DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rezazadeh, Kazem; Karami, Kayoomars; Abdolmaleki, Asrin, E-mail: rezazadeh86@gmail.com

We study logamediate inflation in the context of f ( T ) teleparallel gravity. f ( T )-gravity is a generalization of the teleparallel gravity which is formulated on the Weitzenbock spacetime, characterized by the vanishing curvature tensor (absolute parallelism) and the non-vanishing torsion tensor. We consider an f ( T )-gravity model which is sourced by a canonical scalar field. Assuming a power-law f ( T ) function in the action, we investigate an inflationary universe with a logamediate scale factor. Our results show that, although logamediate inflation is completely ruled out by observational data in the standard inflationarymore » scenario based on Einstein gravity, it can be compatible with the 68% confidence limit joint region of Planck 2015 TT,TE,EE+lowP data in the framework of f ( T )-gravity.« less

Quasi-topological Ricci polynomial gravities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yue-Zhou; Liu, Hai-Shan; Lü, H.

2018-02-01

Quasi-topological terms in gravity can be viewed as those that give no contribution to the equations of motion for a special subclass of metric ansätze. They therefore play no rôle in constructing these solutions, but can affect the general perturbations. We consider Einstein gravity extended with Ricci tensor polynomial invariants, which admits Einstein metrics with appropriate effective cosmological constants as its vacuum solutions. We construct three types of quasi-topological gravities. The first type is for the most general static metrics with spherical, toroidal or hyperbolic isometries. The second type is for the special static metrics where g tt g rr is constant. The third type is the linearized quasitopological gravities on the Einstein metrics. We construct and classify results that are either dependent on or independent of dimensions, up to the tenth order. We then consider a subset of these three types and obtain Lovelock-like quasi-topological gravities, that are independent of the dimensions. The linearized gravities on Einstein metrics on all dimensions are simply Einstein and hence ghost free. The theories become quasi-topological on static metrics in one specific dimension, but non-trivial in others. We also focus on the quasi-topological Ricci cubic invariant in four dimensions as a specific example to study its effect on holography, including shear viscosity, thermoelectric DC conductivities and butterfly velocity. In particular, we find that the holographic diffusivity bounds can be violated by the quasi-topological terms, which can induce an extra massive mode that yields a butterfly velocity unbound above.

Thermodynamics of "exotic" Bañados-Teitelboim-Zanelli black holes.

PubMed

Townsend, Paul K; Zhang, Baocheng

2013-06-14

A number of three-dimensional (3D) gravity models, such as 3D conformal gravity, admit "exotic" black hole solutions: the metric is the same as the Bañados-Teitelboim-Zanelli metric of 3D Einstein gravity but with reversed roles for mass and angular momentum, and an entropy proportional to the length of the inner horizon instead of the event horizon. Here we show that the Bañados-Teitelboim-Zanelli solutions of the exotic 3D Einstein gravity (with parity-odd action but Einstein field equations) are exotic black holes, and we investigate their thermodynamics. The first and second laws of black hole thermodynamics still apply, and the entropy still has a statistical interpretation.

Plato alleges that God forever geometrizes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ne'Eman, Yuval

1996-05-01

Since 1961, the experimental exploration at the fundamental level of physical reality has surprised physists by revealing to them a highly geometric scenery. Like Einstein's (classical) theory of gravity, the “standard model,” describing the strong, weak, and electromagnetic interaction, testifies in favor of Plato's reported allegation.

On the breakdown of asymptotic Poincare invariance in D = 3 Einstein gravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deser, S.

1985-01-01

It is shown through a series of calculations that neither momentum nor boosts are definable for finite energy solutions of Einstein gravity in D = 3. The contrast between the effects of Lorentz transformations on the corresponding metrics for D = 3 and D = 4 gravity is demonstrated, and some comparisons with the vector gauge treatment of the problem are offered.

Boundary stress tensor and asymptotically AdS3 non-Einstein spaces at the chiral point

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giribet, Gaston; Goya, Andrés; Leston, Mauricio

2011-09-01

Chiral gravity admits asymptotically AdS3 solutions that are not locally equivalent to AdS3; meaning that solutions do exist which, while obeying the strong boundary conditions usually imposed in general relativity, happen not to be Einstein spaces. In topologically massive gravity (TMG), the existence of non-Einstein solutions is particularly connected to the question about the role played by complex saddle points in the Euclidean path integral. Consequently, studying (the existence of) nonlocally AdS3 solutions to chiral gravity is relevant to understanding the quantum theory. Here, we discuss a special family of nonlocally AdS3 solutions to chiral gravity. In particular, we show that such solutions persist when one deforms the theory by adding the higher-curvature terms of the so-called new massive gravity. Moreover, the addition of higher-curvature terms to the gravity action introduces new nonlocally AdS3 solutions that have no analogues in TMG. Both stationary and time-dependent, axially symmetric solutions that asymptote AdS3 space without being locally equivalent to it appear. Defining the boundary stress tensor for the full theory, we show that these non-Einstein geometries have associated vanishing conserved charges.

Quantum equivalence of f (R) gravity and scalar-tensor theories in the Jordan and Einstein frames

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ohta, Nobuyoshi

2018-03-01

The f(R) gravity and scalar-tensor theory are known to be equivalent at the classical level. We study if this equivalence is valid at the quantum level. There are two descriptions of the scalar-tensor theory in the Jordan and Einstein frames. It is shown that these three formulations of the theories give the same determinant or effective action on shell, and thus they are equivalent at the quantum one-loop level on shell in arbitrary dimensions. We also compute the one-loop divergence in f(R) gravity on an Einstein space.

A noncompact Weyl-Einstein-Yang-Mills model: A semiclassical quantum gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dengiz, Suat

2017-08-01

We construct and study perturbative unitarity (i.e., ghost and tachyon analysis) of a 3 + 1-dimensional noncompact Weyl-Einstein-Yang-Mills model. The model describes a local noncompact Weyl's scale plus SU(N) phase invariant Higgs-like field,conformally coupled to a generic Weyl-invariant dynamical background. Here, the Higgs-like sector generates the Weyl's conformal invariance of system. The action does not admit any dimensionful parameter and genuine presence of de Sitter vacuum spontaneously breaks the noncompact gauge symmetry in an analogous manner to the Standard Model Higgs mechanism. As to flat spacetime, the dimensionful parameter is generated within the dimensional transmutation in quantum field theories, and thus the symmetry is radiatively broken through the one-loop Effective Coleman-Weinberg potential. We show that the mere expectation of reducing to Einstein's gravity in the broken phases forbids anti-de Sitter space to be its stable vacua. The model is unitary in de Sitter and flat vacua around which a massless graviton, N2 - 1 massless scalar bosons, N massless Dirac fermions, N2 - 1 Proca-type massive Abelian and non-Abelian vector bosons are generically propagated.

Critical gravity in four dimensions.

PubMed

Lü, H; Pope, C N

2011-05-06

We study four-dimensional gravity theories that are rendered renormalizable by the inclusion of curvature-squared terms to the usual Einstein action with a cosmological constant. By choosing the parameters appropriately, the massive scalar mode can be eliminated and the massive spin-2 mode can become massless. This "critical" theory may be viewed as a four-dimensional analogue of chiral topologically massive gravity, or of critical "new massive gravity" with a cosmological constant, in three dimensions. We find that the on-shell energy for the remaining massless gravitons vanishes. There are also logarithmic spin-2 modes, which have positive energy. The mass and entropy of standard Schwarzschild-type black holes vanish. The critical theory might provide a consistent toy model for quantum gravity in four dimensions.

Fluid/gravity correspondence for massive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pan, Wen-Jian; Huang, Yong-Chang

2016-11-01

In this paper, we investigate the fluid/gravity correspondence in the framework of massive Einstein gravity. Treating the gravitational mass terms as an effective energy-momentum tensor and utilizing the Petrov-like boundary condition on a timelike hypersurface, we find that the perturbation effects of massive gravity in bulk can be completely governed by the incompressible Navier-Stokes equation living on the cutoff surface under the near horizon and nonrelativistic limits. Furthermore, we have concisely computed the ratio of dynamical viscosity to entropy density for two massive Einstein gravity theories, and found that they still saturate the Kovtun-Son-Starinets (KSS) bound.

Growth histories in bimetric massive gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Berg, Marcus; Buchberger, Igor; Enander, Jonas

2012-12-01

We perform cosmological perturbation theory in Hassan-Rosen bimetric gravity for general homogeneous and isotropic backgrounds. In the de Sitter approximation, we obtain decoupled sets of massless and massive scalar gravitational fluctuations. Matter perturbations then evolve like in Einstein gravity. We perturb the future de Sitter regime by the ratio of matter to dark energy, producing quasi-de Sitter space. In this more general setting the massive and massless fluctuations mix. We argue that in the quasi-de Sitter regime, the growth of structure in bimetric gravity differs from that of Einstein gravity.

Spontaneously broken topological SL(5,R) gauge theory with standard gravity emerging

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mielke, Eckehard W.

2011-02-15

A completely metric-free sl(5,R) gauge framework is developed in four dimensions. After spontaneous symmetry breaking of the corresponding topological BF scheme, Einstein spaces with a tiny cosmological constant emerge, similarly as in (anti-)de Sitter gauge theories of gravity. The induced {Lambda} is related to the scale of the symmetry breaking. A ''background'' metric surfaces from a Higgs-like mechanism. The finiteness of such a topological scheme converts into asymptotic safeness after quantization of the spontaneously broken model.

Einstein gravity with torsion induced by the scalar field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Özçelik, H. T.; Kaya, R.; Hortaçsu, M.

2018-06-01

We couple a conformal scalar field in (2+1) dimensions to Einstein gravity with torsion. The field equations are obtained by a variational principle. We could not solve the Einstein and Cartan equations analytically. These equations are solved numerically with 4th order Runge-Kutta method. From the numerical solution, we make an ansatz for the rotation parameter in the proposed metric, which gives an analytical solution for the scalar field for asymptotic regions.

Extended Gravity: State of the Art and Perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Capozziello, Salvatore; de Laurentis, Mariafelicia

2015-01-01

Several issues coming from Cosmology, Astrophysics and Quantum Field Theory suggest to extend the General Relativity in order to overcome several shortcomings emerging at conceptual and experimental level. From one hand, standard Einstein theory fails as soon as one wants to achieve a full quantum description of space-time. In fact, the lack of a final self-consistent Quantum Gravity Theory can be considered one of the starting points for alternative theories of gravity. Specifically, the approach based on corrections and enlargements of the Einstein scheme, have become a sort of paradigm in the study of gravitational interaction. On the other hand, such theories have acquired great interest in cosmology since they "naturally" exhibit inflationary behaviours which can overcome the shortcomings of standard cosmology. From an astrophysical point of view, Extended Theories of Gravity do not require to find candidates for dark energy and dark matter at fundamental level; the approach starts from taking into account only the "observed" ingredients (i.e., gravity, radiation and baryonic matter); it is in full agreement with the early spirit of General Relativity but one has to relax the strong hypothesis that gravity acts at same way at all scales. Several scalar-tensor and f(R)-models agree with observed cosmology, extragalactic and galactic observations and Solar System tests, and give rise to new effects capable of explaining the observed acceleration of cosmic fluid and the missing matter effect of self-gravitating structures. Despite these preliminary results, no final model addressing all the open issues is available at the moment, however the paradigm seems promising in order to achieve a complete and self-consistent theory working coherently at all interaction scales.

On static black holes solutions in Einstein and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with topology [Formula: see text].

PubMed

Dadhich, Naresh; Pons, Josep M

We study static black hole solutions in Einstein and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with the topology of the product of two spheres, [Formula: see text], in higher dimensions. There is an unusual new feature of the Gauss-Bonnet black hole: the avoidance of a non-central naked singularity prescribes a mass range for the black hole in terms of [Formula: see text]. For an Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet black hole a limited window of negative values for [Formula: see text] is also permitted. This topology encompasses black strings, branes, and generalized Nariai metrics. We also give new solutions with the product of two spheres of constant curvature.

Criticality in third order lovelock gravity and butterfly effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qaemmaqami, Mohammad M.

2018-01-01

We study third order Lovelock Gravity in D=7 at the critical point which three (A)dS vacua degenerate into one. We see there is not propagating graviton at the critical point. And also we compute the butterfly velocity for this theory at the critical point by considering the shock wave solutions near horizon, this is important to note that although there is no propagating graviton at the critical point, due to boundary gravitons the butterfly velocity is non-zero. Finally we observe that the butterfly velocity for third order Lovelock Gravity at the critical point in D=7 is less than the butterfly velocity for Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity at the critical point in D=7 which is less than the butterfly velocity in D = 7 for Einstein Gravity, vB^{E.H}>vB^{E.G.B}>vB^{3rd Lovelock} . Maybe we can conclude that by adding higher order curvature corrections to Einstein Gravity the butterfly velocity decreases.

Cosmological Constant: A Lesson from Bose-Einstein Condensates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finazzi, Stefano; Liberati, Stefano; Sindoni, Lorenzo

2012-02-01

The cosmological constant is one of the most pressing problems in modern physics. We address this issue from an emergent gravity standpoint, by using an analogue gravity model. Indeed, the dynamics of the emergent metric in a Bose-Einstein condensate can be described by a Poisson-like equation with a vacuum source term reminiscent of a cosmological constant. The direct computation of this term shows that in emergent gravity scenarios this constant may be naturally much smaller than the naive ground-state energy of the emergent effective field theory. This suggests that a proper computation of the cosmological constant would require a detailed understanding about how Einstein equations emerge from the full microscopic quantum theory. In this light, the cosmological constant appears as a decisive test bench for any quantum or emergent gravity scenario.

Cosmological constant: a lesson from Bose-Einstein condensates.

PubMed

Finazzi, Stefano; Liberati, Stefano; Sindoni, Lorenzo

2012-02-17

The cosmological constant is one of the most pressing problems in modern physics. We address this issue from an emergent gravity standpoint, by using an analogue gravity model. Indeed, the dynamics of the emergent metric in a Bose-Einstein condensate can be described by a Poisson-like equation with a vacuum source term reminiscent of a cosmological constant. The direct computation of this term shows that in emergent gravity scenarios this constant may be naturally much smaller than the naive ground-state energy of the emergent effective field theory. This suggests that a proper computation of the cosmological constant would require a detailed understanding about how Einstein equations emerge from the full microscopic quantum theory. In this light, the cosmological constant appears as a decisive test bench for any quantum or emergent gravity scenario.

Exact solutions to quadratic gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pravda, V.; Pravdová, A.; Podolský, J.; Švarc, R.

2017-04-01

Since all Einstein spacetimes are vacuum solutions to quadratic gravity in four dimensions, in this paper we study various aspects of non-Einstein vacuum solutions to this theory. Most such known solutions are of traceless Ricci and Petrov type N with a constant Ricci scalar. Thus we assume the Ricci scalar to be constant which leads to a substantial simplification of the field equations. We prove that a vacuum solution to quadratic gravity with traceless Ricci tensor of type N and aligned Weyl tensor of any Petrov type is necessarily a Kundt spacetime. This will considerably simplify the search for new non-Einstein solutions. Similarly, a vacuum solution to quadratic gravity with traceless Ricci type III and aligned Weyl tensor of Petrov type II or more special is again necessarily a Kundt spacetime. Then we study the general role of conformal transformations in constructing vacuum solutions to quadratic gravity. We find that such solutions can be obtained by solving one nonlinear partial differential equation for a conformal factor on any Einstein spacetime or, more generally, on any background with vanishing Bach tensor. In particular, we show that all geometries conformal to Kundt are either Kundt or Robinson-Trautman, and we provide some explicit Kundt and Robinson-Trautman solutions to quadratic gravity by solving the above mentioned equation on certain Kundt backgrounds.

