The full set of solutions of $f(T)$ gravity with the Minkowski metric is considered in this note. At the 4-th order in perturbations around the trivial tetrad solution, a new mode is found explicitly. Its presence signals a strong coupling problem that transcends the Minkowski background and also suggests the pathological nature of cosmological solutions.
We prove that the Minkowski spacetime is stable at nonlinear level and to all perturbative orders in the gravitational perturbation in a general class of nonlocal gravitational theories that are unitary and finite at quantum level.
We discuss the Minkowski stability problem in modified gravity by using dynamical system approach. The method to investigate dynamical stability of Minkowski space was proposed. This method was applied for some modified gravity theories, such as $f(R)$ gravity, $f(R)+αR\Box R$ gravity and scalar-tensor gravity models with non-minimal kinetic coupling. It was shown that in the case of $f(R)$ gravity Minkowski solution asymptotically stable in ghost-free ($f'>0$) and tachyon-free ($f">0$) theories in expanding Universe with respect to isotropic and basic anisotropic perturbations. In the case of…
The status of canonical reduction for metric and tetrad gravity in space-times of the Christodoulou-Klainermann type, where the ADM energy rules the time evolution, is reviewed. Since in these space-times there is an asymptotic Minkowski metric at spatial infinity, it is possible to define a Hamiltonian linearization in a completely fixed (non harmonic) 3-orthogonal gauge without introducing a background metric. Post-Minkowskian background-independent gravitational waves are obtained as solutions of the linearized Hamilton equations.
A recent study by Bojowald and Paily provided a path toward the identification of an effective quantum-spacetime picture of Loop Quantum Gravity, applicable in the "Minkowski regime", the regime where the large-scale (coarse-grained) spacetime metric is flat. A pivotal role in the analysis is played by Loop-Quantum-Gravity-based modifications to the hypersurface deformation algebra, which leave a trace in the Minkowski regime. We here show that the symmetry-algebra results reported by Bojowald and Paily are consistent with a description of spacetime in the Minkowski regime given in terms of th…
The post-Minkowskian limit and gravitational wave solutions for general fourth-order gravity theories are discussed. Specifically, we consider a Lagrangian with a generic function of curvature invariants $f(R, R_{αβ}R^{αβ}, R_{αβγδ}R^{αβγδ})$. It is well known that when dealing with General Relativity such an approach provides massless spin-two waves as propagating degree of freedom of the gravitational field while this theory implies other additional propagating modes in the gravity spectra. We show that, in general, fourth order gravity, besides the standard massless graviton is characterize…
We reorganize the derivative expansion of general (power-counting non-renormalizable) 2d dilaton gravity such that the mass function is integrable. As an example, we consider a three-parameter family of models and provide conditions on the parameters such that the ground state is either Minkowski, Rindler, or (A)dS.
The electrodynamic theory of continuous media is probably the most convenient platform when trying to construct analog gravity theories. Quite naturally, this topic has gained considerable interest. One peculiar but not so very known feature in this context is the unconventional behavior of radiation energy and momentum in cases where superluminal fluid velocities are encountered, what, as known, is a major ingredient in analog gravity theories. These peculiar features are intimately connected with the spacelike character of Minkowski's four-momentum in electrodynamics. Here, we first consider…
We investigate the problems of ghosts and stability in the framework of asymptotical safe theory of gravity in the Minkowski background. Within one loop corrections, we obtain explicitly the constraints on the coupling parameters. Applying them to the coupling constant recently-obtained at the fixed point, we find that the corresponding theory is both ghost-free and stable. Our results can be easily generalized to high order corrections.
Boosted and rotated tetrad backgrounds for the Minkowski space are studied in $f(T)$ gravity. We perform Lorentzian perturbations at first order around non-trivial backgrounds and show that some Lorentz modes can exhibit non-trivial dynamics and can propagate in time. This remarkable feature gives evidence of additional mode(s) in the Lorentzian sector which have no precedent in Lorentz-violating modified gravities, however they can cast doubts onto even theoretical viability of these models.
