General properties of vacuum solutions of $f(R)$ gravity are obtained by the condition that the divergence of the Weyl tensor is zero and $f''\neq 0$. Specifically, a theorem states that the gradient of the curvature scalar, $\nabla R$, is an eigenvector of the Ricci tensor and, if it is time-like, the space-time is a Generalized Friedman-Robertson-Walker metric; in dimension four, it is Friedman-Robertson-Walker.
We introduce network science as a framework for studying the string landscape. Two large networks of string geometries are constructed, where nodes are extra-dimensional six-manifolds and edges represent topological transitions between them. We show that a standard bubble cosmology model on the networks has late-time behavior determined by the largest eigenvector of $-(\mathbf{L} + \mathbf{D})$, where $\mathbf{L}$ and $\mathbf{D}$ are the Laplacian and degree matrices of the networks, which provides a dynamical mechanism for vacuum selection in the string landscape.
We revisit a non-perturbation theory of quantum gravity in $1.5$ order underlying an emergent gravitational pair of $(4{\bar 4})$-brane with a renewed interest. In particular the formulation is governed by a geometric torsion ${\cal H}_3$ in second order with an on-shell NS form in first order. Interestingly the gravitational pair is sourced by a Kalb-Ramond two form CFT on a $D_5$-brane in $d$$=$$10$ type IIB superstring theory. We show that a generic form theory containing a CFT sector in $d=6$ bulk may be described by a boundary ${\rm AdS}_5$ with a quintessence Q. Analysis reveals that the…
It is shown that when a strong electric field is turned on as a background in a charged scalar field, the vacuum state of the scalar field becomes exponentially amplified. This is an analogue to gravity induced vacuum amplification, where the vacuum state becomes exponentially amplified for some geometries.
The source theory provides a straightforward way to obtain the Newton's potential upon establishing the vacuum-to-vacuum transition amplitude in quantized Einstein theory of gravity. Here, we use the same method to derive the gravitational potential of two static point masses in $f(R)=R+aR^2$ gravity.
Spherically symmetric static vacuum solutions have been built in $f(T)$ models of gravity theory. We apply some conditions on the metric components; then the new vacuum spherically symmetric solutions are obtained. Also, by extracting metric coefficients we determine the analytical form of $f(T)$.
In the fat brane model, also known as the split fermion model, it is assumed that leptons and baryons live in different hypersurfaces of a thick brane in order to explain the proton stability without invoking any symmetry. It turns out that, in the presence of a gravity source $M$, particles will see different four-dimensional (4D) geometries and hence, from the point of view of 4D-observers, the equivalence principle will be violated. As a consequence, we show that a hydrogen atom in the gravitational field of $M$ will acquire a radial electric dipole. This effect is regulated by the Hamilton…
Topologically non-trivial vacuum structure in gravity models with Cartan variables (vielbein and contortion) is considered. We study the possibility of vacuum space-time tunneling in Einstein gravity assuming that the vielbein may play a fundamental role in quantum gravitational phenomena. It has been shown that in the case of RP3 space topology the tunneling between non-trivial topological vacuums can be realized by means of Eguchi-Hanson gravitational instanton. In Riemann-Cartan geometric approach to quantum gravity the vacuum tunneling can be provided by means of contortion quantum fluctua…
We construct an n-dimensional Born-Infeld type gravity theory that has the same properties as Einstein's gravity in terms of the vacuum and particle content: Namely, the theory has a unique viable vacuum (maximally symmetric solution) and a single massless unitary spin-2 graviton about this vacuum. The BI gravity, in some sense, is the most natural, minimal generalization of Einstein's gravity with a better UV behavior, and hence, is a potentially viable proposal for low energy quantum gravity. The Gauss-Bonnet combination plays a non-trivial role in the construction of the theory. As an extre…
In linearized quantum gravity, a shift of the average energy-momentum can be compensated by a shift of the average gravitational field. This allows a renormalization scheme that naturally removes the contribution of quantum vacuum fluctuations to the cosmological constant, solving the old cosmological-constant problem for weak gravitational fields.