Gödel metrics with chronology protection in Horndeski gravities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geng, Wei-Jian; Li, Shou-Long; Lü, H.; Wei, Hao

2018-05-01

Gödel universe, one of the most interesting exact solutions predicted by General Relativity, describes a homogeneous rotating universe containing naked closed time-like curves (CTCs). It was shown that such CTCs are the consequence of the null energy condition in General Relativity. In this paper, we show that the Gödel-type metrics with chronology protection can emerge in Einstein-Horndeski gravity. We construct such exact solutions also in Einstein-Horndeski-Maxwell and Einstein-Horndeski-Proca theories.

Einstein Equations from Varying Complexity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Czech, Bartłomiej

2018-01-01

A recent proposal equates the circuit complexity of a quantum gravity state with the gravitational action of a certain patch of spacetime. Since Einstein's equations follow from varying the action, it should be possible to derive them by varying complexity. I present such a derivation for vacuum solutions of pure Einstein gravity in three-dimensional asymptotically anti-de Sitter space. The argument relies on known facts about holography and on properties of tensor network renormalization, an algorithm for coarse-graining (and optimizing) tensor networks.

Cosmological reconstruction and Om diagnostic analysis of Einstein-Aether theory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pasqua, Antonio; Chattopadhyay, Surajit; Momeni, Davood

In this paper, we analyze the cosmological models in Einstein-Aether gravity, which is a modified theory of gravity in which a time-like vector field breaks the Lorentz symmetry. We use this formalism to analyse different cosmological models with different behavior of the scale factor. In this analysis, we use a certain functional dependence of the Dark Energy (DE) on the Hubble parameter H . It will be demonstrated that the Aether vector field has a non-trivial effect on these cosmological models. We also perform the Om diagnostic in Einstein-Aether gravity and we fit the parameters of the cosmological models usingmore » recent observational data.« less

Comparison of Einstein-Boltzmann solvers for testing general relativity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bellini, E.; Barreira, A.; Frusciante, N.; Hu, B.; Peirone, S.; Raveri, M.; Zumalacárregui, M.; Avilez-Lopez, A.; Ballardini, M.; Battye, R. A.; Bolliet, B.; Calabrese, E.; Dirian, Y.; Ferreira, P. G.; Finelli, F.; Huang, Z.; Ivanov, M. M.; Lesgourgues, J.; Li, B.; Lima, N. A.; Pace, F.; Paoletti, D.; Sawicki, I.; Silvestri, A.; Skordis, C.; Umiltà, C.; Vernizzi, F.

2018-01-01

We compare Einstein-Boltzmann solvers that include modifications to general relativity and find that, for a wide range of models and parameters, they agree to a high level of precision. We look at three general purpose codes that primarily model general scalar-tensor theories, three codes that model Jordan-Brans-Dicke (JBD) gravity, a code that models f (R ) gravity, a code that models covariant Galileons, a code that models Hořava-Lifschitz gravity, and two codes that model nonlocal models of gravity. Comparing predictions of the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background and the power spectrum of dark matter for a suite of different models, we find agreement at the subpercent level. This means that this suite of Einstein-Boltzmann solvers is now sufficiently accurate for precision constraints on cosmological and gravitational parameters.

Gravity Probe-B (GP-B) Mission and Tracking, Telemetry and Control Subsystem Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kennedy, Paul; Bell, Joseph L. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama will launch the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) space experiment in the Fall of 2002. The GP-B spacecraft was developed to prove Einstein's theory of General Relativity. This paper will provide an overview of the GPB mission and will discuss the design, and test of the spacecraft Tracking, Telemetry and Control (TT&C) subsystem which incorporates NASA's latest generation standard transponder for use with the NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS).

Self-accelerated Universe Induced by Repulsive Effects as an Alternative to Dark Energy and Modified Gravities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luongo, Orlando; Quevedo, Hernando

2018-01-01

The existence of current-time universe's acceleration is usually modeled by means of two main strategies. The first makes use of a dark energy barotropic fluid entering by hand the energy-momentum tensor of Einstein's theory. The second lies on extending the Hilbert-Einstein action giving rise to the class of extended theories of gravity. In this work, we propose a third approach, derived as an intrinsic geometrical effect of space-time, which provides repulsive regions under certain circumstances. We demonstrate that the effects of repulsive gravity naturally emerge in the field of a homogeneous and isotropic universe. To this end, we use an invariant definition of repulsive gravity based upon the behavior of the curvature eigenvalues. Moreover, we show that repulsive gravity counterbalances the standard gravitational attraction influencing both late and early times of the universe evolution. This phenomenon leads to the present speed up and to the fast expansion due to the inflationary epoch. In so doing, we are able to unify both dark energy and inflation in a single scheme, showing that the universe changes its dynamics when {\\ddot{H}\\over H}=-2 \\dot{H}, at the repulsion onset time where this condition is satisfied. Further, we argue that the spatial scalar curvature can be taken as vanishing because it does not affect at all the emergence of repulsive gravity. We check the goodness of our approach through two cosmological fits involving the most recent union 2.1 supernova compilation.

Was Newton right? A search for non-Newtonian behavior of weak-field gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boynton, Paul; Moore, Michael; Newman, Riley; Berg, Eric; Bonicalzi, Ricco; McKenney, Keven

2014-06-01

Empirical tests of Einstein's metric theory of gravitation, even in the non-relativistic, weak-field limit, could play an important role in judging theory-driven extensions of the current Standard Model of fundamental interactions. Guided by Galileo's work and his own experiments, Newton formulated a theory of gravity in which the force of attraction between two bodies is independent of composition and proportional to the inertia of each, thereby transparently satisfying Galileo's empirically informed conjecture regarding the Universality of Free Fall. Similarly, Einstein honored the manifest success of Newton's theory by assuring that the linearized equations of GTR matched the Newtonian formalism under "classical" conditions. Each of these steps, however, was explicitly an approximation raised to the status of principle. Perhaps, at some level, Newtonian gravity does not accurately describe the physical interaction between uncharged, unmagnetized, macroscopic bits of ordinary matter. What if Newton were wrong? Detecting any significant deviation from Newtonian behavior, no matter how small, could provide new insights and possibly reveal new physics. In the context of physics as an empirical science, for us this yet unanswered question constitutes sufficient motivation to attempt precision measurements of the kind described here. In this paper we report the current status of a project to search for violation of the Newtonian inverse square law of gravity.

Speed of gravitational waves and black hole hair

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tattersall, Oliver J.; Ferreira, Pedro G.; Lagos, Macarena

2018-04-01

The recent detection of GRB 170817A and GW170817 constrains the speed of gravity waves cT to be that of light, which severely restricts the landscape of modified gravity theories that impact the cosmological evolution of the Universe. In this work, we investigate the presence of black hole hair in the remaining viable cosmological theories of modified gravity that respect the constraint cT=1 . We focus mainly on scalar-tensor theories of gravity, analyzing static, asymptotically flat black holes in Horndeski, Beyond Horndeski, Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet, and Chern-Simons theories. We find that in all of the cases considered here, theories that are cosmologically relevant and respect cT=1 do not allow for hair, or have negligible hair. We further comment on vector-tensor theories including Einstein-Yang-Mills, Einstein-Aether, and generalized Proca theories, as well as bimetric theories.

Einstein versus the Simple Pendulum Formula: Does Gravity Slow All Clocks?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puri, Avinash

2015-01-01

According to the Newtonian formula for a simple pendulum, the period of a pendulum is inversely proportional to the square root of "g", the gravitational field strength. Einstein's theory of general relativity leads to the result that time slows down where gravity is intense. The two claims look contradictory and can muddle student and…

Stability of Einstein static universe in gravity theory with a non-minimal derivative coupling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Qihong; Wu, Puxun; Yu, Hongwei

2018-01-01

The emergent mechanism provides a possible way to resolve the big-bang singularity problem by assuming that our universe originates from the Einstein static (ES) state. Thus, the existence of a stable ES solution becomes a very crucial prerequisite for the emergent scenario. In this paper, we study the stability of an ES universe in gravity theory with a non-minimal coupling between the kinetic term of a scalar field and the Einstein tensor. We find that the ES solution is stable under both scalar and tensor perturbations when the model parameters satisfy certain conditions, which indicates that the big-bang singularity can be avoided successfully by the emergent mechanism in the non-minimally kinetic coupled gravity.

Matter scattering in quadratic gravity and unitarity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abe, Yugo; Inami, Takeo; Izumi, Keisuke; Kitamura, Tomotaka

2018-03-01

We investigate the ultraviolet (UV) behavior of two-scalar elastic scattering with graviton exchanges in higher-curvature gravity theory. In Einstein gravity, matter scattering is shown not to satisfy the unitarity bound at tree level at high energy. Among some of the possible directions for the UV completion of Einstein gravity, such as string theory, modified gravity, and inclusion of high-mass/high-spin states, we take R_{μν}^2 gravity coupled to matter. We show that matter scattering with graviton interactions satisfies the unitarity bound at high energy, even with negative norm states due to the higher-order derivatives of metric components. The difference in the unitarity property of these two gravity theories is probably connected to that in another UV property, namely, the renormalizability property of the two.

Focus on quantum Einstein gravity Focus on quantum Einstein gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ambjorn, Jan; Reuter, Martin; Saueressig, Frank

2012-09-01

The gravitational asymptotic safety program summarizes the attempts to construct a consistent and predictive quantum theory of gravity within Wilson's generalized framework of renormalization. Its key ingredient is a non-Gaussian fixed point of the renormalization group flow which controls the behavior of the theory at trans-Planckian energies and renders gravity safe from unphysical divergences. Provided that the fixed point comes with a finite number of ultraviolet-attractive (relevant) directions, this construction gives rise to a consistent quantum field theory which is as predictive as an ordinary, perturbatively renormalizable one. This opens up the exciting possibility of establishing quantum Einstein gravity as a fundamental theory of gravity, without introducing supersymmetry or extra dimensions, and solely based on quantization techniques that are known to work well for the other fundamental forces of nature. While the idea of gravity being asymptotically safe was proposed by Steven Weinberg more than 30 years ago [1], the technical tools for investigating this scenario only emerged during the last decade. Here a key role is played by the exact functional renormalization group equation for gravity, which allows the construction of non-perturbative approximate solutions for the RG-flow of the gravitational couplings. Most remarkably, all solutions constructed to date exhibit a suitable non-Gaussian fixed point, lending strong support to the asymptotic safety conjecture. Moreover, the functional renormalization group also provides indications that the central idea of a non-Gaussian fixed point providing a safe ultraviolet completion also carries over to more realistic scenarios where gravity is coupled to a suitable matter sector like the standard model. These theoretical successes also triggered a wealth of studies focusing on the consequences of asymptotic safety in a wide range of phenomenological applications covering the physics of black holes, early time cosmology and the big bang, as well as TeV-scale gravity models testable at the Large Hadron Collider. On different grounds, Monte-Carlo studies of the gravitational partition function based on the discrete causal dynamical triangulations approach provide an a priori independent avenue towards unveiling the non-perturbative features of gravity. As a highlight, detailed simulations established that the phase diagram underlying causal dynamical triangulations contains a phase where the triangulations naturally give rise to four-dimensional, macroscopic universes. Moreover, there are indications for a second-order phase transition that naturally forms the discrete analog of the non-Gaussian fixed point seen in the continuum computations. Thus there is a good chance that the discrete and continuum computations will converge to the same fundamental physics. This focus issue collects a series of papers that outline the current frontiers of the gravitational asymptotic safety program. We hope that readers get an impression of the depth and variety of this research area as well as our excitement about the new and ongoing developments. References [1] Weinberg S 1979 General Relativity, an Einstein Centenary Survey ed S W Hawking and W Israel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

Generalized quasitopological gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hennigar, Robie A.; KubizÅák, David; Mann, Robert B.

2017-05-01

We construct the most general, to cubic order in curvature, theory of gravity whose (most general) static spherically symmetric vacuum solutions are fully described by a single field equation. The theory possesses the following remarkable properties: (i) It has a well-defined Einstein gravity limit, (ii) it admits "Schwarzschild-like" solutions characterized by a single metric function, (iii) on maximally symmetric backgrounds it propagates the same degrees of freedom as Einstein's gravity, and (iv) Lovelock and quasitopological gravities, as well as the recently developed Einsteinian cubic gravity [Bueno and Cano Phys. Rev. D 94, 104005 (2016)., 10.1103/PhysRevD.94.104005] in four dimensions, are recovered as special cases. We perform a brief analysis of asymptotically flat black holes in this theory and study their thermodynamics.

Early-time cosmology with stiff era from modified gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Odintsov, S. D.; Oikonomou, V. K.

2017-11-01

In this work, we shall incorporate a stiff era in the Universe's evolution in the context of F (R ) gravity. After deriving the vacuum F (R ) gravity, which may realize a stiff evolution, we combine the stiff F (R ) gravity with an R2 model, and we construct a qualitative model for the inflationary and stiff era, with the latter commencing after the end of the inflationary era. We assume that the baryogenesis occurs during the stiff era, and we calculate the baryon to entropy ratio, which effectively constraints the functional form of the stiff F (R ) gravity. Further constraints on the stiff F (R ) gravity may come from the primordial gravitational waves, and particularly their scalar mode, which is characteristic of the F (R ) gravity theory. The stiff era presence does not contradict the standard cosmology era, namely, inflation, and the radiation-matter domination eras. Furthermore, we investigate which F (R ) gravity may realize a dust and stiff matter dominated Einstein-Hilbert evolution.

General Relativity and Gravitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ashtekar, Abhay; Berger, Beverly; Isenberg, James; MacCallum, Malcolm

2015-07-01

Part I. Einstein's Triumph: 1. 100 years of general relativity George F. R. Ellis; 2. Was Einstein right? Clifford M. Will; 3. Cosmology David Wands, Misao Sasaki, Eiichiro Komatsu, Roy Maartens and Malcolm A. H. MacCallum; 4. Relativistic astrophysics Peter Schneider, Ramesh Narayan, Jeffrey E. McClintock, Peter Mészáros and Martin J. Rees; Part II. New Window on the Universe: 5. Receiving gravitational waves Beverly K. Berger, Karsten Danzmann, Gabriela Gonzalez, Andrea Lommen, Guido Mueller, Albrecht Rüdiger and William Joseph Weber; 6. Sources of gravitational waves. Theory and observations Alessandra Buonanno and B. S. Sathyaprakash; Part III. Gravity is Geometry, After All: 7. Probing strong field gravity through numerical simulations Frans Pretorius, Matthew W. Choptuik and Luis Lehner; 8. The initial value problem of general relativity and its implications Gregory J. Galloway, Pengzi Miao and Richard Schoen; 9. Global behavior of solutions to Einstein's equations Stefanos Aretakis, James Isenberg, Vincent Moncrief and Igor Rodnianski; Part IV. Beyond Einstein: 10. Quantum fields in curved space-times Stefan Hollands and Robert M. Wald; 11. From general relativity to quantum gravity Abhay Ashtekar, Martin Reuter and Carlo Rovelli; 12. Quantum gravity via unification Henriette Elvang and Gary T. Horowitz.

Posing Einstein's Question: Questioning Einstein's Pose.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Topper, David; Vincent, Dwight E.

2000-01-01

Discusses the events surrounding a famous picture of Albert Einstein in which he poses near a blackboard containing a tensor form of his 10 field equations for pure gravity with a question mark after it. Speculates as to the content of Einstein's lecture and the questions he might have had about the equation. (Contains over 30 references.) (WRM)

Stability of anti-de sitter space in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity.