We compute the metric fluctuations induced by a turbulent energy-matter tensor within the first order Post-Minkowskian approximation. It is found that the turbulent energy cascade can in principle interfere with the process of black hole formation, leading to a potentially strong coupling between these two highly nonlinear phenomena. It is further found that a power-law turbulent energy spectrum $E(k) \sim k^{-n}$ generates metric fluctuations scaling like $x^{n-2}$, where $x$ is a four-dimensional distance from an arbitrary origin in spacetime. This highlights the onset of metric singularitie…
In gravitational Higgs mechanism graviton components acquire mass in the process of spontaneous breaking of diffeomorphisms (via scalar vacuum expectation values). Recently, gravitational Higgs mechanism was discussed in the context of obtaining massive gravity directly in four dimensions. We discuss a setup, with all diffeomorphisms spontaneously broken by scalars, where gravitational Higgs mechanism results in massive gravity in Minkowski space with no non-unitary propagating modes. This is achieved by including higher derivative terms in the scalar sector. Decoupling the non-unitary mode (t…
We consider a local formalism in quantum field theory, in which no reference is made to infinitely extended spacial surfaces, infinite past or infinite future. This can be obtained in terms of a functional W[f,S] of the field f on a closed 3d surface S that bounds a finite region R of Minkowski spacetime. The dependence of W on S is governed by a local covariant generalization of the Schroedinger equation. Particles' scattering amplitudes that describe experiments conducted in the finite region R --the lab during a finite time-- can be expressed in terms of W. The dependence of W on the geomet…
In this paper we revisit the problem of localizing gravity in a 2-brane embedded in a 4D Minkowski space to address induction of high derivative massive gravity. We explore the structure of propagators to find well-behaved higher-derivative massive gravity induced on the brane. Exploring a special case in the generalized mass term of the graviton propagator we find a model of consistent higher order gravity with an additional unitary massive spin-2 particle and two massless particles: one spin-0 particle and one spin-1 particle. The condition for the absence of tachyons is satisfied for both `…
We calculate small correction terms to gravitational potential near an asymmetric BPS brane embedded in a 5D AdS-Minkowski space in the context of supergravity. The normalizable wave functions of gravity fluctuations around the brane describe only massive modes. We compute such wave functions analytically in the thin wall limit. We estimate the correction to gravitational potential for small and long distances, and show that there is an intermediate range of distances in which we can identify 4D gravity on the brane below a crossover scale. The 4D gravity is metastable and for distances much l…
We introduce a physical piecewise linear metric associated to a Regge triangulation of a smooth 4-manifold. We describe the basic properties of the corresponding geometry in the cases of the Euclidean and the Minkowski signature. In the Minkowski case, we describe the Regge action and how to define the corresponding path integral for the casual triangulations. We also discus the Regge path integral for a triangulation associated to the Friedman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker cosmological model and briefly study the corresponding wavefunctions, namely the Hartle-Hawking and the Vilenkin wavefunction…
We explicitly solved the anomaly-free quantum constraints proposed by Tomlin and Varadarajan for the weak Euclidean model of canonical loop quantum gravity, in a large subspace of the model's kinematic Hilbert space which is the space of the charge network states. In doing so, we first identified the subspace on which each of the constraints acts convergingly, and then by explicitly evaluating such actions we found the complete set of the solutions in the identified subspace. We showed that the space of solutions consists of two classes of states, with the first class having a property that in…
We demonstrate equivalences, under simple mappings, between the dynamics of three distinct systems---(i) an arbitrary-mass-ratio two-spinning-black-hole system, (ii) a spinning test black hole in a background Kerr spacetime, and (iii) geodesic motion in Kerr---when each is considered in the first post-Minkowskian (1PM) approximation to general relativity, i.e. to linear order $G$ but to all orders in $1/c$, and to all orders in the black holes' spins, with all orders in the multipole expansions of their linearized gravitational fields. This is accomplished via computations of the net results o…
We construct Kaluza--Klein-type models with a de Sitter or Minkowski bundle in the de Sitter or Poincaré gauge theory of gravity, respectively. A manifestly gauge-invariant formalism has been given. The gravitational dynamics is constructed by the geometry of the de Sitter or Minkowski bundle and a global section which plays an important role in the gauge-invariant formalism. Unlike the old Kaluza--Klein-type models of gauge theory of gravity, a suitable cosmological term can be obtained in the Lagrangian of our models and the models in the spin-current-free and torsion-free limit will come ba…
The Effective One-Body formalism of the gravitational two-body problem in general relativity is reconsidered in the light of recent scattering amplitude calculations. Based on the kinematic relationship between momenta and the effective potential, we consider an energy-dependent effective metric describing the scattering in terms of an Effective One-Body problem for the reduced mass. The identification of the effective metric simplifies considerably in isotropic coordinates when combined with a redefined angular momentum map. While the effective energy-dependent metric as expected is not uniqu…