The monodromy transform and corresponding integral equation method described here give rise to a general systematic approach for solving integrable reductions of field equations for gravity coupled bosonic dynamics in string gravity and supergravity in four and higher dimensions. For different types of fields in space-times of $D\ge 4$ dimensions with $d=D-2$ commuting isometries -- stationary fields with spatial symmetries, interacting waves or partially inhomogeneous cosmological models, the string gravity equations govern the dynamics of interacting gravitational, dilaton, antisymmetric ten…
We discuss the relevance of quantum gravity to the frontier questions in high energy phenomenology: the problems of dark matter, dark energy, and vacuum selection as well as the problems of emergent spacetime and wormholes. Dark matter and dark energy phenomenology, and the problem of vacuum selection are discussed within the context of string theory as a model of quantum gravity. Emergent spacetime and wormholes are discussed in a more general context of effective theories of quantum gravity.
Recently the Petrov type I condition is introduced to reduce the degrees of freedom in the extrinsic curvature of a timelike hypersurface to the degrees of freedom in the dual Rindler fluid in Einstein gravity. In this paper we show that the Petrov type I condition holds for the solutions of vacuum Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity up to the second order in the relativistic hydrodynamic expansion. On the other hand, if imposing the Petrov type I condition and Hamiltonian constraint on a finite cutoff hypersurface, the stress tensor of the relativistic Rindler fluid in vacuum Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet …
In this presentation, we discuss the nucleation and subsequent evolution of false vacuum bubbles in the scalar-tensor gravity. First, we transform the scalar-tensor type theory of gravity to the standard Brans-Dicke type. Second, we transform the Brans-Dicke type theory from the Jordan frame to the Einstein frame. For a certain potential, a true vacuum bubble in the Einstein frame can be transformed to a false vacuum bubble in the Jordan frame by a conformal transformation. Thus, in the Jordan frame, the nucleation of a false vacuum bubble can be possible and its subsequent evolution can be de…
Spacetimes, which are representations of a bridge-like geometry in gravity theory, are constructed as vacuum solutions to the first order equations of motion. Each such configuration consists of two copies of an asymptotically flat sheet, connected by a bridge of finite extension where tetrad is noninvertible. These solutions can be classified into static and non-static spacetimes. The associated SO(3,1) invariant fields, namely the metric, affine connection and field-strength tensor, are all continuous across the hypersurfaces connecting the invertible and noninvertible phases of tetrad and a…
This short note is devoted to the Hamiltonian analysis of the normalized general relativity and recently proposed model of vacuum energy sequestering. The common property of these models is the presence of the global variables. We discuss the meaning of these global variables in the context of the canonical formalism and argue that their presence lead to the non-local form of the Hamiltonian constraint.
We propose a new solution to the cosmological constant problem building on a nonperturbative quantum theory of gravity with torsional instantons. These pseudoparticles, which were recently found to exist in a first order formulation of Giddings-Strominger axionic gravity, carry nontrivial Nieh-Yan topological charge. The nonperturbative ground state as generated due to tunneling effects is shown to be stable under quantum fluctuations. Within this framework, the associated vacuum angle, namely the Barbero-Immirzi topological parameter, gets fixed to a numerical value determined by the Hubble c…
In this note, I describe an attempt to construct a phenomenological gravitational model at the boundary of the AdS manifold from the variation of boundary terms in the gravitational action. I find that for an AdS vacuum in the bulk, geometric constraints require that the energy-momentum tensor has constant trace.
We study gravity coupled to a scalar field in spherical symmetry using loop quantum gravity techniques. Since this model has local degrees of freedom, one has to face ``the problem of dynamics'', that is, diffeomorphism and Hamiltonian constraints that do not form a Lie algebra. We tackle the problem using the ``uniform discretization'' technique. We study the expectation value of the master constraint and argue that among the states that minimize the master constraint is one that incorporates the usual Fock vacuum for the matter content of the theory.
We compute the vacuum energy of three-dimensional asymptotically flat space based on a Chern-Simons formulation for the Poincare group. The equivalent action is nothing but the Einstein-Hilbert term in the bulk plus half of the Gibbons-Hawking term at the boundary. The derivation is based on the evaluation of the Noether charges in the vacuum. We obtain that the vacuum energy of this space has the same value as the one of the asymptotically flat limit of three-dimensional anti-de Sitter space.
The presence of Nambu-Goldstone bosons introduce a natural degeneracy inside the vacuum solutions of the non-linear formulations of massive gravity in the same spirit of the $σ$-models. When the gravitational effects are taken into account, and the observers are located at any distance with respect to the source, this degeneracy corresponds to a multiplicity (flow) of the fundamental scales of the theory. The different values of the fundamental scales are connected each other through the broken generators of the theory.