PubMed

Deppe, Nils; Kolly, Allison; Frey, Andrew; Kunstatter, Gabor

2015-02-20

Recently it has been argued that in Einstein gravity anti-de Sitter spacetime is unstable against the formation of black holes for a large class of arbitrarily small perturbations. We examine the effects of including a Gauss-Bonnet term. In five dimensions, spherically symmetric Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity has two key features: Choptuik scaling exhibits a radius gap, and the mass function goes to a finite value as the horizon radius vanishes. These suggest that black holes will not form dynamically if the total mass-energy content of the spacetime is too small, thereby restoring the stability of anti-de Sitter spacetime in this context. We support this claim with numerical simulations and uncover a rich structure in horizon radii and formation times as a function of perturbation amplitude.

S2 like Star Orbits near the Galactic Center in Rn and Yukawa Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borka, Dusko; Jovanović, Predrag; Jovanović Vesna Borka; Zakharov, Alexander F.

2015-01-01

In this chapter we investigate the possibility to provide theoretical explanation for the observed deviations of S2 star orbit around the Galactic Center using gravitational potentials derived from extended gravity models, but in absence of dark matter. Extended Theories of Gravity are alternative theories of gravitational interaction developed from the exact starting points investigated first by Einstein and Hilbert and aimed from one side to extend the positive results of General Relativity and, on the other hand, to cure its shortcomings. One of the aims of these theories is to explain galactic and extragalactic dynamics without introduction of dark matter. They are based on straightforward generalizations of the Einstein theory where the gravitational action (the Hilbert-Einstein action) is assumed to be linear in the Ricci curvature scalar R. The f(R) gravity is a type of modified gravity which generalizes Einstein's General Relativity, i.e. the simplest case is just the General Relativity. It is actually a family of models, each one defined by a different function of the Ricci scalar. Here, we consider Rn (power-law fourth-order theories of gravity) and Yukawa-like modified gravities in the weak field limit and discuss the constrains on these theories. For that purpose we simulate the orbit of S2 star around the Galactic Center in Rn and Yukawa-like gravity potentials and compare it with New Technology Telescope/Very Large Telescope (NTT/VLT) as well as by Keck telescope observations. Our simulations result in strong constraints on the range of gravity interaction and showed that both Rn and Yukawa gravity could satisfactorily explain the observed orbits of S2 star. However, we concluded that parameters of Rn and Yukawa gravity theories must be very close to those corresponding to the Newtonian limit of the theory. Besides, in contrast to Newtonian gravity, these two modified theories induce orbital precession, even in the case of point-like central mass. The approach we are proposing seems to be sufficiently reliable to constrain the modified gravity models from stellar orbits around Galactic Center.

Perturbative Quantum Gravity and its Relation to Gauge Theory.

PubMed

Bern, Zvi

2002-01-01

In this review we describe a non-trivial relationship between perturbative gauge theory and gravity scattering amplitudes. At the semi-classical or tree-level, the scattering amplitudes of gravity theories in flat space can be expressed as a sum of products of well defined pieces of gauge theory amplitudes. These relationships were first discovered by Kawai, Lewellen, and Tye in the context of string theory, but hold more generally. In particular, they hold for standard Einstein gravity. A method based on D -dimensional unitarity can then be used to systematically construct all quantum loop corrections order-by-order in perturbation theory using as input the gravity tree amplitudes expressed in terms of gauge theory ones. More generally, the unitarity method provides a means for perturbatively quantizing massless gravity theories without the usual formal apparatus associated with the quantization of constrained systems. As one application, this method was used to demonstrate that maximally supersymmetric gravity is less divergent in the ultraviolet than previously thought.

Causality and a -theorem constraints on Ricci polynomial and Riemann cubic gravities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yue-Zhou; Lü, H.; Wu, Jun-Bao

2018-01-01

In this paper, we study Einstein gravity extended with Ricci polynomials and derive the constraints on the coupling constants from the considerations of being ghost-free, exhibiting an a -theorem and maintaining causality. The salient feature is that Einstein metrics with appropriate effective cosmological constants continue to be solutions with the inclusion of such Ricci polynomials and the causality constraint is automatically satisfied. The ghost-free and a -theorem conditions can only be both met starting at the quartic order. We also study these constraints on general Riemann cubic gravities.

Scalar hair around charged black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grandi, Nicolás; Landea, Ignacio Salazar

2018-02-01

We explore charged black hole solutions in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in five dimensions, with a charged scalar hair. We interpret such hairy black holes as the final state of the superradiant instability previously reported for this system. We explore the relation of the hairy black hole solutions with the nonbackreacting quasibound states and scalar clouds, as well as with the boson star solutions.

Intricacies of cosmological bounce in polynomial metric f(R) gravity for flat FLRW spacetime

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bhattacharya, Kaushik; Chakrabarty, Saikat, E-mail: kaushikb@iitk.ac.in, E-mail: snilch@iitk.ac.in

2016-02-01

In this paper we present the techniques for computing cosmological bounces in polynomial f(R) theories, whose order is more than two, for spatially flat FLRW spacetime. In these cases the conformally connected Einstein frame shows up multiple scalar potentials predicting various possibilities of cosmological evolution in the Jordan frame where the f(R) theory lives. We present a reasonable way in which one can associate the various possible potentials in the Einstein frame, for cubic f(R) gravity, to the cosmological development in the Jordan frame. The issue concerning the energy conditions in f(R) theories is presented. We also point out themore » very important relationships between the conformal transformations connecting the Jordan frame and the Einstein frame and the various instabilities of f(R) theory. All the calculations are done for cubic f(R) gravity but we hope the results are sufficiently general for higher order polynomial gravity.« less

Modified Einstein's gravity as a possible missing link between sub- and super-Chandrasekhar type Ia supernovae

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Das, Upasana; Mukhopadhyay, Banibrata

2015-05-01

We explore the effect of modification to Einstein's gravity in white dwarfs for the first time in the literature, to the best of our knowledge. This leads to significantly sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting masses of white dwarfs, determined by a single model parameter. On the other hand, type Ia supernovae (SNeIa), a key to unravel the evolutionary history of the universe, are believed to be triggered in white dwarfs having mass close to the Chandrasekhar limit. However, observations of several peculiar, under- and over-luminous SNeIa argue for exploding masses widely different from this limit. We argue that explosions of the modified gravity induced sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting mass white dwarfs result in under- and over-luminous SNeIa respectively, thus unifying these two apparently disjoint sub-classes and, hence, serving as a missing link. Our discovery raises two fundamental questions. Is the Chandrasekhar limit unique? Is Einstein's gravity the ultimate theory for understanding astronomical phenomena? Both the answers appear to be no!

C-metric solution for conformal gravity with a conformally coupled scalar field

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meng, Kun, E-mail: mengkun@tjpu.edu.cn; Zhao, Liu, E-mail: lzhao@nankai.edu.cn

The C-metric solution of conformal gravity with a conformally coupled scalar field is presented. The solution belongs to the class of Petrov type D spacetimes and is conformal to the standard AdS C-metric appeared in vacuum Einstein gravity. For all parameter ranges, we identify some of the physically interesting static regions and the corresponding coordinate ranges. The solution may contain a black hole event horizon, an acceleration horizon, either of which may be cut by the conformal infinity or be hidden behind the conformal infinity. Since the model is conformally invariant, we also discussed the possible effects of the conformalmore » gauge choices on the structure of the spacetime.« less

Higher-order theories of gravity: diagnosis, extraction and reformulation via non-metric extra degrees of freedom-a review.

PubMed

Belenchia, Alessio; Letizia, Marco; Liberati, Stefano; Di Casola, Eolo

2018-03-01

Modifications of Einstein's theory of gravitation have been extensively considered in the past years, in connection to both cosmology and quantum gravity. Higher-curvature and higher-derivative gravity theories constitute the main examples of such modifications. These theories exhibit, in general, more degrees of freedom than those found in standard general relativity; counting, identifying, and retrieving the description/representation of such dynamical variables is currently an open problem, and a decidedly nontrivial one. In this work we review, via both formal arguments and custom-made examples, the most relevant methods to unveil the gravitational degrees of freedom of a given model, discussing the merits, subtleties and pitfalls of the various approaches.

Space-time philosophy reconstructed via massive Nordström scalar gravities? Laws vs. geometry, conventionality, and underdetermination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pitts, J. Brian

2016-02-01

What if gravity satisfied the Klein-Gordon equation? Both particle physics from the 1920-30s and the 1890s Neumann-Seeliger modification of Newtonian gravity with exponential decay suggest considering a "graviton mass term" for gravity, which is algebraic in the potential. Unlike Nordström's "massless" theory, massive scalar gravity is strictly special relativistic in the sense of being invariant under the Poincaré group but not the 15-parameter Bateman-Cunningham conformal group. It therefore exhibits the whole of Minkowski space-time structure, albeit only indirectly concerning volumes. Massive scalar gravity is plausible in terms of relativistic field theory, while violating most interesting versions of Einstein's principles of general covariance, general relativity, equivalence, and Mach. Geometry is a poor guide to understanding massive scalar gravity(s): matter sees a conformally flat metric due to universal coupling, but gravity also sees the rest of the flat metric (barely or on long distances) in the mass term. What is the 'true' geometry, one might wonder, in line with Poincaré's modal conventionality argument? Infinitely many theories exhibit this bimetric 'geometry,' all with the total stress-energy's trace as source; thus geometry does not explain the field equations. The irrelevance of the Ehlers-Pirani-Schild construction to a critique of conventionalism becomes evident when multi-geometry theories are contemplated. Much as Seeliger envisaged, the smooth massless limit indicates underdetermination of theories by data between massless and massive scalar gravities-indeed an unconceived alternative. At least one version easily could have been developed before General Relativity; it then would have motivated thinking of Einstein's equations along the lines of Einstein's newly re-appreciated "physical strategy" and particle physics and would have suggested a rivalry from massive spin 2 variants of General Relativity (massless spin 2, Pauli and Fierz found in 1939). The Putnam-Grünbaum debate on conventionality is revisited with an emphasis on the broad modal scope of conventionalist views. Massive scalar gravity thus contributes to a historically plausible rational reconstruction of much of 20th-21st century space-time philosophy in the light of particle physics. An appendix reconsiders the Malament-Weatherall-Manchak conformal restriction of conventionality and constructs the 'universal force' influencing the causal structure. Subsequent works will discuss how massive gravity could have provided a template for a more Kant-friendly space-time theory that would have blocked Moritz Schlick's supposed refutation of synthetic a priori knowledge, and how Einstein's false analogy between the Neumann-Seeliger-Einstein modification of Newtonian gravity and the cosmological constant Λ generated lasting confusion that obscured massive gravity as a conceptual possibility.

Super-Luminal Effects for Finsler Branes as a Way to Preserve the Paradigm of Relativity Theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vacaru, Sergiu I.

2013-06-01

Using Finsler brane solutions [see details and methods in: S. Vacaru, Class. Quant. Grav. 28:215001, 2011], we show that neutrinos may surpass the speed of light in vacuum which can be explained by trapping effects from gravity theories on eight dimensional (co) tangent bundles on Lorentzian manifolds to spacetimes in general and special relativity. In nonholonomic variables, the bulk gravity is described by Finsler modifications depending on velocity/momentum coordinates. Possible super-luminal phenomena are determined by the width of locally anisotropic brane (spacetime) and induced by generating functions and integration functions and constants in coefficients of metrics and nonlinear connections. We conclude that Finsler brane gravity trapping mechanism may explain neutrino super-luminal effects and almost preserve the paradigm of Einstein relativity as the standard one for particle physics and gravity.

Axion as a cold dark matter candidate: analysis to third order perturbation for classical axion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Noh, Hyerim; Hwang, Jai-chan; Park, Chan-Gyung, E-mail: hr@kasi.re.kr, E-mail: jchan@knu.ac.kr, E-mail: park.chan.gyung@gmail.com

2015-12-01

We investigate aspects of axion as a coherently oscillating massive classical scalar field by analyzing third order perturbations in Einstein's gravity in the axion-comoving gauge. The axion fluid has its characteristic pressure term leading to an axion Jeans scale which is cosmologically negligible for a canonical axion mass. Our classically derived axion pressure term in Einstein's gravity is identical to the one derived in the non-relativistic quantum mechanical context in the literature. We present the general relativistic continuity and Euler equations for an axion fluid valid up to third order perturbation. Equations for axion are exactly the same as thatmore » of a zero-pressure fluid in Einstein's gravity except for an axion pressure term in the Euler equation. Our analysis includes the cosmological constant.« less

Complexity-action duality of the shock wave geometry in a massive gravity theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miao, Yan-Gang; Zhao, Long

2018-01-01

On the holographic complexity dual to the bulk action, we investigate the action growth for a shock wave geometry in a massive gravity theory within the Wheeler-DeWitt (WDW) patch at the late time limit. For a global shock wave, the graviton mass does not affect the action growth in the bulk, i.e., the complexity on the boundary, showing that the action growth (complexity) is the same for both the Einstein gravity and the massive gravity. Nevertheless, for a local shock wave that depends on transverse coordinates, the action growth (complexity) caused by the boundary disturbance (perturbation) is proportional to the butterfly velocity for the two gravity theories, but the butterfly velocity of the massive gravity theory is smaller than that of the Einstein gravity theory, indicating that the action growth (complexity) of the massive gravity is depressed by the graviton mass. In addition, we extend the black hole thermodynamics of the massive gravity and obtain the right Smarr formula.

Finding Horndeski theories with Einstein gravity limits

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McManus, Ryan; Lombriser, Lucas; Peñarrubia, Jorge, E-mail: ryanm@roe.ac.uk, E-mail: llo@roe.ac.uk, E-mail: jorpega@roe.ac.uk

The Horndeski action is the most general scalar-tensor theory with at most second-order derivatives in the equations of motion, thus evading Ostrogradsky instabilities and making it of interest when modifying gravity at large scales. To pass local tests of gravity, these modifications predominantly rely on nonlinear screening mechanisms that recover Einstein's Theory of General Relativity in regions of high density. We derive a set of conditions on the four free functions of the Horndeski action that examine whether a specific model embedded in the action possesses an Einstein gravity limit or not. For this purpose, we develop a new andmore » surprisingly simple scaling method that identifies dominant terms in the equations of motion by considering formal limits of the couplings that enter through the new terms in the modified action. This enables us to find regimes where nonlinear terms dominate and Einstein's field equations are recovered to leading order. Together with an efficient approximation of the scalar field profile, one can then further evaluate whether these limits can be attributed to a genuine screening effect. For illustration, we apply the analysis to both a cubic galileon and a chameleon model as well as to Brans-Dicke theory. Finally, we emphasise that the scaling method also provides a natural approach for performing post-Newtonian expansions in screened regimes.« less

A new golden age: testing general relativity with cosmology.

PubMed

Bean, Rachel; Ferreira, Pedro G; Taylor, Andy

2011-12-28

Gravity drives the evolution of the Universe and is at the heart of its complexity. Einstein's field equations can be used to work out the detailed dynamics of space and time and to calculate the emergence of large-scale structure in the distribution of galaxies and radiation. Over the past few years, it has become clear that cosmological observations can be used not only to constrain different world models within the context of Einstein gravity but also to constrain the theory of gravity itself. In this article, we look at different aspects of this new field in which cosmology is used to test theories of gravity with a wide range of observations.

Stability of the Einstein static universe in Einstein-Cartan theory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Atazadeh, K., E-mail: atazadeh@azaruniv.ac.ir

The existence and stability of the Einstein static solution have been built in the Einstein-Cartan gravity. We show that this solution in the presence of perfect fluid with spin density satisfying the Weyssenhoff restriction is cyclically stable around a center equilibrium point. Thus, study of this solution is interesting because it supports non-singular emergent cosmological models in which the early universe oscillates indeterminately about an initial Einstein static solution and is thus past eternal.