We compare two versions of deformed dispersion relations (energy vs momenta and momenta vs energy) and the corresponding time delay up to the second order accuracy in the quantum gravity scale (deformation parameter). A general framework describing modified dispersion relations and time delay with respect to different noncommutative kappa -Minkowski spacetime realizations is firstly proposed here and it covers all the cases introduced in the literature. It is shown that some of the realizations provide certain bounds on quadratic corrections, i.e. on quantum gravity scale, but it is not exclud…
In analog gravity the recent experiment of Drori {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 122}, 010404 (2019)] is impressive, as it shows how the emission of two Hawking quanta emitted in opposite directions lead to measurable consequences in the medium's rest system in a straightforward way. This result raises however the following problem: how can this experiment be explained in terms of classical electrodynamics? There must necessarily exist such an explanation (the experiment is after all classical); otherwise classical electrodynamics would be an incomplete theory. This is the main topic of th…
We investigate the new massive conformal gravity which is not invariant under conformal transformations, in comparison to the massive conformal gravity. We find five polarization modes of gravitational waves propagating on the Minkowski spacetimes. The stability of Minkowski spacetimes is guaranteed if the mass squared is not negative and the linearized Ricci tenor is employed to describe a massive spin-2 graviton. However, the small Schwarzschild black hole is unstable against the $s$-mode massive graviton perturbations.
We propose a new classical theory of gravity which is based on the principle of equivalence and assumption that gravity, similarly to electrodynamics, is described by a vector field in Minkowski space-time. We show that such assumptions yield a unique theory of gravity; it passes all available tests and free of singularities such as black holes. In the present theory, gravity is described by four equations which have, e.g., exact analytical solution for arbitrary static field. For cosmology our equations give essentially the same evolution of the Universe as general relativity. Predictions of …
The Minkowski space of special relativity can be understood as a flat 4-dimensional affine space enriched by a constant Minkowski metric. If we gauge the general affine group and `superimpose' the metric, then we arrive at the metric-affine theory of gravity (MAG). The gravitational potentials are the spacetime coframe, the metric, and the linear connection. The material energy-momentum is coupled to the coframe (and the metric), a hypothetical hypermomentum current to the connection. The hypermomentum splits in a spin, a dilation, and a shear piece. We collect some evidence in favor of the ex…
"Doubly-special relativity" (DSR), the idea of a Planck-scale Minkowski limit that is still a relativistic theory, but with both the Planck scale and the speed-of-light scale as nontrivial relativistic invariants, was proposed (gr-qc/0012051) as a physics intuition for several scenarios which may arise in the study of the quantum-gravity problem, but most DSR studies focused exclusively on the search of formalisms for the description of a specific example of such a Minkowski limit. A novel contribution to the DSR physics intuition came from a recent paper by Smolin (hep-th/0501091) suggesting …
A criticism sometimes made of the causal set quantum gravity program is that there is no practical scheme for identifying manifoldlike causal sets and finding embeddings of them into manifolds. A computational method for constructing an approximate embedding of a small manifoldlike causal set into Minkowski space (or any spacetime that is approximately flat at short scales) is given, and tested in the 2 dimensional case. This method can also be used to determine how manifoldlike a causal set is, and conversely to define scales of manifoldlikeness.
A review is given of the theory of non-inertial frames (with the associated inertial effects and the study of the non-relativistic limit) in Minkowski space-time, of parametrized Minkowski theories and of the rest-frame instant form of dynamics for isolated systems admitting a Lagrangian description. The relevance and gauge equivalence of the clock synchronization conventions for the identification of the instantaneous 3-spaces (Euclidean only in inertial frames) are described. Then this formalism is applied to tetrad gravity in globally hyperbolic, asymptotically Minkowskian space-times witho…
The energy in the ghost-free massive gravity theory is calculated via explicitly resolving the initial value constraints for spherically symmetric deformations of flat space. It turns out that the energy is positive in some cases, but in other cases it can be negative and even unbounded from below. This could suggest that ghost instability is present. However, it seems that the negative energy states cannot communicate with the positive energy sector since the corresponding solutions of the constraint equations are either not globally defined, not asymptotically flat, or singular. As a result,…
We consider the scalar mode of gravity as expressed by a conformal factor of the metric and present a model motivated by the Jordan-Brans-Dicke action. The reduced action provides a Lagrangian density in Minkowski space which exhibits a massive particle and an expanding space-time through a mechanism which is similar to the Higgs mechanism.
