ for the general values of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling.
We implement a universal method for renormalizing AdS gravity actions applicable to arbitrary higher curvature theories in up to five dimensions. The renormalization procedure considers the extrinsic counterterm for Einstein-AdS gravity given by the Kounterterms scheme, but with a theory-dependent coupling constant that is fixed by the requirement of renormalization for the vacuum solution. This method is shown to work for a generic higher curvature gravity with arbitrary couplings except for a zero measure subset, which includes well-known examples where the asymptotic behavior is modified an…
We consider higher derivative gravity and obtain universal relations for the shape coefficients $(f_a, f_b, f_c)$ of the shape dependent universal part of the Rényi entropy for four dimensional CFTs in terms of the parameters $(c, t_2, t_4)$ of two-point and three-point functions of stress tensors. As a consistency check, these shape coefficients $f_a$ and $f_c$ satisfy the differential relation as derived previously for the Rényi entropy. Interestingly, these holographic relations also apply to weakly coupled conformal field theories such as theories of free fermions and vectors but are viola…
In this essay, I wish to share a novel perspective which envisions universalization as a guide from the classical world to relativistic and quantum world. It is the incorporation of zero mass particle in mechanics which leads to special relativity while its interaction with a universal field shared by all particles leads to general relativity. We also give a very simple classical argument to show that why the universal force has to be attractive. We try to envisage what sort of directions does this principle of universality point to for the world beyond general relativity?
We study a model of the generalized Brans-Dicke gravity presented in both the Jordan and in the Einstein frames, which are conformally related. We show that the scalar field equations in the Einstein frame are reduced to the geodesics equations on the target space of the nonlinear sigma-model. The analytical solutions in elliptical functions are obtained when the conformal couplings are given by reciprocal exponential functions. The behavior of the scale factor in the Jordan frame is studied using numerical computations. For certain parameters the solutions can describe an accelerated expansio…
In this paper, we first show that the definition of the universal horizons studied recently in the khrononmetric theory of gravity can be straightforwardly generalized to other theories that violate the Lorentz symmetry, by simply considering the khronon as a probe field and playing the same role as a Killing vector field. As an application, we study static charged ($D+1$)-dimensional spacetimes in the framework of the healthy (non-projectable) Horava-Lifshitz (HL) gravity in the infrared limit, and find various solutions. Some of them represent Lifshitz space-times with hyperscaling violation…
This paper consists of three steps. In the first, we prove that the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy is the unique expression of black hole entropy. Our proof is constructed in the framework of thermodynamics without any statistical discussion. In the second, intrinsic properties of quantum mechanics are shown, which justify the Boltzmann formula to yield a unique entropy in statistical mechanics. These properties clarify three conditions, one of which is necessary and others are sufficient for the validity of Boltzmann formula. In the third, by combining the above results, we find a reasonable sugg…
A definite form for the boundary term that produces the finiteness of both the conserved quantities and Euclidean action for any Lovelock gravity with AdS asymptotics is presented. This prescription merely tells even from odd bulk dimensions, regardless the particular theory considered, what is valid even for Einstein-Hilbert and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet AdS gravity. The boundary term is a given polynomial of the boundary extrinsic and intrinsic curvatures (also referred to as Kounterterms series). Only the coupling constant of the boundary term changes accordingly, such that it always preserves …
Lorentz-violating gravity theories with a preferred foliation can have instantaneous propagation. Nonetheless, it has been shown that black holes can still exist in such theories and the relevant notion of an event horizon has been dubbed `universal horizon'. In stationary spacetimes the universal horizon has to reside in a region of spacetime where the Killing vector associated with stationarity is spacelike. This raises the question of what happens to the universal horizon in the extremal limit, where no such region exists anymore. We use a decoupling limit approximation to study this proble…
