In this work we have studied the non-geodesical behaviour of particles with spin 1/2 in Poincaré gauge theories of gravity, via the WKB method and the Mathisson-Papapetrou equation. We have analysed the relation between the two approaches and we have argued the different advantages associated with the WKB approximation. Within this approach, we have calculated the trajectories in a particular Poincaré gauge theory, discussing the viability of measuring such a motion.
While one can in principle augment gravity theory with torsion, it is generally thought that any such torsion affects would be too small to be of consequence. Here we show that this cannot in general be the case. We show that the limit of vanishing torsion is not necessarily a continuous one, with the theory obtained in the limit not necessarily coinciding with the theory in which torsion had never been present at all. However, for a standard torsion tensor that is antisymmetric in two of its indices we have found two cases in which the vanishing torsion limit is in fact continuous, namely Ein…
We consider Lorentz invariant scalar-tensor teleparallel gravity theories with a Lagrangian built from the torsion scalar, a scalar field, its kinetic term and a derivative coupling between the torsion and the scalar field. The field equations of the theory are derived and the relation between the spin connection and the antisymmetric part of the tetrad field equations is found explicitly, which is an important consistency result for Lorentz invariant teleparallel theories of gravity. Afterwards we study the behaviour of this class of theories under conformal transformations and find that such…
We revisit the definition and some of the characteristics of quadratic theories of gravity with torsion. We start from the most general Lagrangian density quadratic in the curvature and torsion tensors. By assuming that General Relativity should be recovered when torsion vanishes and investigating the behaviour of the vector and pseudovector torsion fields in the weak-gravity regime, we present a set of necessary conditions for the stability of these theories. Moreover, we explicitly obtain the gravitational field equations using the Palatini variational principle with the metricity condition …
We show that the gravitational field equations derived from an action composed of i) an arbitrary function of the scalar curvature and other scalar fields plus ii) connection-independent kinetic and source terms, are identical whether one chooses nonmetricity to vanish and have non-zero torsion or vice versa.
We extend the scope of the Raychaudhuri-Komar singularity theorem of General Relativity to affine theories of gravity with and without torsion. We first generalize the existing focusing theorems using time-like and null congruences of curves which are hypersurface orthogonal, showing how the presence of torsion affects the formation of focal points in Lorentzian manifolds. Considering the energy conservation on a given affine gravity theory, we prove new singularity theorems for accelerated curves in the cases of Lorentzian manifolds containing perfect fluids or scalar field matter sources.
I investigate the general extension of Einstein's gravity by considering the third rank non-metricity tensor and the torsion tensor. The minimal coupling to Dirac fields faces an ambiguity coming from a severe arbitrariness of the Fock-Ivanenko coefficients. This arbitrariness is fed in part by the covariant derivative of Dirac matrices, which is not completely determined as well. It is remarkable that this feature is not exclusive to the non-metricity case: it happens also for gravity with torsion alone. Nevertheless, theory in vacuum is well defined and non-trivial, where torsion is the sour…
Invariant connections with torsion on simple group manifolds $S$ are studied and an explicit formula describing them is presented. This result is used for the dimensional reduction in a theory of multidimensional gravity with curvature squared terms on $M^{4} \times S$. We calculate the potential of scalar fields, emerging from extra components of the metric and torsion, and analyze the role of the torsion for the stability of spontaneous compactification.
In this work we have studied the singular behaviour of gravitational theories with non symmetric connections. For this purpose we introduce a new criteria for the appearance of singularities based on the existence of black/white hole regions of arbitrary codimension defined inside a spacetime of arbitrary dimension. We discuss this prescription by increasing the complexity of the particular torsion theory under study. In this sense, we start with Teleparallel Gravity, then we analyse Einstein-Cartan theory, and finally dynamical torsion models.
We investigate the propagation of light rays and evolution of optical scalars in gauge theories of gravity where torsion is present. Recently the modified Raychaudhuri equation in the presence of torsion has been derived. We use this result to derive the basic equations of geometric optics for several different interesting solutions of the Poincar{é} gauge theory of gravity. The results show that the focusing effects for neighboring light rays will be different than general relativity. This in turn has practical consequences in the study of gravitational lensing effects and also determining th…
The possibility to distinguish Dirac from Majorana fermion by gravitational interaction and torsion coupling is discussed. The scattering of both Dirac and Majorana particles are the same in the spherically symmetric gravitational field up to the first order perturbation of the fermion-gravity interaction. The scattering behaviors of Dirac and Majorana fermion are also the same by axial vector torsion but different by vector torsion. We get the conclusion that the scattering by vector torsion field can distinguish the Dirac from Majorana neutrino.