In this paper we have considered a red-shift based linear correction in derivative of action in the context of vacuum $f(R)$ gravity. Here we have found out that the linear correction may describe the late time acceleration which is appeared by SNeIa with no need of dark energy. Also we have calculated the asymptotic action for the desired correction. The value of all solutions may reduce to de' Sitter universe in the absence of correction term.
We show that Schwarzschild geometry remains as a vacuum solution for those four-dimensional f(T) gravitational theories behaving as ultraviolet deformations of general relativity. In the gentler context of three-dimensional gravity, we also find that the infrared-deformed f(T) gravities, like the ones used to describe the late cosmic speed up of the Universe, have as the circularly symmetric vacuum solution a Deser-de Sitter or a BTZ-like spacetime with an effective cosmological constant depending on the infrared scale present in the function f(T).
We review a long-standing difficulty in some semiclassical models of vacuum and vacuum decay. Surprisingly enough these models, careless of their transparent formulation, are affected by, both, technical and conceptual issues. After proving some general results that are relevant for, both, the Euclidean and Lorentzian sectors of their dynamics, we briefly highlight their importance in connection with the issues discussed before, arguing that their solution might be interesting in our quest for quantum gravity.
We study gravitational waves generated during the inflationary epoch in presence of a decaying cosmological parameter on a 5D geometrical background which is Riemann flat. Two examples are considered, one with a constant cosmological parameter and the second with a decreasing one.
Modified gravity theories include $f(\mathbf{R})-$gravity models that are usually constrained by the cosmological evolutionary scenario. However, it has been recently shown that they can also be constrained by the signatures of accretion disk around constant Ricci curvature Kerr-$f(\mathbf{R}_{0})$ stellar sized black holes. Our aim here is to use another experimental fact, viz., the terrestrial Sagnac delay to constrain the parameters of specific $f(\mathbf{R})-$gravity prescriptions. We shall assume that a Kerr-$f(\mathbf{R}_{0})$ solution asymptotically describes Earth's weak gravity near i…
In this paper we investigate spherically symmetric vacuum solutions of $f(R)$ gravity in a higher dimensional spacetime. With this objective we construct a system of non-linear differential equations, whose solutions depend on the explicit form assumed for the function $F(R)=\frac{df(R)}{dR}$. We explicit show that for specific classes of this function exact solutions from the field equations are obtained; also we find approximated results for the metric tensor for more general cases admitting $F(R)$ close to the unity.
We explore a background-independent theory of composite gravity. The vacuum expectation value of the composite metric satisfies Einstein's equations (with corrections) as a consistency condition, and selects the vacuum spacetime. A gravitational interaction then emerges in vacuum correlation functions. The action remains diffeomorphism invariant even as perturbation theory is organized about the dynamically selected vacuum spacetime. We discuss the role of nondynamical clock and rod fields in the analysis, the identification of physical observables, and the generalization to other theories inc…
In this paper the Seiberg-Witten map is first analyzed for non-commutative Yang-Mills theories with the related methods, developed in the literature, for its explicit construction, that hold for any gauge group. These are exploited to write down the second-order Seiberg-Witten map for pure gravity with a constant non-commutativity tensor. In the analysis of pure gravity when the classical space-time solves the vacuum Einstein equations, we find for three distinct vacuum solutions that the corresponding non-commutative field equations do not have solution to first order in non-commutativity, wh…
We introduce a $(5+m)$-dimensional vacuum description of five-dimensional bulk inflaton models with exponential potentials that makes analysis of cosmological perturbations simple and transparent. We show that various solutions, including the power-law inflation model recently discovered by Koyama and Takahashi, are generated from known $(5+m)$-dimensional vacuum solutions of pure gravity. We derive master equations for all types of perturbations, and each of them becomes a second order differential equation for one master variable supplemented by simple boundary conditions on the brane. One e…
A large class of two dimensional quantum gravity theories of Jackiw-Teitelboim form have a description in terms of random matrix models. Such models, treated fully non-perturbatively, can give an explicit and tractable description of the underlying ``microstate'' degrees of freedom. They play a prominent role in regimes where the smooth geometrical picture of the physics is inadequate. This is shown using a natural tool for extracting the detailed microstate physics, a Fredholm determinant ${\rm det}(\mathbf{1}{-}\mathbf{ K})$. Its associated kernel $K(E,E^\prime)$ can be defined explicitly fo…
It is shown that the notion of Conformal Mass can be defined within a given anti-de Sitter (AdS) branch of a Lovelock gravity theory as long as the corresponding vacuum is not degenerate. Indeed, conserved charges obtained by the addition of Kounterterms to the bulk action turn out to be proportional to the electric part of the Weyl tensor, when the fall-off of a generic solution in that AdS branch is considered. The factor of proportionality is the degeneracy condition for the vacua in the particular Lovelock AdS theory under study. This last feature explains the obstruction to define Conform…
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…
We use variational methods to calculate quasilocal energy quantum corrections. A comparison with the effective potential calculated at quadratic order is made by means of gaussian wave functionals. The method is a particular case of the effective action for composite operators used in quantum field theory. In pure gravity the method is applied for the first time. Implications on the foam-like scenario are discussed.