In this paper, the following two propositions are proven under the dominant energy condition for the matter field in the higher-dimensional spherically symmetric spacetime in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in the presence of a cosmological constant $Λ$. First, for $Λ\le 0$ and $α\ge 0$ without a fine-tuning to give a unique anti-de Sitter vacuum, where $α$ is the Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant, vanishing generalized Misner-Sharp mass is equivalent to the maximally symmetric spacetime. Under the fine-tuning, it is equivalent to the vacuum class I spacetime. Second, under the fine-tuning with $α>…
Black holes in Lorentz violating gravity, such as Einstein--Aether or Horava--Lifshitz Gravity, are drastically different from their general relativistic siblings. Although they allow for superluminal motion in their vicinity, they still exhibit an absolute causal boundary in the form of a universal horizon. By working in the tunneling picture for a gravitating scalar field, we show that universal horizons emit Hawking radiation in a manner akin to standard results in General Relativity, with a temperature controlled by the high-energy behavior of the dispersion relation of the gravitating fie…
Universal horizons in Hořava-Lifshitz gravity and Einstein-æther theory are the equivalent of causal horizons in general relativity and appear to have many of the same properties, including a first law of horizon thermodynamics and thermal radiation. Since universal horizons are infrared solutions of a putative power counting renormalizable quantum gravitational theory, fully understanding their thermodynamics will shed light on the interplay between black hole thermodynamics and quantum gravity. In this paper, we provide a complete classification, including asymptotic charges, of all four dim…
Massive gravity provides a holographic model for theories exhibiting momentum dissipation. We provide an analytic expression for the DC conductivity. The result is universal, depending only on properties of the infra-red horizon, and holds at finite temperature and charge density. In addition, we provide a derivation of black hole thermodynamics in holographic massive gravity and show that the resulting physics is sensible.
We explore how far one can go in constructing $d$-dimensional static black holes coupled to $p$-form and scalar fields before actually specifying the gravity and electrodynamics theory one wants to solve. At the same time, we study to what extent one can enlarge the space of black hole solutions by allowing for horizon geometries more general than spaces of constant curvature. We prove that a generalized Schwarzschild-like ansatz with an arbitrary isotropy-irreducible homogeneous base space (IHS) provides an answer to both questions, up to naturally adapting the gauge fields to the spacetime g…
We show the universal form of the boundary term (Kounterterm series) which regularizes the Euclidean action and background-independent definition of conserved quantities for any Lovelock gravity theory with AdS asymptotics (including Einstein-Hilbert and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet). We discuss on the connection of this procedure to the existence of topological invariants and Chern-Simons forms in the corresponding dimensions.
Once quantum corrections are taken into account, the strong coupling limit of the $ξ$-attractor models (in metric gravity) might depart from the usual Starobinsky solution and move into linear inflation. Furthermore, it is well known that the metric and Palatini formulations of gravity lead to different inflationary predictions in presence of non-minimally couplings between gravity and the inflaton. In this letter we show that for a certain class of non-minimally coupled models, loop corrections will lead to a linear inflation attractor regardless of the adopted gravity formulation.
The model of low-energy quantum gravity by the author has the property of asymptotic freedom at very short distances. The character of transition to asymptotic freedom is studied here. It is shown that this transition is not universal, but the one obeys the scaling rule: the range of this transition in units of $r/E^{1/2}$, where $r$ is a distance between particles and $E$ is an energy of the screening particle, is the same for any micro-particle. This range for a proton is between $10^{-11} - 10^{-13}$ meter, while for an electron it is approximately between $10^{-13} - 10^{-15}$ meter.