We discuss a class of teleparallel scalar-torsion theories of gravity, which is parametrized by five free functions of the scalar field. The theories are formulated covariantly using a flat, but non-vanishing spin connection. We show how the actions of different theories within this class are related via conformal transformations of the tetrad and redefinitions of the scalar field, and derive the corresponding transformation laws for the free function in the action. From these we construct a number of quantities which are invariant under these transformations, and use them to write the action …
n scalar-tensor theories of gravity with torsion, the gravitational field is described in terms of a symmetric metric tensor $g$, a metric-compatible connection $\nabla$ with torsion, and a scalar field $ϕ$. The main aim is to explore an interaction of a charged perfect fluid and a scalar field $ϕ$ in a background electromagnetic and gravitational field described by \{$g$, $\nabla$, $ϕ$\}. The interaction is based on an action functional $S_C$ of a charged perfect fluid that is invariant under global conformal rescalings. Using a variational principle, we obtain equations of motion for the cha…
We investigate the cosmological dynamics in teleparallel gravity with nonminimal coupling. We analytically extract several asymptotic solutions and we numerically study the exact phase-space behavior. Comparing the obtained results with the corresponding behavior of nonminimal scalar-curvature theory, we find significant differences, such is the rare stability and the frequent presence of oscillatory behavior.
The definition of the Riemann-Cartan space of the plane wave type is given. The condition under which the torsion plane waves exist is found. It is expressed in the form of the restriction imposed on the coupling constants of the 10-parametric quadratic gravitational Lagrangian. In the mathematical appendix the formula for commutator of the variation operator and Hodge operator is proved. This formula is applied for the variational procedure when the gravitational field equations are obtained in terms of the exterior differential forms.
In this proceedings, similarities between the structure of theories with Lorentz violation and theories with constant torsion in flat spacetime are exploited to place bounds on torsion components. An example is given showing the analysis leading to bounds on the axial-vector and mixed-symmetry components of torsion, based on a dual-maser experiment.
We will consider the least-order torsional completion of gravity for a spacetime filled with fermionic Dirac matter fields, and we study the effects of the background-induced non-linear potentials for the matter field themselves in view of their effects for both standard models of physics: from the one of cosmology to that of particles, we will discuss the mechanisms of generation of the cosmological constant and particle masses as well as the phenomenology of leptonic weak-like forces and neutrino oscillations, the problem of zero-point energy, how there can be neutral massive fields as candi…
We show that in theories of gravitation with torsion the helicity of fermion particles is not conserved and we calculate the probability of spin flip, which is related to the anti-symmetric part of affine connection. Some cosmological consequences are discussed.
We derive the most general effective low-energy potential to order O(1/m) for slow Dirac fermions with mass m, coupled to gravitational, chameleon and torsion fields in the Einstein-Cartan gravity. The obtained results can be applied to the experimental analysis of gravitational, chameleon and torsion interactions in terrestrial laboratories. We discuss the use of rotating coordinate systems, caused by rotations of devices, for measurements of the torsion vector and tensor components, caused by minimal torsion--fermion couplings (Ivanov and Wellenzohn, Phys. Rev. D92, 065006 (2015)). Using the…
We study a spin 1/2 fermion in a teleparallel f(T) domain-wall thick braneworld. By assuming a non-minimal coupling of fermion to the torsion, a geometric alternative to the Yukawa coupling is found. The torsion parameters control the width of the massless Kaluza-Klein mode and the properties of the analogue quantum-potential near the origin. The non-normalized massive fermionic modes are also analyzed.