Neutron stars in Horndeski gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maselli, Andrea; Silva, Hector O.; Minamitsuji, Masato; Berti, Emanuele

2016-06-01

Horndeski's theory of gravity is the most general scalar-tensor theory with a single scalar whose equations of motion contain at most second-order derivatives. A subsector of Horndeski's theory known as "Fab Four" gravity allows for dynamical self-tuning of the quantum vacuum energy, and therefore it has received particular attention in cosmology as a possible alternative to the Λ CDM model. Here we study compact stars in Fab Four gravity, which includes as special cases general relativity ("George"), Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet gravity ("Ringo"), theories with a nonminimal coupling with the Einstein tensor ("John"), and theories involving the double-dual of the Riemann tensor ("Paul"). We generalize and extend previous results in theories of the John class and were not able to find realistic compact stars in theories involving the Paul class.

Testing Einstein's theory of gravity in a millisecond pulsar triple system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Archibald, Anne

2015-04-01

Einstein's theory of gravity depends on a key postulate, the strong equivalence principle. This principle says, among other things, that all objects fall the same way, even objects with strong self-gravity. Almost every metric theory of gravity other than Einstein's general relativity violates the strong equivalence principle at some level. While the weak equivalence principle--for objects with negligible self-gravity--has been tested in the laboratory, the strong equivalence principle requires astrophysical tests. Lunar laser ranging provides the best current tests by measuring whether the Earth and the Moon fall the same way in the gravitational field of the Sun. These tests are limited by the weak self-gravity of the Earth: the gravitational binding energy (over c2) over the mass is only 4 . 6 ×10-10 . By contrast, for neutron stars this same ratio is expected to be roughly 0 . 1 . Thus the recently-discovered system PSR J0337+17, a hierarchical triple consisting of a millisecond pulsar and two white dwarfs, offers the possibility of a test of the strong equivalence principle that is more sensitive by a factor of 20 to 100 than the best existing test. I will describe our observations of this system and our progress towards such a test.

Black holes in higher derivative gravity.

PubMed

Lü, H; Perkins, A; Pope, C N; Stelle, K S

2015-05-01

Extensions of Einstein gravity with higher-order derivative terms arise in string theory and other effective theories, as well as being of interest in their own right. In this Letter we study static black-hole solutions in the example of Einstein gravity with additional quadratic curvature terms. A Lichnerowicz-type theorem simplifies the analysis by establishing that they must have vanishing Ricci scalar curvature. By numerical methods we then demonstrate the existence of further black-hole solutions over and above the Schwarzschild solution. We discuss some of their thermodynamic properties, and show that they obey the first law of thermodynamics.

Twistor-strings and gravity tree amplitudes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adamo, Tim; Mason, Lionel

2013-04-01

Recently we discussed how Einstein supergravity tree amplitudes might be obtained from the original Witten and Berkovits twistor-string theory when external conformal gravitons are restricted to be Einstein gravitons. Here we obtain a more systematic understanding of the relationship between conformal and Einstein gravity amplitudes in that twistor-string theory. We show that although it does not in general yield Einstein amplitudes, we can nevertheless obtain some partial twistor-string interpretation of the remarkable formulae recently been found by Hodges and generalized to all tree amplitudes by Cachazo and Skinner. The Hodges matrix and its higher degree generalizations encode the world sheet correlators of the twistor string. These matrices control both Einstein amplitudes and those of the conformal gravity arising from the Witten and Berkovits twistor-string. Amplitudes in the latter case arise from products of the diagonal elements of the generalized Hodges matrices and reduced determinants give the former. The reduced determinants arise if the contractions in the worldsheet correlator are restricted to form connected trees at MHV. The (generalized) Hodges matrices arise as weighted Laplacian matrices for the graph of possible contractions in the correlators and the reduced determinants of these weighted Laplacian matrices give the sum of the connected tree contributions by an extension of the matrix-tree theorem.

Generalized geometry and non-symmetric metric gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jurčo, Branislav; Khoo, Fech Scen; Schupp, Peter; Vysoký, Jan

2016-04-01

Generalized geometry provides the framework for a systematic approach to non-symmetric metric gravity theory and naturally leads to an Einstein-Kalb-Ramond gravity theory with totally anti-symmetric contortion. The approach is related to the study of the low-energy effective closed string gravity actions.

Pseudotopological quasilocal energy of torsion gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ko, Sheng-Lan; Lin, Feng-Li; Ning, Bo

2017-08-01

Torsion gravity is a natural extension to Einstein gravity in the presence of fermion matter sources. In this paper we adopt Wald's covariant method of calculating the Noether charge to construct the quasilocal energy of the Einstein-Cartan-fermion system, and find that its explicit expression is formally independent of the coupling constant between the torsion and axial current. This seemingly topological nature is unexpected and is reminiscent of the quantum Hall effect and topological insulators. However, a coupling dependence does arise when evaluating it on shell, and thus the situation is pseudotopological. Based on the expression for the quasilocal energy, we evaluate it for a particular solution on the entanglement wedge and find agreement with the holographic relative entropy obtained before. This shows the equivalence of these two quantities in the Einstein-Cartan-fermion system. Moreover, the quasilocal energy in this case is not always positive definite, and thus it provides an example of a swampland in torsion gravity. Based on the covariant Noether charge, we also derive the nonzero fermion effect on the Komar angular momentum. The implications of our results for future tests of torsion gravity in gravitational-wave astronomy are also discussed.

Inflation, symmetry, and B-modes

DOE PAGES

Hertzberg, Mark P.

2015-04-20

Here, we examine the role of using symmetry and effective field theory in inflationary model building. We describe the standard formulation of starting with an approximate shift symmetry for a scalar field, and then introducing corrections systematically in order to maintain control over the inflationary potential. We find that this leads to models in good agreement with recent data. On the other hand, there are attempts in the literature to deviate from this paradigm by envoking other symmetries and corrections. In particular: in a suite of recent papers, several authors have made the claim that standard Einstein gravity with amore » cosmological constant and a massless scalar carries conformal symmetry. They claim this conformal symmetry is hidden when the action is written in the Einstein frame, and so has not been fully appreciated in the literature. They further claim that such a theory carries another hidden symmetry; a global SO(1,1) symmetry. By deforming around the global SO(1,1) symmetry, they are able to produce a range of inflationary models with asymptotically flat potentials, whose flatness is claimed to be protected by these symmetries. These models tend to give rise to B-modes with small amplitude. Here we explain that standard Einstein gravity does not in fact possess conformal symmetry. Instead these authors are merely introducing a redundancy into the description, not an actual conformal symmetry. Furthermore, we explain that the only real (global) symmetry in these models is not at all hidden, but is completely manifest when expressed in the Einstein frame; it is in fact the shift symmetry of a scalar field. When analyzed systematically as an effective field theory, deformations do not generally produce asymptotically flat potentials and small B-modes as suggested in these recent papers. Instead, deforming around the shift symmetry systematically, tends to produce models of inflation with B-modes of appreciable amplitude. Such simple models typically also produce the observed red spectral index, Gaussian fluctuations, etc. In short: simple models of inflation, organized by expanding around a shift symmetry, are in excellent agreement with recent data.« less

Cosmic transit and anisotropic models in f(R,T) gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sahu, S. K.; Tripathy, S. K.; Sahoo, P. K.; Nath, A.

2017-06-01

Accelerating cosmological models are constructed in a modified gravity theory dubbed as $f(R,T)$ gravity at the backdrop of an anisotropic Bianchi type-III universe. $f(R,T)$ is a function of the Ricci scalar $R$ and the trace $T$ of the energy-momentum tensor and it replaces the Ricci scalar in the Einstein-Hilbert action of General Relativity. The models are constructed for two different ways of modification of the Einstein-Hilbert action. Exact solutions of the field equations are obtained by a novel method of integration. We have explored the behaviour of the cosmic transit from an decelerated phase of expansion to an accelerated phase to get the dynamical features of the universe. Within the formalism of the present work, it is found that, the modification of the Einstein-Hilbert action does not affect the scale factor. However the dynamics of the effective dark energy equation of state is significantly affected.

Averaging problem in general relativity, macroscopic gravity and using Einstein's equations in cosmology.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zalaletdinov, R. M.

1998-04-01

The averaging problem in general relativity is briefly discussed. A new setting of the problem as that of macroscopic description of gravitation is proposed. A covariant space-time averaging procedure is described. The structure of the geometry of macroscopic space-time, which follows from averaging Cartan's structure equations, is described and the correlation tensors present in the theory are discussed. The macroscopic field equations (averaged Einstein's equations) derived in the framework of the approach are presented and their structure is analysed. The correspondence principle for macroscopic gravity is formulated and a definition of the stress-energy tensor for the macroscopic gravitational field is proposed. It is shown that the physical meaning of using Einstein's equations with a hydrodynamic stress-energy tensor in looking for cosmological models means neglecting all gravitational field correlations. The system of macroscopic gravity equations to be solved when the correlations are taken into consideration is given and described.

Extrema of mass, first law of black hole mechanics, and a staticity theorem in Einstein-Maxwell-axion-dilaton gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogatko, Marek

1998-08-01

Using the ADM formulation of the Einstein-Maxwell axion-dilaton gravity we derive the formulas for the variation of mass and other asymptotic conserved quantities in the theory under consideration. Generalizing this kind of reasoning to the initial data for the manifold with an interior boundary we get the generalized first law of black hole mechanics. We consider an asymptotically flat solution to the Einstein-Maxwell axion-dilaton gravity describing a black hole with a Killing vector field timelike at infinity, the horizon of which comprises a bifurcate Killing horizon with a bifurcate surface. Supposing that the Killing vector field is asymptotically orthogonal to the static hypersurface with boundary S and a compact interior, we find that the solution is static in the exterior world, when the timelike vector field is normal to the horizon and has vanishing electric and axion-electric fields on static slices.

Gravitational Physics: the birth of a new era

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakellariadou, Mairi

2017-11-01

We live the golden age of cosmology, while the era of gravitational astronomy has finally begun. Still, fundamental puzzles remain. Standard cosmology is formulated within the framework of Einstein's General theory of Relativity. Notwithstanding, General Relativity is not adequate to explain the earliest stages of cosmic existence, and cannot provide an explanation for the Big Bang itself. Modern early universe cosmology is in need of a rigorous underpinning in Quantum Gravity.

Standard 4D gravity on a brane in six-dimensional flux compactifications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Peloso, Marco; Sorbo, Lorenzo; Tasinato, Gianmassimo

We consider a six-dimensional space-time, in which two of the dimensions are compactified by a flux. Matter can be localized on a codimension one brane coupled to the bulk gauge field and wrapped around an axis of symmetry of the internal space. By studying the linear perturbations around this background, we show that the gravitational interaction between sources on the brane is described by Einstein 4D gravity at large distances. Our model provides a consistent setup for the study of gravity in the rugby (or football) compactification, without having to deal with the complications of a deltalike, codimension two brane.more » To our knowledge, this is the first complete study of gravity in a realistic brane model with two extra dimensions, in which the mechanism of stabilization of the extra space is fully taken into account.« less

Anisotropic neutron stars in R2 gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Folomeev, Vladimir

2018-06-01

We consider static neutron stars within the framework of R2 gravity. The neutron fluid is described by three different types of realistic equations of state (soft, moderately stiff, and stiff). Using the observational data on the neutron star mass-radius relation, it is demonstrated that the characteristics of the objects supported by the isotropic fluid agree with the observations only if one uses the soft equation of state. We show that the inclusion of the fluid anisotropy enables one also to employ more stiff equations of state to model configurations that will satisfy the observational constraints sufficiently. Also, using the standard thin accretion disk model, we demonstrate potentially observable differences, which allow us to distinguish the neutron stars constructed within the modified gravity framework from those described in Einstein's general relativity.

GR 20 parallel session A3: modified gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hořava, Petr; Mohd, Arif; Melby-Thompson, Charles M.; Shawhan, Peter

2014-05-01

The parallel session (A3), on "Modified Gravity", enjoyed one on the largest number of abstract submissions (over 80), resulting in the selection of 24 oral presentations. The three short papers presented in the following sections are based on the session talks by Arif Mohd on thermodynamics of universal horizons in Einstein-Æther theory, Conformal anomalies in Hořava-Lifshitz gravity by Charles Melby-Thompson and detectability of scalar gravitational waves by LIGO and Virgo by Peter Shawhan. They have been selected as a representative sample, to illustrate some of the best in the remarkable and encouraging variety of topics discussed in the session—ranging from highly theoretical, to phenomenological, observational, and experimental—with all these areas playing an integral part in our quest to understand the limits of standard general relativity.

Einstein Inflationary Probe (EIP)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinshaw, Gary

2004-01-01

I will discuss plans to develop a concept for the Einstein Inflation Probe: a mission to detect gravity waves from inflation via the unique signature they impart to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. A sensitive CMB polarization satellite may be the only way to probe physics at the grand-unified theory (GUT) scale, exceeding by 12 orders of magnitude the energies studied at the Large Hadron Collider. A detection of gravity waves would represent a remarkable confirmation of the inflationary paradigm and set the energy scale at which inflation occurred when the universe was a fraction of a second old. Even a strong upper limit to the gravity wave amplitude would be significant, ruling out many common models of inflation, and pointing to inflation occurring at much lower energy, if at all. Measuring gravity waves via the CMB polarization will be challenging. We will undertake a comprehensive study to identify the critical scientific requirements for the mission and their derived instrumental performance requirements. At the core of the study will be an assessment of what is scientifically and experimentally optimal within the scope and purpose of the Einstein Inflation Probe.

Modified Einstein's gravity as a possible missing link between sub- and super-Chandrasekhar type Ia supernovae

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Das, Upasana; Mukhopadhyay, Banibrata, E-mail: upasana@physics.iisc.ernet.in, E-mail: bm@physics.iisc.ernet.in

2015-05-01

We explore the effect of modification to Einstein's gravity in white dwarfs for the first time in the literature, to the best of our knowledge. This leads to significantly sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting masses of white dwarfs, determined by a single model parameter. On the other hand, type Ia supernovae (SNeIa), a key to unravel the evolutionary history of the universe, are believed to be triggered in white dwarfs having mass close to the Chandrasekhar limit. However, observations of several peculiar, under- and over-luminous SNeIa argue for exploding masses widely different from this limit. We argue that explosions of themore » modified gravity induced sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting mass white dwarfs result in under- and over-luminous SNeIa respectively, thus unifying these two apparently disjoint sub-classes and, hence, serving as a missing link. Our discovery raises two fundamental questions. Is the Chandrasekhar limit unique? Is Einstein's gravity the ultimate theory for understanding astronomical phenomena? Both the answers appear to be no!.« less

Particle creation phenomenology, Dirac sea and the induced Weyl and Einstein-dilaton gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Berezin, V.A.; Dokuchaev, V.I.; Eroshenko, Yu.N., E-mail: berezin@inr.ac.ru, E-mail: dokuchaev@inr.ac.ru, E-mail: eroshenko@inr.ac.ru

We constructed the conformally invariant model for scalar particle creation induced by strong gravitational fields. Starting from the 'usual' hydrodynamical description of the particle motion written in the Eulerian coordinates we substituted the particle number conservation law (which enters the formalism) by 'the particle creation law', proportional to the square of the Weyl tensor (following the famous result by Ya.B. Zel'dovich and A.A. Starobinsky). Then, demanding the conformal invariance of the whole dynamical system, we have got both the (Weyl)-conformal gravity and the Einstein-Hilbert gravity action integral with dilaton field. Thus, we obtained something like the induced gravity suggested firstmore » by A.D. Sakharov. It is shown that the resulting system is self-consistent. We considered also the vacuum equations. It is shown that, beside the 'empty vacuum', there may exist the 'dynamical vacuum', which is nothing more but the Dirac sea. The latter is described by the unexpectedly elegant equation which includes both the Bach and Einstein tensors and the cosmological terms.« less

Ambitwistor formulations of R 2 gravity and ( DF)2 gauge theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azevedo, Thales; Engelund, Oluf Tang

2017-11-01

We consider D-dimensional amplitudes in R 2 gravities (conformal gravity in D = 4) and in the recently introduced ( DF)2 gauge theory, from the perspective of the CHY formulae and ambitwistor string theory. These theories are related through the BCJ double-copy construction, and the ( DF)2 gauge theory obeys color-kinematics duality. We work out the worldsheet details of these theories and show that they admit a formulation as integrals on the support of the scattering equations, or alternatively, as ambitwistor string theories. For gravity, this generalizes the work done by Berkovits and Witten on conformal gravity to D dimensions. The ambitwistor is also interpreted as a D-dimensional generalization of Witten's twistor string (SYM + conformal supergravity). As part of our ambitwistor investigation, we discover another ( DF)2 gauge theory containing a photon that couples to Einstein gravity. This theory can provide an alternative KLT description of Einstein gravity compared to the usual Yang-Mills squared.