An effective theory of gravity in the infrared is proposed, which involves the determinant of the metric relative to the determinant of a prior metric taken to be that of Minkowski spacetime. This effective theory can be interpreted as a generalization of unimodular gravity. In a cosmological context with ultrarelativistic or cold matter, the resulting field equations have only one solution, empty Minkowski spacetime (selected by the prior metric of the theory). The introduction of energy exchange between vacuum and matter gives rise to nonstatic cosmic solutions. It is found that Minkowski sp…
In this work, we study linearised gravitational fields on the entire Minkowski space-time including space-like infinity. The generalised conformal field equations linearised about a Minkowski background are utilised for this purpose. In principle, this conformal representation of Einstein's equations can be used to carry out global simulations of Minkowski space-time. We investigate thoroughly this possibility.
General relativity differs from other forces in nature in that it can be made to disappear locally. This is the essence of the equivalence principle. In general relativity the equivalence principle is implemented using differential geometry. The connection that comes from a metric is used to glue together the different gravity-free Minkowski spaces. In this article we argue that there is another way to implement the equivalence principle. In this new way it is not different Minkowski spaces that are connected but different vacua of an underlying solid-state like model. One advantage of this ap…
In connection with the study of shear-free null geodesics in Minkowski space, we investigate the real geometric effects in real Minkowski space that are induced by and associated with complex world-lines in complex Minkowski space. It was already known, in a formal manner, that complex analytic curves in complex Minkowski space induce shear-free null geodesic congruences. Here we look at the direct geometric connections of the complex line and the real structures. Among other items, we show, in particular, how a complex world-line projects into the real Minkowski space in the form of a real sh…
If Einstein's equations are to describe a field theory of gravity in Minkowski spacetime, then causality requires that the effective curved metric must respect the flat background metric's null cone. The kinematical problem is solved using a generalized eigenvector formalism based on the Segré classification of symmetric rank 2 tensors with respect to a Lorentzian metric. Securing the correct relationship between the two null cones dynamically plausibly is achieved using the naive gauge freedom. New variables tied to the generalized eigenvector formalism reduce the configuration space to the c…
Instanton and wormhole solutions are constructed in a d-dimensional gravity theory with an axion-dilaton pair of scalar fields. We discuss the cases of vanishing, positive and negative cosmological constant.
Gravity is not only able to be mimicked in flat spacetimes, but also in curved spacetimes. We study analogue gravity models in curved spacetime by considering the relativistic Gross-Pitaevskii theory and Yang-Mills theory in the fixed background spacetime geometry. The results show that acoustic metrics can be emergent from curved spacetimes yielding a Hadamard product of a real metric-tensor and an analogue metric-tensor. Taking \emph{quantum vortices} as \emph{test particles}, we evaluate their released energy ratio during the "gravitational binding". The $2+1$-dimensional flat Minkowski met…
We consider the critical gravity theory with a scalar field in four dimensions. We find that this theory has the solution corresponding to the de Sitter (dS), anti-de Sitter (AdS), and Minkowski background depending on whether the action includes the cosmological term or not. The Minkowski background is the solution which cannot be obtained in the model without a scalar field. At the critical point, we show that the Abbott-Deser (AD) mass of the Schwarzschild-de Sitter (SdS) black hole and the energy for the massless graviton vanish, whose situation is not changed from the model without a scal…
In this second paper we define a Post-Minkowskian (PM) weak field approximation leading to a linearization of the Hamilton equations of ADM tetrad gravity in the York canonical basis in a family of non-harmonic 3-orthogonal Schwinger time gauges. The York time ${}^3K$ (the relativistic inertial gauge variable, not existing in Newtonian gravity, parametrizing the family and connected to the freedom in clock synchronization, i.e. to the definition of the instantaneous 3-spaces) is put equal to an arbitrary numerical function. A ultraviolet cutoff on the matter allows a consistent linearization, …
The semiclassical Einstein-Langevin equations which describe the dynamics of stochastic perturbations of the metric induced by quantum stress-energy fluctuations of matter fields in a given state are considered on the background of the ground state of semiclassical gravity, namely, Minkowski spacetime and a scalar field in its vacuum state. The relevant equations are explicitly derived for massless and massive fields arbitrarily coupled to the curvature. In doing so, some semiclassical results, such as the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor to linear order in the metric perturbation…