The persistence of a suitable notion of black hole thermodynamics in Lorentz breaking theories of gravity is not only a non-trivial consistency test for such theories, it is also an interesting investigation {\em per se}, as it might help us identifying the crucial features at the root of these surprising laws governing such purely gravitational objects. In past investigations, controversial findings were presented in this sense. With the aim of settling this issue, we present here two complementary derivations of Hawking radiation in geometries endowed with universal horizons: a novel feature…
Violating Lorentz-invariance, and so implicitly permitting some form of superluminal communication, necessarily alters the notion of a black hole. Nevertheless, in both Einstein-Æther gravity, and Hořava-Lifshitz gravity, there is still a causally disconnected region in black-hole solutions; now being bounded by a "Universal horizon", which traps excitations of arbitrarily high velocities. To better understand the nature of these black holes, and their Universal horizons, we study ray trajectories in these spacetimes. We find evidence that Hawking radiation is associated with the Universal hor…
The Kerr-Schild-Kundt (KSK) metrics are known to be one of the universal metrics in general relativity, which means that they solve the vacuum field equations of any gravity theory constructed from the curvature tensor and its higher-order covariant derivatives. There is yet no complete proof that these metrics are universal in the presence of matter fields such as electromagnetic and/or scalar fields. In order to get some insight into what happens when we extend the "universality theorem" to the case in which the electromagnetic field is present, as a first step, we study the KSK class of met…
Four-dimensional random geometries can be generated by statistical models with rank-4 tensors as random variables. These are dual to discrete building blocks of random geometries. We discover a potential candidate for a continuum limit in such a model by employing background-independent coarse-graining techniques where the tensor size serves as a pre-geometric notion of scale. A fixed point candidate which features two relevant directions is found. The possible relevance of this result in view of universal results for quantum gravity and a potential connection to the asymptotic-safety program …
A key problem in the attempt to quantize the gravitational field is the choice of boundary conditions. These are mixed, in that spatial and normal components of metric perturbations obey different sets of boundary conditions. In the covariant quantization scheme this leads to a boundary operator involving both normal and tangential derivatives of metric perturbations. On studying the corresponding heat-kernel asymptotics, one finds that universal, tensorial, nonpolynomial structures contribute through the integrals over the boundary of linear combinations of all geometric invariants of the pro…
A very famous result of gauge/gravity duality is the universality of the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density in every field theory holographically dual to classical, two-derivative (Einstein) gravity. We present a way to obtain deviation form this universality by breaking the rotational symmetry spontaneously. In anisotropic fluids additional shear modes exist and their corresponding shear viscosities may be non-universal. We confirm this by explicitly calculating the shear viscosities in a transversely isotropic background, a p-wave superfluid, and study its critical behavior. This is…
We calculate the holographic conformal anomaly and brane Newton potential when bulk is 5d AdS BH. It is shown that such anomaly is the same as in the case of pure AdS or (asymptotically) dS bulk spaces, i.e. it is (bulk) metric independent one. While Newton potential on the static brane in AdS BH is different from the one in pure AdS space, the gravity trapping still occurs for two branes system. This indicates to metric independence of gravity localization.
Consistent and covariant Lorentz and diffeomorphism anomalies are investigated in terms of the geometry of the universal bundle for gravity. This bundle is explicitly constructed and its geometrical structure will be studied. By means of the local index theorem for families of Bismut and Freed the consistent gravitational anomalies are calculated. Covariant gravitational anomalies are shown to be related with secondary characteristic classes of the universal bundle and a new set of descent equations which also contains the covariant Schwinger terms is derived. The relation between consistent a…