Physical process first law and increase of horizon entropy for black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity.

PubMed

Chatterjee, Ayan; Sarkar, Sudipta

2012-03-02

We establish the physical process version of the first law by studying small perturbations of a stationary black hole with a regular bifurcation surface in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. Our result shows that when the stationary black hole is perturbed by a matter stress energy tensor and finally settles down to a new stationary state, the Wald entropy increases as long as the matter satisfies the null energy condition.

Schwinger's Approach to Einstein's Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milton, Kim

2012-05-01

Albert Einstein was one of Julian Schwinger's heroes, and Schwinger was greatly honored when he received the first Einstein Prize (together with Kurt Godel) for his work on quantum electrodynamics. Schwinger contributed greatly to the development of a quantum version of gravitational theory, and his work led directly to the important work of (his students) Arnowitt, Deser, and DeWitt on the subject. Later in the 1960's and 1970's Schwinger developed a new formulation of quantum field theory, which he dubbed Source Theory, in an attempt to get closer contact to phenomena. In this formulation, he revisited gravity, and in books and papers showed how Einstein's theory of General Relativity emerged naturally from one physical assumption: that the carrier of the gravitational force is a massless, helicity-2 particle, the graviton. (There has been a minor dispute whether gravitational theory can be considered as the massless limit of a massive spin-2 theory; Schwinger believed that was the case, while Van Dam and Veltman concluded the opposite.) In the process, he showed how all of the tests of General Relativity could be explained simply, without using the full machinery of the theory and without the extraneous concept of curved space, including such effects as geodetic precession and the Lense-Thirring effect. (These effects have now been verified by the Gravity Probe B experiment.) This did not mean that he did not accept Einstein's equations, and in his book and full article on the subject, he showed how those emerge essentially uniquely from the assumption of the graviton. So to speak of Schwinger versus Einstein is misleading, although it is true that Schwinger saw no necessity to talk of curved spacetime. In this talk I will lay out Schwinger's approach, and the connection to Einstein's theory.

Dynamical behavior of the Tolman metrics in f (R ,T ) gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hansraj, Sudan; Banerjee, Ayan

2018-05-01

We analyze the behavior of well-known stellar models within the context of f (R ,T ) modified theory of gravity, in which the gravitational Lagrangian is given by an arbitrary function of the Ricci scalar R and the trace of the energy-momentum tensor T , namely f (R ,T )=R +2 χ T for some constant χ . The equation of pressure isotropy in this theory is identical to that of the standard Einstein theory therefore all known metric potentials solving Einstein's equations are valid here. However, the pressure and energy density profiles are markedly different due to the presence of the term 2 χ T . The exact solutions to the corresponding static spherically symmetric field equations with a perfect fluid source are the well known Tolman solutions [Phys. Rev. 55, 364 (1939), 10.1103/PhysRev.55.364] in general relativity. To support the theoretical results, graphical representation are employed to investigate the physical viability of compact stars. Specifically we study the density and pressure profiles, the sound speed behavior as well as the energy conditions and mass behavior where appropriate. It is found that in some cases the f (R ,T ) model displays more pleasing behavior than its Einstein counterpart while in other cases the behavior is similar. In no case does the 2 χ T addition negatively impact the model's behavior.

Exact quantization of Einstein-Rosen waves coupled to massless scalar matter.

PubMed

Barbero G, J Fernando; Garay, Iñaki; Villaseñor, Eduardo J S

2005-07-29

We show in this Letter that gravity coupled to a massless scalar field with full cylindrical symmetry can be exactly quantized by an extension of the techniques used in the quantization of Einstein-Rosen waves. This system provides a useful test bed to discuss a number of issues in quantum general relativity, such as the emergence of the classical metric, microcausality, and large quantum gravity effects. It may also provide an appropriate framework to study gravitational critical phenomena from a quantum point of view, issues related to black hole evaporation, and the consistent definition of test fields and particles in quantum gravity.

Radiating black hole solutions in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dominguez, Alfredo E.; Instituto Universitario Aeronautico, Avenida Fuerza Aerea km 6.5.; Gallo, Emanuel

2006-03-15

In this paper, we find some new exact solutions to the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet equations. First, we prove a theorem which allows us to find a large family of solutions to the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in n-dimensions. This family of solutions represents dynamic black holes and contains, as particular cases, not only the recently found Vaidya-Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet black hole, but also other physical solutions that we think are new, such as the Gauss-Bonnet versions of the Bonnor-Vaidya (de Sitter/anti-de Sitter) solution, a global monopole, and the Husain black holes. We also present a more general version of this theorem in which less restrictive conditionsmore » on the energy-momentum tensor are imposed. As an application of this theorem, we present the exact solution describing a black hole radiating a charged null fluid in a Born-Infeld nonlinear electrodynamics.« less

Higher-order gravity in higher dimensions: geometrical origins of four-dimensional cosmology?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Troisi, Antonio

2017-03-01

Determining the cosmological field equations is still very much debated and led to a wide discussion around different theoretical proposals. A suitable conceptual scheme could be represented by gravity models that naturally generalize Einstein theory like higher-order gravity theories and higher-dimensional ones. Both of these two different approaches allow one to define, at the effective level, Einstein field equations equipped with source-like energy-momentum tensors of geometrical origin. In this paper, the possibility is discussed to develop a five-dimensional fourth-order gravity model whose lower-dimensional reduction could provide an interpretation of cosmological four-dimensional matter-energy components. We describe the basic concepts of the model, the complete field equations formalism and the 5-D to 4-D reduction procedure. Five-dimensional f( R) field equations turn out to be equivalent, on the four-dimensional hypersurfaces orthogonal to the extra coordinate, to an Einstein-like cosmological model with three matter-energy tensors related with higher derivative and higher-dimensional counter-terms. By considering the gravity model with f(R)=f_0R^n the possibility is investigated to obtain five-dimensional power law solutions. The effective four-dimensional picture and the behaviour of the geometrically induced sources are finally outlined in correspondence to simple cases of such higher-dimensional solutions.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rodrigues, Davi C.; Piattella, Oliver F.; Chauvineau, Bertrand, E-mail: davi.rodrigues@cosmo-ufes.org, E-mail: Bertrand.Chauvineau@oca.eu, E-mail: oliver.piattella@pq.cnpq.br

We show that Renormalization Group extensions of the Einstein-Hilbert action for large scale physics are not, in general, a particular case of standard Scalar-Tensor (ST) gravity. We present a new class of ST actions, in which the potential is not necessarily fixed at the action level, and show that this extended ST theory formally contains the Renormalization Group case. We also propose here a Renormalization Group scale setting identification that is explicitly covariant and valid for arbitrary relativistic fluids.

Wormholes in Einstein-Born-Infeld Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Jin Young; Park, Mu-In

2018-01-01

We introduce a new approach to construct wormholes without introducing exotic matters in Einstein-Born-Infeld gravity with a cosmological constant. Contary to the conventional approach, the throat is located at the place where the solutions can be joined smoothly. The metric and its derivatives are continuous so that the exotic matters are not needed there. The exoticity of the energy-momentum tensor is not essential to sustain the wormhole. We also present a method to check the stability of wormholes in the new approach.

Cosmic censorship and Weak Gravity Conjecture in the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Ten-Yeh; Wen, Wen-Yu

2018-06-01

We explore the cosmic censorship in the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory following Wald's thought experiment to destroy a black hole by throwing in a test particle. We discover that at probe limit the extremal charged dilaton black hole could be destroyed by a test particle with specific energy. Nevertheless the censorship is well protected if backreaction or self-force is included. At the end, we discuss an interesting connection between Hoop Conjecture and Weak Gravity Conjecture.

Addendum to ''Thin-shell wormholes supported by ordinary matter in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity''

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Simeone, Claudio

2011-04-15

Thin-shell wormholes are constructed starting from the exotic branch of the Wiltshire spherically symmetric solution of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. The energy-momentum tensor of the shell is studied, and it is shown that configurations supported by matter satisfying the energy conditions exist for certain values of the parameters. Differing from the previous result associated with the normal branch of the Wiltshire solution, this is achieved for small positive values of the Gauss-Bonnet parameter and for vanishing charge.

Enhanced asymptotic symmetry algebra of (2 +1 ) -dimensional flat space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Detournay, Stéphane; Riegler, Max

2017-02-01

In this paper we present a new set of asymptotic boundary conditions for Einstein gravity in (2 +1 ) -dimensions with a vanishing cosmological constant that are a generalization of the Barnich-Compère boundary conditions [G. Barnich and G. Compere, Classical Quantum Gravity 24, F15 (2007), 10.1088/0264-9381/24/5/F01]. These new boundary conditions lead to an asymptotic symmetry algebra that is generated by a bms3 algebra and two affine u ^(1 ) current algebras. We then apply these boundary conditions to topologically massive gravity (TMG) and determine how the presence of the gravitational Chern-Simons term affects the central extensions of the asymptotic symmetry algebra. We furthermore determine the thermal entropy of solutions obeying our new boundary conditions for both Einstein gravity and TMG.

A distinguishing gravitational property for gravitational equation in higher dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dadhich, Naresh

2016-03-01

It is well known that Einstein gravity is kinematic (meaning that there is no non-trivial vacuum solution; i.e. the Riemann tensor vanishes whenever the Ricci tensor does so) in 3 dimension because the Riemann tensor is entirely given in terms of the Ricci tensor. Could this property be universalized for all odd dimensions in a generalized theory? The answer is yes, and this property uniquely singles out pure Lovelock (it has only one Nth order term in the action) gravity for which the Nth order Lovelock-Riemann tensor is indeed given in terms of the corresponding Ricci tensor for all odd, d=2N+1, dimensions. This feature of gravity is realized only in higher dimensions and it uniquely picks out pure Lovelock gravity from all other generalizations of Einstein gravity. It serves as a good distinguishing and guiding criterion for the gravitational equation in higher dimensions.

Einsteinian cubic gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bueno, Pablo; Cano, Pablo A.

2016-11-01

We drastically simplify the problem of linearizing a general higher-order theory of gravity. We reduce it to the evaluation of its Lagrangian on a particular Riemann tensor depending on two parameters, and the computation of two derivatives with respect to one of those parameters. We use our method to construct a D -dimensional cubic theory of gravity which satisfies the following properties: (1) it shares the spectrum of Einstein gravity, i.e., it only propagates a transverse and massless graviton on a maximally symmetric background; (2) it is defined in the same way in general dimensions; (3) it is neither trivial nor topological in four dimensions. Up to cubic order in curvature, the only previously known theories satisfying the first two requirements are the Lovelock ones. We show that, up to cubic order, there exists only one additional theory satisfying requirements (1) and (2). Interestingly, this theory is, along with Einstein gravity, the only one which also satisfies (3).

Quintessence background for 5D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet black holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghosh, Sushant G.; Amir, Muhammed; Maharaj, Sunil D.

2017-08-01

As we know that the Lovelock theory is an extension of the general relativity to the higher-dimensions, in this theory the first- and the second-order terms correspond to general relativity and the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, respectively. We obtain a 5D black hole solution in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity surrounded by the quintessence matter, and we also analyze their thermodynamical properties. Owing to the quintessence corrected black hole, the thermodynamic quantities have also been corrected except for the black hole entropy, and a phase transition is achievable. The phase transition for the thermodynamic stability is characterized by a discontinuity in the specific heat at r=r_C, with the stable (unstable) branch for r < (>) r_C.

A test of Hořava gravity: the dark energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Mu-In

2010-01-01

Recently Hořava proposed a renormalizable gravity theory with higher spatial derivatives in four dimensions which reduces to Einstein gravity with a non-vanishing cosmological constant in IR but with improved UV behaviors. Here, I consider a non-trivial test of the new gravity theory in FRW universe by considering an IR modification which breaks ``softly'' the detailed balance condition in the original Hořava model. I separate the dark energy parts from the usual Einstein gravity parts in the Friedman equations and obtain the formula of the equations of state parameter. The IR modified Hořava gravity seems to be consistent with the current observational data but we need some more refined data sets to see whether the theory is really consistent with our universe. From the consistency of our theory, I obtain some constraints on the allowed values of w0 and wa in the Chevallier, Polarski, and Linder's parametrization and this may be tested in the near future, by sharpening the data sets.

Gravitation. [consideration of black holes in gravity theories

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fennelly, A. J.

1978-01-01

Investigations of several problems of gravitation are discussed. The question of the existence of black holes is considered. While black holes like those in Einstein's theory may not exist in other gravity theories, trapped surfaces implying such black holes certainly do. The theories include those of Brans-Dicke, Lightman-Lee, Rosen, and Yang. A similar two-tensor theory of Yilmaz is investigated and found inconsistent and nonviable. The Newman-Penrose formalism for Riemannian geometries is adapted to general gravity theories and used to implement a search for twisting solutions of the gravity theories for empty and nonempty spaces. The method can be used to find the gravitational fields for all viable gravity theories. The rotating solutions are of particular importance for strong field interpretation of the Stanford/Marshall gyroscope experiment. Inhomogeneous cosmologies are examined in Einstein's theory as generalizations of homogeneous ones by raising the dimension of the invariance groups by one more parameter. The nine Bianchi classifications are extended to Rosen's theory of gravity for homogeneous cosmological models.

Black hole evaporation rates without spacetime.

PubMed

Braunstein, Samuel L; Patra, Manas K

2011-08-12

Verlinde recently suggested that gravity, inertia, and even spacetime may be emergent properties of an underlying thermodynamic theory. This vision was motivated in part by Jacobson's 1995 surprise result that the Einstein equations of gravity follow from the thermodynamic properties of event horizons. Taking a first tentative step in such a program, we derive the evaporation rate (or radiation spectrum) from black hole event horizons in a spacetime-free manner. Our result relies on a Hilbert space description of black hole evaporation, symmetries therein which follow from the inherent high dimensionality of black holes, global conservation of the no-hair quantities, and the existence of Penrose processes. Our analysis is not wedded to standard general relativity and so should apply to extended gravity theories where we find that the black hole area must be replaced by some other property in any generalized area theorem.