A discussion of asymptotic weak and strong Poincare' charges in metric gravity is given to identify the proper Hamiltonian boundary conditions. The asymptotic part of the lapse and shift functions is put equal to their analogues on Minkowski hyperplanes. By adding Dirac's ten extra variables at spatial infinity, metric gravity is extended to incorporate Dirac's ten extra first class constraints (the new ten momenta equal to the weak Poincare' charges) and this allows its deparametrization to parametrized Minkowski theories restricted to spacelike hyperplanes. The absence of supertranslations i…
We analyze the theories of gravity modified by a generic nonderivative potential built from the metric, under the minimal requirement of unbroken spatial rotations. Using the canonical analysis, we classify the potentials $V$ according to the number of degrees of freedom (DoF) that propagate at the nonperturbative level. We then compare the nonperturbative results with the perturbative DoF propagating around Minkowski and FRW backgrounds. A generic $V$ implies 6 propagating DoF at the non-perturbative level, with a ghost on Minkowski background. There exist potentials which propagate 5 DoF, as…
Brown's formulation of dynamical perfect fluids in Minkowski space-time is extended to ADM tetrad gravity in globally hyperbolic, asymptotically Minkowskian space-times. For the dust we get the Hamiltonian description in closed form in the York canonical basis, where we can separate the inertial gauge variables of the gravitational field in the non-Euclidean 3-spaces of global non-inertial frames from the physical tidal ones. After writing the Hamilton equations of the dust, we identify the sector of irrotational motions and the gauge fixings forcing the dust 3-spaces to coincide with the 3-sp…
Diakonov theory of quantum gravity, in which tetrads emerge as the bilinear combinations of the fermionis fields,\cite{Diakonov2011} suggests that in general relativity the metric may have dimension 2, i.e. $[g_{μν}]=1/[L]^2$. Several other approaches to quantum gravity, including the model of superplastic vacuum and $BF$-theories of gravity support this suggesuion. The important consequence of such metric dimension is that all the diffeomorphism invariant quantities are dimensionless for any dimension of spacetime. These include the action $S$, interval $s$, cosmological constant $Λ$, scalar …
In previous work, black hole vortex solutions in Einstein gravity with AdS$_3$ background were found where the scalar matter profile had a singularity at the origin $r=0$. In this paper, we find numerically static vortex solutions where the scalar and gauge fields have a non-singular profile under Einstein gravity in an AdS$_3$ background. Vortices with different winding numbers $n$, VEV $v$ and cosmological constant $Λ$ are obtained. These vortices have positive mass and are not BTZ black holes as they have no event horizon. The mass is determined in two ways: by subtracting the numerical val…
It is possible that relativistic symmetries become deformed in the semiclassical regime of quantum gravity. Mathematically, such deformations lead to the noncommutativity of spacetime geometry and non-vanishing curvature of momentum space. The best studied example is given by the $κ$-Poincaré Hopf algebra, associated with $κ$-Minkowski space. On the other hand, the curved momentum space is a well-known feature of particles coupled to three-dimensional gravity. The purpose of this thesis was to explore some properties and mutual relations of the above two models. In particular, I study extensiv…
Graviton propagation in ghost-free massive gravity
Abdus Salam Centre for Theoretical Physics, Imperial College(帝国理工学院阿卜杜斯·萨拉姆理论物理中心);Departament de Física Quàntica i Astrofísica and Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICC), Universitat de Barcelona(巴塞罗那大学量子天体物理学系及宇宙科学研究所)
We describe an efficient method for extracting the parts of $D$-dimensional loop integrals that are needed to derive observables in classical general relativity from scattering amplitudes. Our approach simplifies the soft-region method of integration by judiciously combining terms before the final integrations. We demonstrate the method by computing the required integrals for black-hole scattering to the second Post-Minkowskian order in Einstein gravity coupled to scalars. We also confirm recent results at the third Post-Minkowskian order regarding universality and high-energy behavior of grav…
In the framework of a general scalar-tensor theory, where the scalar field is non-minimally coupled to the five-dimensional Ricci scalar curvature, we investigate the emergence of complete brane-world solutions. By assuming a variety of forms for the coupling function, we solve the field equations in the bulk, and determine in an analytic way the form of the gravitational background and scalar field in each case. The solutions are always characterized by a regular scalar field, a finite energy-momentum tensor, and an exponentially decaying warp factor even in the absence of a negative bulk cos…