We study asymptotically Lifshitz solutions with critical exponent $z \neq 1$ in Horava gravity in three and four spacetime dimensions. For $z=2$ and $z=3/2$, we find a novel class of numerical solutions with regular universal horizon, but are characterized by non-analytic behavior near infinity. In the interior, inside the universal horizon, the unit timelike vector field associated with the preferred time foliation exhibits oscillatory behavior, qualitatively similar to that found earlier in asymptotically flat solutions. For $z>2$ no solutions of this type appear to exist. We comment on pote…
We compute the leading post-Newtonian and quantum corrections to the Coulomb and Newtonian potentials using the full modern arsenal of on-shell techniques; we employ spinor-helicity variables everywhere, use the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye (KLT) relations to derive gravity amplitudes from gauge theory and use unitarity methods to extract the terms needed at one-loop order. We stress that our results are universal and thus will hold in any quantum theory of gravity with the same low-energy degrees of freedom as we are considering. Previous results for the corrections to the same potentials, derived hist…
We review on the viability of $F(R)$-gravity. We show that recent cosmic acceleration, radiation/matter-dominated epoch and inflation could be realized in the framework of $F(R)$-gravity in the unified way. For some classes of $F(R)$-gravity, the correction to the Newton law is extremely small and there is no so-called matter instability (the very heavy positive mass for additional scalar degree of freedom is generated). The reconstruction program in modified gravity is also reviewed and it is demonstrated that {\it any} time-evolution of the universe expansion could be realized in $F(R)$-grav…
A special class of metrics, called universal metrics, solve all gravity theories defined by covariant field equations purely based on the metric tensor. Since we currently lack the knowledge of what the full of quantum-corrected field equations of gravity are at a given microscopic length scale, these metrics are particularly important in understanding quantum fields in curved backgrounds in a consistent way. But, finding explicit universal metrics has been a hard problem as there does not seem to be a procedure for it. In this work, we overcome this difficulty and give a construction of unive…
A set of simple rules for constructing the maximal (e.g. analytic) extensions for any metric with a Killing field in an (effectively) two-dimensional spacetime is formulated. The application of these rules is extremely straightforward, as is demonstrated at various examples and illustrated with numerous figures. Despite the resulting simplicity we also comment on some subtleties concerning the concept of Penrose diagrams. Most noteworthy among these, maybe, is that (smooth) spacetimes which have both degenerate and non-degenerate (Killing) horizons do not allow for globally smooth Penrose diag…
Horava gravity theory possesses global Lifshitz space as a solution and has been conjectured to provide a natural framework for Lifshitz holography. We derive the conditions on the two derivative Horava gravity Lagrangian that are necessary for static, asymptotically Lifshitz spacetimes with flat transverse dimensions to contain a universal horizon, which plays a similar thermodynamic role as the Killing horizon in general relativity. Specializing to z=2 in 1+2 dimensions, we then numerically construct such regular solutions over the whole spacetime. We calculate the mass for these solutions a…
We derive an explicit bound on the dimension of the lightest charged state in two dimensional conformal field theories with a global abelian symmetry. We find that the bound scales with $c$ and provide examples that parametrically saturate this bound. We also prove than any such theory must contain a state with charge-to-mass ratio above a minimal lower bound. We comment on the implications for charged states in three dimensional theories of gravity.
We study stress tensor correlation functions in four-dimensional conformal field theories with large $N$ and a sparse spectrum. Theories in this class are expected to have local holographic duals, so effective field theory in anti-de Sitter suggests that the stress tensor sector should exhibit universal, gravity-like behavior. At the linearized level, the hallmark of locality in the emergent geometry is that stress tensor three-point functions $\langle TTT\rangle$, normally specified by three constants, should approach a universal structure controlled by a single parameter as the gap to higher…
We present the complete set of universal one-loop beta functions of cubic gravity in six dimensions. The system admits over 8000 distinct fixed points, of which more than 200 are real. Some of them might be relevant for the quantisation of gravity in the physical case of four dimensions.