We present a novel approach to establish the Birkhoff's theorem validity in the so-called quadratic Poincaré Gauge theories of gravity. By obtaining the field equations via the Palatini formalism, we find paradigmatic scenarios where the theorem applies neatly. For more general and physically relevant situations, a suitable decomposition of the torsion tensor also allows us to establish the validity of the theorem. Our analysis shows rigorously how for all stable cases under consideration, the only solution of the vacuum field equations is a torsionless Schwarzschild spacetime, although it is …
We give a complete formulation of Poincare gauge theory, starting from the fibre bundle formulation to the resultant Riemann-Cartan spacetime. We also introduce several diverse gravity theories descendent from the Poincare gauge theory. Especially, the cosmological effect of the simple scalar-torsion (0^+) mode in Poincare gauge theory of gravity is studied. In the theory, we treat the geometric effect of torsion as an effective quantity, which behaves like dark energy and study the effective equation of state (EoS) of the model. We construct the extra dimension theory of teleparallel gravity …
We address the implementation of the cosmological principle, that is, the assumption of homogeneity and isotropy in the spatial distribution of matter in the Universe, within the context of Einstein-Cartan theory including minimal couplings of both Dirac and Maxwell fields to torsion. This theory gives rise to new physical effects in environments of high spin densities while leaving the vacuum dynamics unaffected. Our approach is to impose the cosmological principle from the onset to the geometrical degrees of freedom (metric and torsion functions), which constrains the torsion components and …
The observed small, positive cosmological constant may originate from a four-fermion interaction generated by the spin-torsion coupling in the Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble gravity if the fermions are condensing. In particular, such a condensation occurs for quark fields during the quark-gluon/hadron phase transition in the early Universe. We study how the torsion-induced four-fermion interaction is affected by adding two terms to the Dirac Lagrangian density: the parity-violating pseudoscalar density dual to the curvature tensor and a spinor-bilinear scalar density which measures the nonminim…
We will consider the most general least-order torsional completion of gravity with electrodynamics for the Dirac matter fields, and we study the effects that the torsion-spin coupling will have in inducing self-interactions among the fermion fields themselves; we will see that such self-interactions of fermions have effects analogous to those of the field-quantization prescription, and we will study the way in which they can give rise to matter distributions that are localized in a compact region and stable under the influence of perturbations.
Torsion arising from fermionic matter in the Einstein-Cartan formulation of general relativity is considered in the context of Robertson-Walker geometries and the early Universe. An ambiguity in the way torsion arising from hot fermionic matter in chiral models should be implemented is highlighted and discussed. In one interpretation, chemical potentials in chiral models can contribute to the Friedmann equation and give a negative contribution to the energy density.
We derive multipolar equations of motion for gravitational theories with general nonminimal coupling in spacetimes admitting torsion. Our very general findings allow for the systematic testing of whole classes of theories by means of extended test bodies. One peculiar feature of certain subclasses of nonminimal theories turns out to be their sensitivity to post-Riemannian spacetime structures even in experiments without microstructured test matter.
The inclusion of Dirac fermions in Einstein-Cartan gravity leads to a four-fermion interaction mediated by non-propagating torsion, which can allow for the formation of a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer condensate. By considering a simplified model in 2+1 spacetime dimensions, we show that even without an excess of fermions over antifermions, the nonthermal distribution arising from preheating after inflation can give rise to a fermion condensate generated by torsion. We derive the effective Lagrangian for the spacetime-dependent pair field describing the condensate in the extreme cases of nonrelati…
In this paper we argue the possibility that fermion masses, in particular quarks, originate through the condensation of a fourth family that interacts with all of the quarks via a contact four-fermion term coming from the existence of torsion on the spacetime. Extra dimensions are considered to avoid the hierarchy problem.
We investigate some cosmological models arising from a non-minimal coupling of a fermionic field to gravity in the geometrical setting of Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble gravity. The role played by the non-minimal coupling together with torsion in facing problems such as cosmological singularity, inflation and dark energy is discussed.
We attempt to build systematically the low-energy effective Lagrangian for the Einstein--Cartan formulation of gravity theory that generally includes the torsion field. We list all invariant action terms in certain given order; some of the invariants are new. We show that in the leading order the fermion action with torsion possesses additional U(1)_L x U(1)_R gauge symmetry, with 4+4 components of the torsion (out of the general 24) playing the role of Abelian gauge bosons. The bosonic action quadratic in torsion gives masses to those gauge bosons. Integrating out torsion one obtains a point-…
General relativity dynamics can be derived from different actions -- which depart from the Einstein-Hilbert action in boundary terms -- and for different choices of the dynamical variables. Among them, the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity is a torsion-based theory for the tetrad field. More general torsion-based theories have been built in the last years, intending to supersede general relativity. There are two current ways to formulate such theories; one includes a spin-connection and the other does not. We discuss the notion of Lorentz gauge invariance in such theories, and give…
We studied spherically symmetric solutions in scalar-torsion gravity theories in which a scalar field is coupled to torsion with a derivative coupling. We obtained the general field equations from which we extracted a decoupled master equation, the solution of which leads to the specification of all other unknown functions. We first obtained an exact solution which represents a new wormhole-like solution dressed with a regular scalar field. Then, we found large distance linearized spherically symmetric solutions in which the space asymptotically is AdS.