The Concept of General Relativity is not Related to Reality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kotas, Ronald

2015-04-01

The concept of general relativity is not related to reality. It is not real or factual Science. GR cannot account for objects falling to earth or for the weight of objects sitting on the earth. The Cavendish demonstration showing the attraction between two masses at right angles to earth's gravity, is not explained by GR. No one can prove the existence of ``space fabric.'' The concept of ``space time'' effects causing gravitational attraction between masses is wrong. Conservation law of energy - momentum does not exist in GR. LIGO fails in detecting ``gravity waves'' because there is no ``space fabric'' to transmit them. The Gravity B Probe data manipulated to show some effects, is not proof of ``space fabric.'' It is Nuclear Quantum Gravitation that provides clear definitive explanation of Gravity and Gravitation. It is harmonious with Newtonian and Quantum Mechanics, and Scientific Logic. Nuclear Quantum Gravitation has 10 clear, Scientific proofs and 21 more good indications. With this theory the Physical Forces are Unified. See: OBSCURANTISM ON EINSTEIN GRAVITATION? http://www.santilli-foundation.org/inconsistencies-gravitation.php and Einstein's Theory of Relativity versus Classical Mechanics, by Paul Marmet http://www.newtonphysics.on.ca/einstein/

Einstein's 1919 View

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goradia, Shantilal

2012-10-01

When Rutherford discovered the nuclear force in 1919, he felt the force he discovered reflected some deviation of Newtonian gravity. Einstein too in his 1919 paper published the failure of the general relativity and Newtonian gravity to explain nuclear force and, in his concluding remarks, he retracted his earlier introduction of the cosmological constant. Consistent with his genius, we modify Newtonian gravity as probabilistic gravity using natural Planck units for a realistic study of nature. The result is capable of expressing both (1) nuclear force [strong coupling], and (2) Newtonian gravity in one equation, implying in general, in layman's words, that gravity is the cumulative effect of all quantum mechanical forces which are impossible to measure at long distances. Non discovery of graviton and quantum gravity silently support our findings. Continuing to climb on the shoulders of the giants enables us to see horizons otherwise unseen, as reflected in our book: ``Quantum Consciousness - The Road to Reality,'' and physics/0210040, where we derive the fine structure constant as a function of the age of the universe in Planck times consistent with Gamow's hint, using natural logarithm consistent with Feynman's hint.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - This seal illustrates the mission of the Gravity Probe B spacecraft and the organizations who developed the experiment: Stanford University, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Lockheed Martin. The Gravity Probe B mission will test the theory of curved spacetime and "frame-dragging," depicted graphically in the lower half, that was developed by Einstein and other scientists. Above the graphic is a drawing of GP-B circling the Earth.

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-10-30

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - This seal illustrates the mission of the Gravity Probe B spacecraft and the organizations who developed the experiment: Stanford University, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Lockheed Martin. The Gravity Probe B mission will test the theory of curved spacetime and "frame-dragging," depicted graphically in the lower half, that was developed by Einstein and other scientists. Above the graphic is a drawing of GP-B circling the Earth.

Inflation and dark energy from f(R) gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Artymowski, Michał; Lalak, Zygmunt

2014-09-01

The standard Starobinsky inflation has been extended to the R + α Rn - β R2-n model to obtain a stable minimum of the Einstein frame scalar potential of the auxiliary field. As a result we have obtained obtain a scalar potential with non-zero value of residual vacuum energy, which may be a source of Dark Energy. Our results can be easily consistent with PLANCK or BICEP2 data for appropriate choices of the value of n.

Beyond concordance cosmology with magnification of gravitational-wave standard sirens.

PubMed

Camera, Stefano; Nishizawa, Atsushi

2013-04-12

We show how future gravitational-wave detectors would be able to discriminate between the concordance Λ cold dark matter cosmological model and up-to-date competing alternatives, e.g., dynamical dark energy (DE) models or modified gravity (MG) theories. Our method consists of using the weak-lensing magnification effect that affects a standard-siren signal because of its traveling through the Universe's large scale structure. As a demonstration, we present constraints on DE and MG from proposed gravitational-wave detectors, namely Einstein Telescope and DECI-Hertz Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and Big-Bang Observer.

On coupling NEC-violating matter to gravity

DOE PAGES

Chatterjee, Saugata; Parikh, Maulik; van der Schaar, Jan Pieter

2015-03-16

We show that effective theories of matter that classically violate the null energy condition cannot be minimally coupled to Einstein gravity without being inconsistent with both string theory and black hole thermodynamics. We argue however that they could still be either non-minimally coupled or coupled to higher-curvature theories of gravity.

Thermodynamic properties of charged three-dimensional black holes in the scalar-tensor gravity theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dehghani, M.

2018-02-01

Making use of the suitable transformation relations, the action of three-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity theory has been obtained from that of scalar-tensor modified gravity theory coupled to the Maxwell's electrodynamics as the matter field. Two new classes of the static three-dimensional charged dilatonic black holes, as the exact solutions to the coupled scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational field equations, have been obtained in the Einstein frame. Also, it has been found that the scalar potential can be written in the form of a generalized Liouville-type potential. The conserved black hole charge and masses as well as the black entropy, temperature, and electric potential have been calculated from the geometrical and thermodynamical approaches, separately. Through comparison of the results arisen from these two alternative approaches, the validity of the thermodynamical first law has been proved for both of the new black hole solutions in the Einstein frame. Making use of the canonical ensemble method, a black hole stability or phase transition analysis has been performed. Regarding the black hole heat capacity, with the black hole charge as a constant, the points of type-1 and type-2 phase transitions have been determined. Also, the ranges of the black hole horizon radius at which the Einstein black holes are thermally stable have been obtained for both of the new black hole solutions. Then making use of the inverse transformation relations, two new classes of the string black hole solutions have been obtained from their Einstein counterpart. The thermodynamics and thermal stability of the new string black hole solutions have been investigated. It has been found that thermodynamic properties of the new charged black holes are identical in the Einstein and Jordan frames.

Mass, angular momentum, and charge inequalities for black holes in Einstein-Maxwell-axion-dilaton gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogatko, Marek

2014-02-01

Mass, angular momentum, and charge inequalities for axisymmetric maximal time-symmetric initial data invariant under an action of U(1) group, in Einstein-Maxwell-axion-dilaton gravity being the low-energy limit of the heterotic string theory, is established. We assume that a data set with two asymptotically flat regions is given on a smooth simply connected manifold. We also pay attention to the area momentum charge inequalities for a closed orientable two-dimensional spacelike surface embedded in the spacetime of the considered theory.

Noise kernels of stochastic gravity in conformally-flat spacetimes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cho, H. T.; Hu, B. L.

2015-03-01

The central object in the theory of semiclassical stochastic gravity is the noise kernel, which is the symmetric two point correlation function of the stress-energy tensor. Using the corresponding Wightman functions in Minkowski, Einstein and open Einstein spaces, we construct the noise kernels of a conformally coupled scalar field in these spacetimes. From them we show that the noise kernels in conformally-flat spacetimes, including the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes, can be obtained in closed analytic forms by using a combination of conformal and coordinate transformations.

Dynamical structure of pure Lovelock gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dadhich, Naresh; Durka, Remigiusz; Merino, Nelson; Miskovic, Olivera

2016-03-01

We study the dynamical structure of pure Lovelock gravity in spacetime dimensions higher than four using the Hamiltonian formalism. The action consists of a cosmological constant and a single higher-order polynomial in the Riemann tensor. Similarly to the Einstein-Hilbert action, it possesses a unique constant curvature vacuum and charged black hole solutions. We analyze physical degrees of freedom and local symmetries in this theory. In contrast to the Einstein-Hilbert case, the number of degrees of freedom depends on the background and can vary from zero to the maximal value carried by the Lovelock theory.

Astrophysical observations: lensing and eclipsing Einstein's theories.

PubMed

Bennett, Charles L

2005-02-11

Albert Einstein postulated the equivalence of energy and mass, developed the theory of special relativity, explained the photoelectric effect, and described Brownian motion in five papers, all published in 1905, 100 years ago. With these papers, Einstein provided the framework for understanding modern astrophysical phenomena. Conversely, astrophysical observations provide one of the most effective means for testing Einstein's theories. Here, I review astrophysical advances precipitated by Einstein's insights, including gravitational redshifts, gravitational lensing, gravitational waves, the Lense-Thirring effect, and modern cosmology. A complete understanding of cosmology, from the earliest moments to the ultimate fate of the universe, will require developments in physics beyond Einstein, to a unified theory of gravity and quantum physics.

Non-Schwarzschild black-hole metric in four dimensional higher derivative gravity: Analytical approximation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kokkotas, K. D.; Konoplya, R. A.; Zhidenko, A.

2017-09-01

Higher derivative extensions of Einstein gravity are important within the string theory approach to gravity and as alternative and effective theories of gravity. H. Lü, A. Perkins, C. Pope, and K. Stelle [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 171601 (2015), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.171601] found a numerical solution describing a spherically symmetric non-Schwarzschild asymptotically flat black hole in Einstein gravity with added higher derivative terms. Using the general and quickly convergent parametrization in terms of the continued fractions, we represent this numerical solution in the analytical form, which is accurate not only near the event horizon or far from the black hole, but in the whole space. Thereby, the obtained analytical form of the metric allows one to study easily all the further properties of the black hole, such as thermodynamics, Hawking radiation, particle motion, accretion, perturbations, stability, quasinormal spectrum, etc. Thus, the found analytical approximate representation can serve in the same way as an exact solution.

The Principle of Equivalence: Demonstrations of Local Effective Vertical and Horizontal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munera, Hector A.

2010-01-01

It has been suggested that Einstein's principle of equivalence (PE) should be introduced at an early stage. This principle leads to the notion of local effective gravity, which in turn defines effective vertical and horizontal directions. Local effective gravity need not coincide with the direction of terrestrial gravity. This paper describes…

General Theory of Relativity: Will It Survive the Next Decade?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bertolami, Orfeu; Paramos, Jorge; Turyshev, Slava G.

2006-01-01

The nature of gravity is fundamental to our understanding of our own solar system, the galaxy and the structure and evolution of the Universe. Einstein's general theory of relativity is the standard model that is used for almost ninety years to describe gravitational phenomena on these various scales. We review the foundations of general relativity, discuss the recent progress in the tests of relativistic gravity, and present motivations for high-accuracy gravitational experiments in space. We also summarize the science objectives and technology needs for the laboratory experiments in space with laboratory being the entire solar system. We discuss the advances in our understanding of fundamental physics anticipated in the near future and evaluate discovery potential for the recently proposed gravitational experiments.

Quantum statistical relation for black holes in nonlinear electrodynamics coupled to Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet AdS gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miskovic, Olivera; Olea, Rodrigo

2011-03-15

We consider curvature-squared corrections to Einstein-Hilbert gravity action in the form of a Gauss-Bonnet term in D>4 dimensions. In this theory, we study the thermodynamics of charged static black holes with anti-de Sitter (AdS) asymptotics, and whose electric field is described by nonlinear electrodynamics. These objects have received considerable attention in recent literature on gravity/gauge dualities. It is well-known that, within the framework of anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, there exists a nonvanishing Casimir contribution to the internal energy of the system, manifested as the vacuum energy for global AdS spacetime in odd dimensions. Because of this reason, wemore » derive a quantum statistical relation directly from the Euclidean action and not from the integration of the first law of thermodynamics. To this end, we employ a background-independent regularization scheme which consists, in addition to the bulk action, of counterterms that depend on both extrinsic and intrinsic curvatures of the boundary (Kounterterm series). This procedure results in a consistent inclusion of the vacuum energy and chemical potential in the thermodynamic description for Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet AdS gravity regardless of the explicit form of the nonlinear electrodynamics Lagrangian.« less

Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory of gravity: The Gauss-Bonnet-Katz boundary term

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deruelle, Nathalie; Merino, Nelson; Olea, Rodrigo

2018-05-01

We propose a boundary term to the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet action for gravity, which uses the Chern-Weil theorem plus a dimensional continuation process, such that the extremization of the full action yields the equations of motion when Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed. When translated into tensorial language, this boundary term is the generalization to this theory of the Katz boundary term and vector for general relativity. The boundary term constructed in this paper allows to deal with a general background and is not equivalent to the Gibbons-Hawking-Myers boundary term. However, we show that they coincide if one replaces the background of the Katz procedure by a product manifold. As a first application we show that this Einstein Gauss-Bonnet Katz action yields, without any extra ingredients, the expected mass of the Boulware-Deser black hole.

Regulator dependence of fixed points in quantum Einstein gravity with R 2 truncation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagy, S.; Fazekas, B.; Peli, Z.; Sailer, K.; Steib, I.

2018-03-01

We performed a functional renormalization group analysis for the quantum Einstein gravity including a quadratic term in the curvature. The ultraviolet non-gaussian fixed point and its critical exponent for the correlation length are identified for different forms of regulators in case of dimension 3. We searched for that optimized regulator where the physical quantities show the least regulator parameter dependence. It is shown that the Litim regulator satisfies this condition. The infrared fixed point has also been investigated, it is found that the exponent is insensitive to the third coupling introduced by the R 2 term.

Probing quantum gravity through exactly soluble midi-superspaces I

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ashtekar, A.; Pierri, M.

1996-12-01

It is well-known that the Einstein-Rosen solutions to the 3+1- dimensional vacuum Einstein{close_quote}s equations are in one to one correspondence with solutions of 2+1-dimensional general relativity coupled to axi-symmetric, zero rest mass scalar fields. We first re-examine the quantization of this midi-superspace paying special attention to the asymptotically flat boundary conditions and to certain functional analytic subtleties associated with regularization. We then use the resulting quantum theory to analyze several conceptual and technical issues of quantum gravity. {copyright} {ital 1996 American Institute of Physics.}

Gravity Before Einstein and Schwinger Before Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trimble, Virginia L.

2012-05-01

Julian Schwinger was a child prodigy, and Albert Einstein distinctly not; Schwinger had something like 73 graduate students, and Einstein very few. But both thought gravity was important. They were not, of course, the first, nor is the disagreement on how one should think about gravity that is being highlighted here the first such dispute. The talk will explore, first, several of the earlier dichotomies: was gravity capable of action at a distance (Newton), or was a transmitting ether required (many others). Did it act on everything or only on solids (an odd idea of the Herschels that fed into their ideas of solar structure and sunspots)? Did gravitational information require time for its transmission? Is the exponent of r precisely 2, or 2 plus a smidgeon (a suggestion by Simon Newcomb among others)? And so forth. Second, I will try to say something about Scwinger's lesser known early work and how it might have prefigured his "source theory," beginning with "On the Interaction of Several Electrons (the unpublished, 1934 "zeroth paper," whose title somewhat reminds one of "On the Dynamics of an Asteroid," through his days at Berkeley with Oppenheimer, Gerjuoy, and others, to his application of ideas from nuclear physics to radar and of radar engineering techniques to problems in nuclear physics. And folks who think good jobs are difficult to come by now might want to contemplate the couple of years Schwinger spent teaching elementary physics at Purdue before moving on to the MIT Rad Lab for war work.

Holographic heat current as Noether current

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Hai-Shan; Lü, H.; Pope, C. N.

2017-09-01

We employ the Noether procedure to derive a general formula for the radially conserved heat current in AdS planar black holes with certain transverse and traceless perturbations, for a general class of gravity theories. For Einstein gravity, the general higher-order Lovelock gravities and also a class of Horndeski gravities, we derive the boundary stress tensor and show that the resulting boundary heat current matches precisely the bulk Noether current.