A universal symmetry algebra organizing the gravitational phase space has been recently found. It corresponds to the subset of diffeomorphisms that become physical at corners -- codimension-$2$ surfaces supporting Noether charges. It applies to both finite distance and asymptotic corners. In this paper, we study this algebra and its representations, via the coadjoint orbit method. We show that generic orbits of the universal algebra split into sub-orbits spanned by finite distance and asymptotic corner symmetries, such that the full universal symmetry algebra gives rise to a unified treatment …
A universal relation between the leading correction to the entropy and extremality was gotten in the work of Goon and Penco. In this paper, we extend this work to the massive gravity and investigate thermodynamic extremality relations in a topologically higher-dimensional black hole. A rescaled cosmological constant is added to the action of the massive gravity as a perturbative correction. This correction modifies the extremality bound of the black hole and leads to the shifts of the mass, entropy, etc. The Goon-Penco relation is gotten. Regarding the cosmological constant as a variable relat…
According to more recent AdS/CFT interpretation \cite{Karch:2015rpa}, in which varying cosmological constant $Λ$ in the bulk corresponds to varying the curvature radius governing the space on which the field theory resides, we study the criticality of thermodynamic curvatures for thermal boundary conformal field theories (CFT) that are dual to $d$-dimensional charged anti-de Sitter (AdS) black holes, embedded in $D$-dimensional M-theory/superstring inspired models having $AdS_{d}\times \mathbb{S}^{d+k}$ spacetime with $D=2d+k$. Analogous with criticality features acquired for charged AdS black…
We study gravity in backgrounds that are smooth generalizations of the Randall-Sundrum model, with and without scalar fields. These generalizations include three-branes in higher dimensional spaces which are not necessarily Anti-de Sitter far from the branes, intersecting brane configurations and configurations involving negative tension branes. We show that under certain mild assumptions there is a universal equation for the gravitational fluctuations. We study both the graviton ground state and the continuum of Kaluza-Klein modes and we find that the four-dimensional gravitational mode is lo…
Is Cosmic Censorship special to General Relativity, or can it survive a violation of equivalence principle? Recent studies have shown that singularities in Lorentz violating Einstein-Aether (or Horava-Lifhsitz) theories can lie behind a universal horizon in simple black hole spacetimes. Even infinitely fast signals cannot escape these universal horizons. We extend this result, for an incompressible aether, to 3+1d dynamical or spinning spacetimes which possess inner killing horizons, and show that a universal horizon always forms in between the outer and (would-be) inner horizons. This finding…
Two-dimensional conformal field theories exhibit a universal free energy in the high temperature limit $T \to \infty$, and a universal spectrum in the Cardy regime, $Δ\to \infty$. We show that a much stronger form of universality holds in theories with a large central charge $c$ and a sparse light spectrum. In these theories, the free energy is universal at all values of the temperature, and the microscopic spectrum matches the Cardy entropy for all $Δ\geq c/6$. The same is true of three-dimensional quantum gravity; therefore our results provide simple necessary and sufficient criteria for 2d …
In this paper, we study the non-projectable 2d Hořava gravity coupled with a non-relativistic scalar field, where the coupling is in general non-minimal and of the form $f(ϕ)R$, where $f(ϕ)$ is an arbitrary function of the scalar field $ϕ$, and $R$ denotes the 2d Ricci scalar. In particular, we first investigate the Hamiltonian structure, and show that there are two-first and two-second class constraints, similar to the pure gravity case, but now the local degree of freedom is one, due to the presence of the scalar field. Then, we present various exact stationary solutions of this coupled syst…
Both particle physics and the 1890s Seeliger-Neumann modification of Newtonian gravity suggest considering a "mass term" for gravity, yielding a finite range due to an exponentially decaying Yukawa potential. Unlike Nordström's "massless" theory, massive scalar gravities are strictly Special Relativistic, being invariant under the Poincaré group but not the conformal group. Geometry is a poor guide to understanding massive scalar gravities: matter sees a conformally flat metric, but gravity also sees the rest of the flat metric, barely, in the mass term. Infinitely many theories exhibit this b…
Random matrix theory (RMT) provides a common mathematical formulation of distinct physical questions in three different areas: quantum chaos, the 1-d integrable model with the $1/r^2$ interaction (the Calogero-Sutherland-Moser system), and 2-d quantum gravity. We review the connection of RMT with these areas. We also discuss the method of loop equations for determining correlation functions in RMT, and smoothed global eigenvalue correlators in the 2-matrix model for gaussian orthogonal, unitary and symplectic ensembles.