We discuss the quantum dynamics of the Dirac fermion particle in a gauge gravitational field. The minimal as well as the Pauli-type nonminimal coupling of a fermion with external fields is studied, bringing into consideration the notions of the translational and the Lorentz gravitational moments. The anomalous gravitomagnetic and gravitoelectric moments are ruled out on the basis of the covariance arguments. We derive the general Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation for an arbitrary configuration of the gauge gravitational field without assuming it weak. Making use of the Foldy-Wouthuysen Hamiltoni…
We propose a modified gravitational action containing besides the Einstein-Cartan term some quadratic contributions resembling the Yang-Mills lagrangian for the Lorentz spin connections. We outline how a propagating torsion arises and we solve explicitly the linearised equations of motion on a Minkowski background. We identify among torsion components six degrees of freedom: one is carried by a pseudo-scalar particle, five by a tachyon field. By adding spinor fields and neglecting backreaction on the geometry, we point out how only the pseudo-scalar particle couples directly with fermions, but…
In this manuscript we will present the theoretical framework of the recently proposed infinite derivative theory of gravity with a non-symmetric connection. We will explicitly derive the field equations at the linear level and obtain new solutions with a non-trivial form of the torsion tensor in the presence of a fermionic source, and show that these solutions are both ghost and singularity-free.
We discuss the possibility of constraining theories of gravity in which the connection is a fundamental variable by searching for observational consequences of the torsion degrees of freedom. In a wide class of models, the only modes of the torsion tensor which interact with matter are either a massive scalar or a massive spin-1 boson. Focusing on the scalar version, we study constraints on the two-dimensional parameter space characterizing the theory. For reasonable choices of these parameters the torsion decays quickly into matter fields, and no long-range fields are generated which could be…
We find a crucial miscalculation in [arXiv:1501.00365 [gr-qc]] which leads to the wrong master equation. This follows that there is no wormhole-like solution for hyperbolic scalar potential and the solution at large distances differs from that of [arXiv:1501.00365 [gr-qc]].
One of the formalisms that introduces torsion conveniently in gravity is the vierbein-Einstein-Palatini (VEP) formalism. The independent variables are the vierbein (tetrads) and the components of the spin connection. The latter can be eliminated in favor of the tetrads using the equations of motion in the absence of fermions; otherwise there is an effect of torsion on the dynamics of fields. We find that the conformal transformation of off-shell spin connection is not uniquely determined unless additional assumptions are made. One possibility gives rise to Nieh-Yan theory, another one to confo…
We derive the uncertainty principle for a Dirac fermion in a torsion field obeying the Hehl-Datta (HD) equation. We first discuss that there should be a correction factor to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle (HUP) when torsional effects are taken into consideration. We then derive the uncertainty relation from a solitary wave solution of the HD equation in 1+1 dimensions. We find that the results agree with the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP). We then introduce the unified length scale $L_{CS}$ (which unifies Compton wavelength and Schwarzschild radius) into the HD equation and see …
In this work we consider gravitational theories in which the effect of coupling characteristic classes, appropriately introduced as operators in the Einstein-Hilbert action, has been taken into account. As it is well known, this approach strays from the framework of general relativity since it results in theories in which torsion can be present. We consider here all the characteristic classes that are consistent with a four-dimensional space-time manifold. Then, we present explicit expressions for the contortion $1$-form and torsion $2$-form that can be obtained under general conditions in var…
We will consider the torsional completion of gravity for a background filled with Dirac matter fields, studying the weak-gravitational non-relativistic approximation, in view of an assessment about their effective phenomenology: we discuss how the torsionally-induced non-linear interactions among fermion fields in this limit are compatible with all experiments, and remarks on the role of torsion to suggest new physics are given.