About some Regge-like relations for (stable) black holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Recami, E.; Tonin-Zanchin, Vilson

1991-08-01

Within a purely classical formulation of 'strong gravity', we associated hadron constituents (and even hadrons themselves) with suitable stationary, axisymmetric solutions of certain new Einstein-type equations supposed to describe the strong field inside hadrons. Such equations are nothing but Einstein equations - with cosmological term - suitably scaled down. As a consequence, the cosmological constant (lambda) and the masses M result in our theory to be scaled up and transformed into a 'hadronic constant' and into 'strong masses', respectively. Due to the unusual range of lambda and M values considered, we met a series of solutions of the Kerr-Newman-de Sitter (KNdS) type with such interesting properties that it is worth studying them - from our particular point of view - also in the case of ordinary gravity. This is the aim of the present work. The requirement that those solutions be stable, i.e., that their temperature (or surface gravity) be vanishingly small, implies the coincidence of at least two of their (in general, three) horizons. Imposing the stability condition of a certain horizon does yield (once chosen the values of J, q, and lambda) mass and radius of the associated black-hole. In the case of ordinary Einstein equations and for stable black-holes of the KNdS type, we get in particular Regge-like relations among mass M, angular momentum J, charge q, and cosmological constant (lambda). For instance, with the standard definitions Q2 is identical to Gq2 /(4(pi)(epsilon)0c4); a is identical to J/(Mc); m is identical to GM/c2, in the case lambda = 0 in which m2 = a2 + Q2 and if q is negligible we find m2 = J. When considering, for simplicity, lambda greater than 0 and J = 0 (and q still negligible), then we obtain m2 = 1/(9(lambda)).

On inflation with non-minimal coupling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hertzberg, Mark P.

2010-11-01

A simple realization of inflation consists of adding the following operators to the Einstein-Hilbert action: ( ∂ϕ)2, λϕ 4, and ξϕ 2 R , with ξ a large non-minimal coupling. Recently there has been much discussion as to whether such theories make sense quantum mechanically and if the inflaton ϕ can also be the Standard Model Higgs. In this work we answer these questions. Firstly, for a single scalar ϕ, we show that the quantum field theory is well behaved in the pure gravity and kinetic sectors, since the quantum generated corrections are small. However, the theory likely breaks down at m Pl /ξ due to scattering provided by the self-interacting potential λϕ 4. Secondly, we show that the theory changes for multiple scalars overrightarrow φ with non-minimal coupling ξ overrightarrow φ \\cdot overrightarrow φ mathcal{R} , since this introduces qualitatively new interactions which manifestly generate large quantum corrections even in the gravity and kinetic sectors, spoiling the theory for energies ≳ m Pl /ξ. Since the Higgs doublet of the Standard Model includes the Higgs boson and 3 Goldstone bosons, it falls into the latter category and therefore its validity is manifestly spoiled. We show that these conclusions hold in both the Jordan and Einstein frames and describe an intuitive analogy in the form of the pion Lagrangian. We also examine the recent claim that curvature-squared inflation models fail quantum mechanically. Our work appears to go beyond the recent discussions.

Cosmological tests of modified gravity.

PubMed

Koyama, Kazuya

2016-04-01

We review recent progress in the construction of modified gravity models as alternatives to dark energy as well as the development of cosmological tests of gravity. Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) has been tested accurately within the local universe i.e. the Solar System, but this leaves the possibility open that it is not a good description of gravity at the largest scales in the Universe. This being said, the standard model of cosmology assumes GR on all scales. In 1998, astronomers made the surprising discovery that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, not slowing down. This late-time acceleration of the Universe has become the most challenging problem in theoretical physics. Within the framework of GR, the acceleration would originate from an unknown dark energy. Alternatively, it could be that there is no dark energy and GR itself is in error on cosmological scales. In this review, we first give an overview of recent developments in modified gravity theories including f(R) gravity, braneworld gravity, Horndeski theory and massive/bigravity theory. We then focus on common properties these models share, such as screening mechanisms they use to evade the stringent Solar System tests. Once armed with a theoretical knowledge of modified gravity models, we move on to discuss how we can test modifications of gravity on cosmological scales. We present tests of gravity using linear cosmological perturbations and review the latest constraints on deviations from the standard [Formula: see text]CDM model. Since screening mechanisms leave distinct signatures in the non-linear structure formation, we also review novel astrophysical tests of gravity using clusters, dwarf galaxies and stars. The last decade has seen a number of new constraints placed on gravity from astrophysical to cosmological scales. Thanks to on-going and future surveys, cosmological tests of gravity will enjoy another, possibly even more, exciting ten years.

Gravity Probe B: Examining Einstein's Spacetime with Gyroscopes. An Educator's Guide with Activities in Space Science.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Range, Shannon K'doah; Mullins, Jennifer

This teaching guide introduces a relativity gyroscope experiment aiming to test two unverified predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. An introduction to the theory includes the following sections: (1) "Spacetime, Curved Spacetime, and Frame-Dragging"; (2) "'Seeing' Spacetime with Gyroscopes"; (3)…

Bounce universe from string-inspired Gauss-Bonnet gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bamba, Kazuharu; Makarenko, Andrey N.; Myagky, Alexandr N.

2015-04-01

We explore cosmology with a bounce in Gauss-Bonnet gravity where the Gauss-Bonnet invariant couples to a dynamical scalar field. In particular, the potential and and Gauss-Bonnet coupling function of the scalar field are reconstructed so that the cosmological bounce can be realized in the case that the scale factor has hyperbolic and exponential forms. Furthermore, we examine the relation between the bounce in the string (Jordan) and Einstein frames by using the conformal transformation between these conformal frames. It is shown that in general, the property of the bounce point in the string frame changes after the frame is movedmore » to the Einstein frame. Moreover, it is found that at the point in the Einstein frame corresponding to the point of the cosmological bounce in the string frame, the second derivative of the scale factor has an extreme value. In addition, it is demonstrated that at the time of the cosmological bounce in the Einstein frame, there is the Gauss-Bonnet coupling function of the scalar field, although it does not exist in the string frame.« less

Exact solutions with AdS asymptotics of Einstein and Einstein-Maxwell gravity minimally coupled to a scalar field

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cadoni, Mariano; Serra, Matteo; Mignemi, Salvatore

We propose a general method for solving exactly the static field equations of Einstein and Einstein-Maxwell gravity minimally coupled to a scalar field. Our method starts from an ansatz for the scalar field profile, and determines, together with the metric functions, the corresponding form of the scalar self-interaction potential. Using this method we prove a new no-hair theorem about the existence of hairy black-hole and black-brane solutions and derive broad classes of static solutions with radial symmetry of the theory, which may play an important role in applications of the AdS/CFT correspondence to condensed matter and strongly coupled QFTs. Thesemore » solutions include: (1) four- or generic (d+2)-dimensional solutions with planar, spherical or hyperbolic horizon topology; (2) solutions with anti-de Sitter, domain wall and Lifshitz asymptotics; (3) solutions interpolating between an anti-de Sitter spacetime in the asymptotic region and a domain wall or conformal Lifshitz spacetime in the near-horizon region.« less

Testing local Lorentz invariance with short-range gravity

DOE PAGES

Kostelecký, V. Alan; Mewes, Matthew

2017-01-10

The Newton limit of gravity is studied in the presence of Lorentz-violating gravitational operators of arbitrary mass dimension. The linearized modified Einstein equations are obtained and the perturbative solutions are constructed and characterized. We develop a formalism for data analysis in laboratory experiments testing gravity at short range and demonstrate that these tests provide unique sensitivity to deviations from local Lorentz invariance.

REVIEWS OF TOPICAL PROBLEMS: Experimental tests of general relativity: recent progress and future directions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turyshev, S. G.

2009-01-01

Einstein's general theory of relativity is the standard theory of gravity, especially where the needs of astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics are concerned. As such, this theory is used for many practical purposes involving spacecraft navigation, geodesy, and time transfer. We review the foundations of general relativity, discuss recent progress in tests of relativistic gravity, and present motivations for the new generation of high-accuracy tests of new physics beyond general relativity. Space-based experiments in fundamental physics are presently capable of uniquely addressing important questions related to the fundamental laws of nature. We discuss the advances in our understanding of fundamental physics that are anticipated in the near future and evaluate the discovery potential of a number of recently proposed space-based gravitational experiments.

The Coupling of Gravity to Spin and Electromagnetism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finster, Felix; Smoller, Joel; Yau, Shing-Tung

The coupled Einstein-Dirac-Maxwell equations are considered for a static, spherically symmetric system of two fermions in a singlet spinor state. Stable soliton-like solutions are shown to exist, and we discuss the regularizing effect of gravity from a Feynman diagram point of view.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - This logo for the Gravity Probe B mission portrays the theory of curved spacetime and "frame-dragging," developed by Einstein and other scientists, that the mission will test. The Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit. Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscope’s spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring the effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Lockheed Martin.

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-10-30

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - This logo for the Gravity Probe B mission portrays the theory of curved spacetime and "frame-dragging," developed by Einstein and other scientists, that the mission will test. The Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit. Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscope’s spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring the effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Lockheed Martin.

1/ r potential in higher dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraborty, Sumanta; Dadhich, Naresh

2018-01-01

In Einstein gravity, gravitational potential goes as 1/r^{d-3} in d non-compactified spacetime dimensions, which assumes the familiar 1 / r form in four dimensions. On the other hand, it goes as 1/r^{α }, with α =(d-2m-1)/m, in pure Lovelock gravity involving only one mth order term of the Lovelock polynomial in the gravitational action. The latter offers a novel possibility of having 1 / r potential for the non-compactified dimension spectrum given by d=3m+1. Thus it turns out that in the two prototype gravitational settings of isolated objects, like black holes and the universe as a whole - cosmological models, the Einstein gravity in four and mth order pure Lovelock gravity in 3m+1 dimensions behave in a similar fashion as far as gravitational interactions are considered. However propagation of gravitational waves (or the number of degrees of freedom) does indeed serve as a discriminator because it has two polarizations only in four dimensions.

Space-time slicing in Horndeski theories and its implications for non-singular bouncing solutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ijjas, Anna

2018-02-01

In this paper, we show how the proper choice of gauge is critical in analyzing the stability of non-singular cosmological bounce solutions based on Horndeski theories. We show that it is possible to construct non-singular cosmological bounce solutions with classically stable behavior for all modes with wavelengths above the Planck scale where: (a) the solution involves a stage of null-energy condition violation during which gravity is described by a modification of Einstein's general relativity; and (b) the solution reduces to Einstein gravity both before and after the null-energy condition violating stage. Similar considerations apply to galilean genesis scenarios.

A Neumann boundary term for gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krishnan, Chethan; Raju, Avinash

2017-05-01

The Gibbons-Hawking-York (GHY) boundary term makes the Dirichlet problem for gravity well-defined, but no such general term seems to be known for Neumann boundary conditions. In this paper, we view Neumann not as fixing the normal derivative of the metric (“velocity”) at the boundary, but as fixing the functional derivative of the action with respect to the boundary metric (“momentum”). This leads directly to a new boundary term for gravity: the trace of the extrinsic curvature with a specific dimension-dependent coefficient. In three dimensions, this boundary term reduces to a “one-half” GHY term noted in the literature previously, and we observe that our action translates precisely to the Chern-Simons action with no extra boundary terms. In four dimensions, the boundary term vanishes, giving a natural Neumann interpretation to the standard Einstein-Hilbert action without boundary terms. We argue that in light of AdS/CFT, ours is a natural approach for defining a “microcanonical” path integral for gravity in the spirit of the (pre-AdS/CFT) work of Brown and York.

Can Gravity Probe B usefully constrain torsion gravity theories?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Flanagan, Eanna E.; Rosenthal, Eran

2007-06-15

In most theories of gravity involving torsion, the source for torsion is the intrinsic spin of matter. Since the spins of fermions are normally randomly oriented in macroscopic bodies, the amount of torsion generated by macroscopic bodies is normally negligible. However, in a recent paper, Mao et al. (arXiv:gr-qc/0608121) point out that there is a class of theories, including the Hayashi-Shirafuji (1979) theory, in which the angular momentum of macroscopic spinning bodies generates a significant amount of torsion. They further argue that, by the principle of action equals reaction, one would expect the angular momentum of test bodies to couplemore » to a background torsion field, and therefore the precession of the Gravity Probe B gyroscopes should be affected in these theories by the torsion generated by the Earth. We show that in fact the principle of action equals reaction does not apply to these theories, essentially because the torsion is not an independent dynamical degree of freedom. We examine in detail a generalization of the Hayashi-Shirafuji theory suggested by Mao et al. called Einstein-Hayashi-Shirafuji theory. There are a variety of different versions of this theory, depending on the precise form of the coupling to matter chosen for the torsion. We show that, for any coupling to matter that is compatible with the spin transport equation postulated by Mao et al., the theory has either ghosts or an ill-posed initial-value formulation. These theoretical problems can be avoided by specializing the parameters of the theory and in addition choosing the standard minimal coupling to matter of the torsion tensor. This yields a consistent theory, but one in which the action equals reaction principle is violated, and in which the angular momentum of the gyroscopes does not couple to the Earth's torsion field. Thus, the Einstein-Hayashi-Shirafuji theory does not predict a detectable torsion signal for Gravity Probe B. There may be other torsion theories which do.« less

A gauge-theoretic approach to gravity.

PubMed

Krasnov, Kirill

2012-08-08

Einstein's general relativity (GR) is a dynamical theory of the space-time metric. We describe an approach in which GR becomes an SU(2) gauge theory. We start at the linearized level and show how a gauge-theoretic Lagrangian for non-interacting massless spin two particles (gravitons) takes a much more simple and compact form than in the standard metric description. Moreover, in contrast to the GR situation, the gauge theory Lagrangian is convex. We then proceed with a formulation of the full nonlinear theory. The equivalence to the metric-based GR holds only at the level of solutions of the field equations, that is, on-shell. The gauge-theoretic approach also makes it clear that GR is not the only interacting theory of massless spin two particles, in spite of the GR uniqueness theorems available in the metric description. Thus, there is an infinite-parameter class of gravity theories all describing just two propagating polarizations of the graviton. We describe how matter can be coupled to gravity in this formulation and, in particular, how both the gravity and Yang-Mills arise as sectors of a general diffeomorphism-invariant gauge theory. We finish by outlining a possible scenario of the ultraviolet completion of quantum gravity within this approach.

In the Beginning Was Quantum Gravity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomsen, Dietrick E.

1983-01-01

Cosmology is the theory by which the structure and history of the universe is described. Discusses the relationship between cosmology, gravity, and quantum mechanics, and whether the relationship can be formulated through Einstein's theory or a modification of it. Also discusses progress made in these scientific areas. (JN)

Butterfly effect in 3D gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qaemmaqami, Mohammad M.

2017-11-01

We study the butterfly effect by considering shock wave solutions near the horizon of the anti-de Sitter black hole in some three-dimensional gravity models including 3D Einstein gravity, minimal massive 3D gravity, new massive gravity, generalized massive gravity, Born-Infeld 3D gravity, and new bigravity. We calculate the butterfly velocities of these models and also we consider the critical points and different limits in some of these models. By studying the butterfly effect in the generalized massive gravity, we observe a correspondence between the butterfly velocities and right-left moving degrees of freedom or the central charges of the dual 2D conformal field theories.

Experimental constraints on metric and non-metric theories of gravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Will, Clifford M.

1989-01-01

Experimental constraints on metric and non-metric theories of gravitation are reviewed. Tests of the Einstein Equivalence Principle indicate that only metric theories of gravity are likely to be viable. Solar system experiments constrain the parameters of the weak field, post-Newtonian limit to be close to the values predicted by general relativity. Future space experiments will provide further constraints on post-Newtonian gravity.

Short Range Tests of Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardenas, Crystal; Harter, Andrew; Hoyle, C. D.; Leopardi, Holly; Smith, David

2014-03-01

Gravity was the first force to be described mathematically, yet it is the only fundamental force not well understood. The Standard Model of quantum mechanics describes interactions between the fundamental strong, weak and electromagnetic forces while Einstein's theory of General Relativity (GR) describes the fundamental force of gravity. There is yet to be a theory that unifies inconsistencies between GR and quantum mechanics. Scenarios of String Theory predicting more than three spatial dimensions also predict physical effects of gravity at sub-millimeter levels that would alter the gravitational inverse-square law. The Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP), a central feature of GR, states that all objects are accelerated at the same rate in a gravitational field independent of their composition. A violation of the WEP at any length would be evidence that current models of gravity are incorrect. At the Humboldt State University Gravitational Research Laboratory, an experiment is being developed to observe gravitational interactions below the 50-micron distance scale. The experiment measures the twist of a parallel-plate torsion pendulum as an attractor mass is oscillated within 50 microns of the pendulum, providing time varying gravitational torque on the pendulum. The size and distance dependence of the torque amplitude provide means to determine deviations from accepted models of gravity on untested distance scales. undergraduate.