We briefly review the previous works on the renormalization group in quantum general relativity with the cosmological constant, based on the Vilkovisky and DeWitt version of effective action. On top of that, we discuss the prospects of the applications of this version of renormalization group to the cosmological models with a running Newton constant and vacuum energy density.
We present two families of exterior differential systems (EDS) for causal embeddings of orthonormal frame bundles over Riemannian spaces of dimension q = 2,3,4,5.. into orthonormal frame bundles over flat spaces of higher dimension. We calculate Cartan characters showing that these EDS are dynamical field theories. The first family includes a new non-isometric embedding EDS for classical Einstein vacuum relativity (q = 4). The second, generated only by 2-forms, is a family of classical "stringy" or Kaluza-type (q = 5) integrable systems. Cartan forms are found for all these dynamical systems.
A Symmetry Principle has been shown to augment unambiguously the Einstein Field Equations, promoting the whole closed-string massless NS-NS sector to stringy graviton fields. Here we consider its weak field approximation, take a non-relativistic limit, and derive the stringy augmentation of Newton Gravity: \[ \begin{array}{lll} {\bf{\nabla}^{2}Φ}=4πG ρ+\bf{H}{\bf{\cdot}}\bf{H}\,, \quad&\qquad\bf{\nabla}\bf{\cdot}\bf{H}=0\,, \quad&\qquad {\bf{\nabla}\bf{\times}\bf{H}}=4πG\, \bf{K}\,. \end{array} \] Not only the mass density $ρ$ but also the current density $\mathbf{K}$ is intrinsic to matter. S…
False vacuum decay in field theory may be formulated as a boundary value problem in Euclidean space. In a previous work, we studied its solution in single scalar field theories with quadratic gravity and used it to find obstructions to vacuum decay. For simplicity, we focused on massless scalar fields and false vacua with a flat geometry. In this paper, we generalize those findings to massive scalar fields with the same gravitational interactions, namely an Einstein-Hilbert term, a quadratic Ricci scalar, and a non-minimal coupling. We find that the scalar field reaches its asymptotic value fa…
University of Catania（卡塔尼亚大学）；INFN-Catania（意大利国家核物理研究所卡塔尼亚分部）；Scuola Superiore Meridionale（南方高等学院）；Università di Napoli “Federico II”（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）；INFN Sezione di Napoli（意大利国家核物理研究所那不勒斯分部）
In this work we have investigated the dynamics of a recent modification to the general theory of relativity, the energy-momentum squared gravity model $f(R,\mathbf{T^2})$, where $R$ represents the scalar curvature and $\mathbf{T^2}$ the square of the energy-momentum tensor. By using dynamical system analysis for various types of gravity functions $f(R,\mathbf{T^2})$, we have studied the structure of the phase space and the physical implications of the energy-momentum squared coupling. In the first case of functional where $f(R,\mathbf{T^2})=f_0 R^n(\mathbf{T^2})^m$, with $f_0$ constant, we hav…
We study quantum corrections for the Schwarzshild black hole by considering it as a vacuum solution of a 2D dilaton gravity theory obtained by spherical reduction of 4D gravity coupled with matter. We find perturbatively the vacuum solution for the standard one-loop effective action in the case of null-dust matter and in the case of minimally coupled scalar field. The corresponding state is in both cases 2D Hartle-Hawking vacuum, and we evaluate the corresponding quantum corrections for the thermodynamical parameters of the black hole. We also find that the standard effective action does not a…
We describe a link between the cosmological constant problem and the problem of time in quantum gravity. This arises by examining the relationship between the cosmological constant and vacuum energy in light of non-perturbative formulations of quantum gravity.