We analyse a non-relativistic approximation of the Dirac equation for slow fermions, coupled to the chameleon field and torsion in the spacetime with the Schwarzschild metric, taken in the weak gravitational field of the Earth approximation. We follow the analysis of the Dirac equation in the curved spacetime with torsion, proposed by Kostelecky (Phys. Rev. D69, 105009 (2004)), and apply the Foldy--Wouthuysen transformations. We derive the effective low-energy gravitational potentials for slow fermions, coupled to the gravitational field of the Earth, the chameleon field and to torsion with mi…
We investigate the cosmological dynamics in a spatially flat Friedmann--Lema\^ıtre--Robertson--Walker geometry in scalar-tensor and scalar-torsion theories where the nonminimally coupled scalar field is a complex field. We derive the cosmological field equations and we make use of dimensionless variables in order to determine the stationary points and determine their stability properties. The physical properties of the stationary points are discussed while we find that the two-different theories, scalar-tensor and scalar-torsion theories, share many common features in terms of the evolution of…
The issues of quintessence and cosmic acceleration can be discussed in the framework of higher order curvature and torsion theories of gravity. We can define effective pressure and energy density directly connected to the curvature or to the torsion fields and then ask for the conditions to get an accelerated expansion. Exact accelerated expanding solutions can be achieved for several fourth order curvature or torsion theories so that we obtain an alternative scheme to the standard quintessence scalar field, minimally coupled to gravity, usually adopted. We discuss also conformal transformatio…
We consider a recently proposed class of extended teleparallel theories of gravity, which entail a scalar field which is non-minimally coupled to the torsion of a flat, metric-compatible connection. This class of scalar-torsion theories of gravity is constructed in analogy to and as a direct extension of the well-studied class of scalar-curvature gravity theories, and has various common features, such as the conformal frame freedom. For this class we determine the parametrized post-Newtonian limit, both for a massive and a massless scalar field. In the massive case, we determine the effective …
We study a large family of metric-affine theories with a projective symmetry, including non-minimally coupled matter fields which respect this invariance. The symmetry is straightforwardly realised by imposing that the connection only enters through the symmetric part of the Ricci tensor, even in the matter sector. We leave the connection completely free (including torsion) and obtain its general solution as the Levi-Civita connection of an auxiliary metric, showing that the torsion only appears as a projective mode. This result justifies the widely used condition of setting vanishing torsion …
Two tetrad spaces reproducing spherically symmetric spacetime are applied to the equations of motion of higher-order torsion theories. Assuming the existence of conformal Killing vector, two isotropic solutions are derived. We show that the first solution is not stable while the second one confirms a stable behavior. We also discuss the construction of the stellar model and show that one of our solution capable of such construction while the other cannot. Finally, we discuss the generalized Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff and show that one of our models has a tendency to equilibrium.
In this manuscript we describe a hidden conformal symmetry of the second Randall-Sundrum model (RS2). We show how this can be used to localize fermions of both chiralities. The conformal symmetry leaves few free dimensionless constants and constrains the allowed interactions. In this formulation the warping of the extra dimension emerges from a partial breaking of the conformal symmetry in five dimensions. The solution of the system can be described in two alternative gauges: by the metric or by the conformon. By considering this as a fundamental symmetry we construct a conformally invariant a…
We study the consequences of spacetime torsion coexisting with gravity in the bulk in scenarios with large extra dimensions. Having linked torsion with the Kalb-Ramond antisymmetric tensor field arising in string theories, we examine its artifacts on the visible 3-brane when the extra dimensions are compactified. It is found that while torsion would have led to parity violation in a 4-dimensional framework, all parity violating effects disappear on the visible brane when the torsion originates in the bulk. However, such a scenario is found to have characteristics of its own, some of which can …
We study the tetrad formulation of Chern-Simons (CS) modified gravity, which adds a Pontryagin term to the Einstein-Hilbert action with a spacetime-dependent coupling field. We first verify that CS modified gravity leads to a theory with torsion, where this tensor is given by an antisymmetric product of the Riemann tensor and derivatives of the CS coupling. We then calculate the torsion in the far field of a weakly gravitating source within the parameterized post-Newtonian formalism, and specialize the result to Earth. We find that CS torsion vanishes only if the coupling vanishes, thus generi…
In this paper, we analyze Dirac fermions in Gödel-type background space-times with torsion. We also consider the Gödel-type spacetimes embedded in a topological defect background. We show that relativistic bound states solutions to the Dirac equation can be obtained by dealing with three cases of the Gödel-type solutions with torsion, where a cosmic string passes through these three cases of the space-time. We obtain the relativistic energy levels for all cases of the Gödel-type solutions with torsion with a cosmic string, where we show that there exists an analogy with the Landau levels for D…
We study f(R)-gravity with torsion in presence of the most general ELKO matter, checking the consistency of the conservation laws with the matter field equations; we discuss some mathematical features of the field equations in connection with a cosmological application.