Teleparallel geometry utilizes Weitzenböck connection which has nontrivial torsion but no curvature and does not directly follow from the metric like Levi-Civita connection. In extended teleparallel theories, for instance in $f(T)$ or scalar-torsion gravity, the connection must obey its antisymmetric field equations. So far only a few analytic solutions were known. In this note we solve the $f(T,ϕ)$ gravity antisymmetric vacuum field equations for a generic rotating tetrad ansatz in Weyl canonical coordinates, and find the corresponding spin connection coefficients. By a coordinate transformat…
We introduce a master constraint operator $\hat{\mathbf{M}}$ densely defined in the diffeomorphism invariant Hilbert space in loop quantum gravity, which corresponds classically to the master constraint in the programme. It is shown that $\hat{\mathbf{M}}$ is positive and symmetric, and hence has its Friedrichs self-adjoint extension. The same conclusion is tenable for an alternative master operator $\hat{\mathbf{M'}}$, whose quadratic form coincides with the one proposed by Thiemann. So the master constraint programme for loop quantum gravity can be carried out in principle by employing eithe…
In the $\bar{\mbox{\rm Poincaré}}$ gauge theory of gravity, which has been formulated on the basis of a principal fiber bundle over the space-time manifold having the covering group of the proper orthochronous Poincaré group as the structure group, we examine the tensorial properties of the dynamical energy-momentum density ${}^{G}{\mathbf T}_{k}{}^μ$ and the ` ` spin" angular momentum density ${}^{G}{\mathbf S}_{kl}{}^μ$ of the gravitational field. They are both space-time vector densities, and transform as tensors under {\em global} $SL(2,C)$- transformations. Under {\em local} internal tran…
We construct a new vacuum for loop quantum gravity, which is dual to the Ashtekar-Lewandowski vacuum. Because it is based on BF theory, this new vacuum is physical for $(2+1)$-dimensional gravity, and much closer to the spirit of spin foam quantization in general. To construct this new vacuum and the associated representation of quantum observables, we introduce a modified holonomy-flux algebra which is cylindrically consistent with respect to the notion of refinement by time evolution suggested in [1]. This supports the proposal for a construction of a physical vacuum made in [1,2], also for …
We give the correct expressions for the spin network evaluations proposed in Class. Quant. Grav. 21 (2004) 3909 as the coefficients of the quantum gravity vacuum wavefunction in the spin network basis.
We discuss the effect of gravitational interactions on the lifetime of the Higgs vacuum where generic quantum gravity corrections are taken into account. We show how small black holes can act as seeds for vacuum decay, spontaneously nucleating a new Higgs phase centered on the black hole with a lifetime measured in millions of Planck times rather than billions of years. The constraints on parameter space of corrections to the Higgs potential are outlined, and implications for collider black holes discussed.
It is shown that all torsion-free vacuum solutions of the model of dS gauge theory of gravity are the vacuum solutions of Einstein field equations with the same positive cosmological constant. Furthermore, for the gravitational theories with more general quadratic gravitational Lagrangian ($F^2+T^2$), the torsion-free vacuum solutions are also the vacuum solutions of Einstein field equations.
Using a new approach to the analysis of false vacuum decay based on the so-called tunneling potential, we develop a general method to find scalar potentials with a false vacuum with exactly solvable decay at the semi-classical level, including gravitational corrections. We examine in particular the decays of de Sitter vacua providing concrete examples that allow to explore analytically the transition between the Coleman-De Luccia and Hawking-Moss regimes.
In this letter we study the generation of gravitational waves during inflation from a 5D vacuum theory of gravity. Within this formalism, on an effective 4D de Sitter background, we recover the typical results obtained with 4D inflationary theory in general relativity, for the amplitude of gravitational waves generated during inflation. We also obtain a range of values for the amplitude of tensor to scalar ratio which is in agreement with COBE observations.
A brief review of cosmology in some generalized modified gravity theories with vacuum polarization is presented. Stability question of de Sitter solution is investigated.
We have investigated the vacuum maximally symmetric solutions of recently proposed density-metric unimodular gravity theory,the results are widely different from inflationary senario.The exponential dependence on time in deSitter space is substiuted by a power law. Open space-times with non-zero cosmological constant are excluded in this theory
Based on the observation that the moduli of a link variable on a cyclic group modify Connes' distance on this group, we construct several action functionals for this link variable within the framework of noncommutative geometry. After solving the equations of motion, we find that one type of action gives nontrivial vacuum solution for gravity on this cyclic group in a broad range of coupling constants and that such solutions can be expressed with Chebyshev's polynomials.