Cosmological perturbations in antigravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oltean, Marius; Brandenberger, Robert

2014-10-01

We compute the evolution of cosmological perturbations in a recently proposed Weyl-symmetric theory of two scalar fields with oppositely signed conformal couplings to Einstein gravity. It is motivated from the minimal conformal extension of the standard model, such that one of these scalar fields is the Higgs while the other is a new particle, the dilaton, introduced to make the Higgs mass conformally symmetric. At the background level, the theory admits novel geodesically complete cyclic cosmological solutions characterized by a brief period of repulsive gravity, or "antigravity," during each successive transition from a big crunch to a big bang. For simplicity, we consider scalar perturbations in the absence of anisotropies, with potential set to zero and without any radiation. We show that despite the necessarily wrong-signed kinetic term of the dilaton in the full action, these perturbations are neither ghostlike nor tachyonic in the limit of strongly repulsive gravity. On this basis, we argue—pending a future analysis of vector and tensor perturbations—that, with respect to perturbative stability, the cosmological solutions of this theory are viable.

Fake conformal symmetry in unimodular gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oda, Ichiro

2016-08-01

We study Weyl symmetry (local conformal symmetry) in unimodular gravity. It is shown that the Noether currents for both Weyl symmetry and global scale symmetry vanish exactly as in conformally invariant scalar-tensor gravity. We clearly explain why in the class of conformally invariant gravitational theories, the Noether currents vanish by starting with conformally invariant scalar-tensor gravity. Moreover, we comment on both classical and quantum-mechanical equivalences in Einstein's general relativity, conformally invariant scalar-tensor gravity, and the Weyl-transverse gravity. Finally, we discuss the Weyl current in the conformally invariant scalar action and see that it is also vanishing.

Unified theory of nonlinear electrodynamics and gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Torres-Gomez, Alexander; Krasnov, Kirill; Scarinci, Carlos

2011-01-15

We describe a class of unified theories of electromagnetism and gravity. The Lagrangian is of the BF type, with a potential for the B field, the gauge group is U(2) (complexified). Given a choice of the potential function the theory is a deformation of (complex) general relativity and electromagnetism, and describes just two propagating polarizations of the graviton and two of the photon. When gravity is switched off the theory becomes the usual nonlinear electrodynamics with a general structure function. The Einstein-Maxwell theory can be recovered by sending some of the parameters of the defining potential to zero, but formore » any generic choice of the potential the theory is indistinguishable from Einstein-Maxwell at low energies. A real theory is obtained by imposing suitable reality conditions. We also study the spherically-symmetric solution and show how the usual Reissner-Nordstrom solution is recovered.« less

The art of space-time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cartlidge, Edwin

2018-01-01

The Museo Na­zionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (MAXXI; National Museum of 21st Century Arts) in Rome has chosen Einstein as the figurehead of its latest exhibition, enti­tled Gravity. Imaging the Uni­verse After Einstein. Running until 29 April 2018, the exhibition explores "the meeting point of the current understanding of the cos­mos and contemporary art and thinking."

Surface singularities in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity.

PubMed

Pani, Paolo; Sotiriou, Thomas P

2012-12-21

Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity was recently proposed as an alternative to general relativity that offers a resolution of spacetime singularities. The theory differs from Einstein's gravity only inside matter due to nondynamical degrees of freedom, and it is compatible with all current observations. We show that the theory is reminiscent of Palatini f(R) gravity and that it shares the same pathologies, such as curvature singularities at the surface of polytropic stars and unacceptable Newtonian limit. This casts serious doubt on its viability.

Strong anti-gravity Life in the shock wave

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fabbrichesi, Marco; Roland, Kaj

1992-12-01

Strong anti-gravity is the vanishing of the net force between two massive particles at rest, to all orders in Newton's constant. We study this phenomenon and show that it occurs in any effective theory of gravity which is obtained from a higher-dimensional model by compactification on a manifold with flat directions. We find the exact solution of the Einstein equations in the presence of a point-like source of strong anti-gravity by dimensional reduction of a shock-wave solution in the higher-dimensional model.

Flat space (higher spin) gravity with chemical potentials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gary, Michael; Grumiller, Daniel; Riegler, Max; Rosseel, Jan

2015-01-01

We introduce flat space spin-3 gravity in the presence of chemical potentials and discuss some applications to flat space cosmology solutions, their entropy, free energy and flat space orbifold singularity resolution. Our results include flat space Einstein gravity with chemical potentials as special case. We discover novel types of phase transitions between flat space cosmologies with spin-3 hair and show that the branch that continuously connects to spin-2 gravity becomes thermodynamically unstable for sufficiently large temperature or spin-3 chemical potential.

Newton to Einstein — dust to dust

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kopp, Michael; Uhlemann, Cora; Haugg, Thomas, E-mail: michael.kopp@physik.lmu.de, E-mail: cora.uhlemann@physik.lmu.de, E-mail: thomas.haugg@physik.lmu.de

We investigate the relation between the standard Newtonian equations for a pressureless fluid (dust) and the Einstein equations in a double expansion in small scales and small metric perturbations. We find that parts of the Einstein equations can be rewritten as a closed system of two coupled differential equations for the scalar and transverse vector metric perturbations in Poisson gauge. It is then shown that this system is equivalent to the Newtonian system of continuity and Euler equations. Brustein and Riotto (2011) conjectured the equivalence of these systems in the special case where vector perturbations were neglected. We show thatmore » this approach does not lead to the Euler equation but to a physically different one with large deviations already in the 1-loop power spectrum. We show that it is also possible to consistently set to zero the vector perturbations which strongly constrains the allowed initial conditions, in particular excluding Gaussian ones such that inclusion of vector perturbations is inevitable in the cosmological context. In addition we derive nonlinear equations for the gravitational slip and tensor perturbations, thereby extending Newtonian gravity of a dust fluid to account for nonlinear light propagation effects and dust-induced gravitational waves.« less

Strong binary pulsar constraints on Lorentz violation in gravity.

PubMed

Yagi, Kent; Blas, Diego; Yunes, Nicolás; Barausse, Enrico

2014-04-25

Binary pulsars are excellent laboratories to test the building blocks of Einstein's theory of general relativity. One of these is Lorentz symmetry, which states that physical phenomena appear the same for all inertially moving observers. We study the effect of violations of Lorentz symmetry in the orbital evolution of binary pulsars and find that it induces a much more rapid decay of the binary's orbital period due to the emission of dipolar radiation. The absence of such behavior in recent observations allows us to place the most stringent constraints on Lorentz violation in gravity, thus verifying one of the cornerstones of Einstein's theory much more accurately than any previous gravitational observation.

Energy distributions of Bianchi type-VI h Universe in general relativity and teleparallel gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Özkurt, Ş.; eref; Aygün, Sezg&idot; n.

2017-04-01

In this paper, we have investigated the energy and momentum density distributions for the inhomogeneous generalizations of homogeneous Bianchi type-VI h metric with Einstein, Bergmann-Thomson, Landau-Lifshitz, Papapetrou, Tolman and Møller prescriptions in general relativity (GR) and teleparallel gravity (TG). We have found exactly the same results for Einstein, Bergmann-Thomson and Landau-Lifshitz energy-momentum distributions in Bianchi type-VI h metric for different gravitation theories. The energy-momentum distributions of the Bianchi type- VI h metric are found to be zero for h = -1 in GR and TG. However, our results agree with Tripathy et al, Tryon, Rosen and Aygün et al.

Topological formation of a multiply charged vortex in the Rb Bose-Einstein condensate: Effectiveness of the gravity compensation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kumakura, M.; PRESTO, JST, 4-1-8 Honcho Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012; CREST, JST, 4-1-8 Honcho Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012

2006-06-15

In a Bose-Einstein condensate of {sup 87}Rb (F=2,m{sub F}=2) atoms we have topologically created a quantized vortex with a charge of 4 by reversing the magnetic field of the trap. Experimental conditions of reversal time and initial magnetic field strength for the successful vortex creation were restricted within narrower ranges, compared to those in the case of the {sup 23}Na condensate. The experimental difficulty was explained in terms of a non-negligible gravitational sag arising from its large atomic mass. We have successfully stabilized the vortex formation by compensating gravity with a blue-detuned laser beam.

Cohomogeneity-one solutions in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, Yen-Kheng

2017-05-01

The field equations for Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity in D dimensions are reduced to an effective one-dimensional system under the influence of exponential potentials. Various cases where exact solutions can be found are explored. With this procedure, we present interesting solutions such as a one-parameter generalization of the dilaton-Melvin spacetime and a three-parameter solution that interpolates between the Reissner-Nordström and Bertotti-Robinson solutions. This procedure also allows simple, alternative derivations of known solutions such as the Lifshitz spacetime and the planar anti-de Sitter naked singularity. In the latter case, the metric is cast in a simpler form which reveals the presence of an additional curvature singularity.

Nonsymmetric gravity theories: Inconsistencies and a cure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Damour, T.; Deser, S.; McCarthy, J.

1993-02-01

Motivated by the apparent dependence of string σ models on the sum of spacetime metric and antisymmetric tensor fields, we reconsider gravity theories constructed from a nonsymmetric metric. We first show, by expanding in powers of the antisymmetric field, that all such ``geometrical'' theories homogeneous in second derivatives violate standard physical requirements: ghost freedom, absence of algebraic inconsistencies, or continuity of degree-of-freedom content. This no-go result applies in particular to the old unified theory of Einstein and its recent avatars. However, we find that the addition of nonderivative, ``cosmological'' terms formally restores consistency by giving a mass to the antisymmetric tensor field, thereby transmuting it into a fifth-force-like massive vector but with novel possible matter couplings. The resulting macroscopic models also exhibit ``van der Waals''-type gravitational effects, and may provide useful phenomenological foils to general relativity.

Probing hybrid modified gravity by stellar motion around Galactic Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borka, D.; Capozziello, S.; Jovanović, P.; Borka Jovanović, V.

2016-06-01

We consider possible signatures for the so called hybrid gravity within the Galactic Central Parsec. This modified theory of gravity consists of a superposition of the metric Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian with an f(R) term constructed à la Palatiniand can be easily reduced to an equivalent scalar-tensor theory. Such an approach is introduced in order to cure the shortcomings related to f(R) gravity, in general formulated either in metric or in metric-affine frameworks. Hybrid gravity allows to disentangle the further gravitational degrees of freedom with respect to those of standard General Relativity. The present analysis is based on the S2 star orbital precession around the massive compact dark object at the Galactic Center where the simulated orbits in hybrid modified gravity are compared with astronomical observations. These simulations result with constraints on the range of hybrid gravity interaction parameter ϕ0, showing that in the case of S2 star it is between -0.0009 and -0.0002. At the same time, we are also able to obtain the constraints on the effective mass parameter mϕ, and found that it is between -0.0034 and -0.0025 AU-1 for S2 star. Furthermore, the hybrid gravity potential induces precession of S2 star orbit in the same direction as General Relativity. In previous papers, we considered other types of extended gravities, like metric power law f(R)∝Rn gravity, inducing Yukawa and Sanders-like gravitational potentials, but it seems that hybrid gravity is the best among these models to explain different gravitational phenomena at different astronomical scales.

The gravitational wave stress–energy (pseudo)-tensor in modified gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saffer, Alexander; Yunes, Nicolás; Yagi, Kent

2018-03-01

The recent detections of gravitational waves by the advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors open up new tests of modified gravity theories in the strong-field and dynamical, extreme gravity regime. Such tests rely sensitively on the phase evolution of the gravitational waves, which is controlled by the energy–momentum carried by such waves out of the system. We here study four different methods for finding the gravitational wave stress–energy pseudo-tensor in gravity theories with any combination of scalar, vector, or tensor degrees of freedom. These methods rely on the second variation of the action under short-wavelength averaging, the second perturbation of the field equations in the short-wavelength approximation, the construction of an energy complex leading to a Landau–Lifshitz tensor, and the use of Noether’s theorem in field theories about a flat background. We apply these methods in general relativity, Jordan–Fierz–Brans–Dicky theoy, and Einstein-Æther theory to find the gravitational wave stress–energy pseudo-tensor and calculate the rate at which energy and linear momentum is carried away from the system. The stress–energy tensor and the rate of linear momentum loss in Einstein-Æther theory are presented here for the first time. We find that all methods yield the same rate of energy loss, although the stress–energy pseudo-tensor can be functionally different. We also find that the Noether method yields a stress–energy tensor that is not symmetric or gauge-invariant, and symmetrization via the Belinfante procedure does not fix these problems because this procedure relies on Lorentz invariance, which is spontaneously broken in Einstein-Æther theory. The methods and results found here will be useful for the calculation of predictions in modified gravity theories that can then be contrasted with observations.

The Gravity Probe B Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kolodziejczak, Jeffrey

2008-01-01

This presentation briefly describes the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) Experiment which is designed to measure parts of Einstein's general theory of relativity by monitoring gyroscope orientation relative to a distant guide star. To measure the miniscule angles predicted by Einstein's theory, it was necessary to build near-perfect gyroscopes that were approximately 50 million times more precise than the best navigational gyroscopes. A telescope mounted along the central axis of the dewar and spacecraft provided the experiment's pointing reference to a guide star. The telescope's image divide precisely split the star's beam into x-axis and y-axis components whose brightness could be compared. GP-B's 650-gallon dewar, kept the science instrument inside the probe at a cryogenic temperature for 17.3 months and also provided the thruster propellant for precision attitude and translation control. Built around the dewar, the GP-B spacecraft was a total-integrated system, comprising both the space vehicle and payload, dedicated as a single entity to experimentally testing predictions of Einstein's theory.

Einstein Universe Revisited and End of Dark ERA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nurgaliev, Ildus S.

2015-01-01

Historically the earliest general relativistic cosmological solution was received by Einstein himself as homogenous, isotropic one. In accordance with European cosmology it was expected static. The Eternal Universe as scientific model is conflicting with the existed theological model of the Universe created by God, therefore, of the limited age. Christianity, younger Islam, older Judaism are based on creationism. Much older oriental traditions such us Hinduism and Buddhism are based on conceptions of eternal and cyclic Universe which are closer to scientific worldview. To have static universe Einstein needed a factor to counteract gravity and postulated cosmological term and considered it as a disadvantage of the theory. This aesthetic dissatisfaction was amplified by interpretation distance-redshift relationship as a cosmological expansion effect. Emerged scientific cosmological community (excluding Hubble himself - almost always) endorsed the concept of expanding Universe. At the same time, as it is shown in this report, a natural well known factors do exist to counteract gravity. They are inertial centrifugal and Coriolis forces finding their geometrical presentation in the relativity theory.

Delayed collapses of Bose-Einstein condensates in relation to anti-de Sitter gravity.

PubMed

Biasi, Anxo F; Mas, Javier; Paredes, Angel

2017-03-01

We numerically investigate spherically symmetric collapses in the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with attractive nonlinearity in a harmonic potential. Even below threshold for direct collapse, the wave function bounces off from the origin and may eventually become singular after a number of oscillations in the trapping potential. This is reminiscent of the evolution of Einstein gravity sourced by a scalar field in anti de Sitter space where collapse corresponds to black-hole formation. We carefully examine the long time evolution of the wave function for continuous families of initial states in order to sharpen out this qualitative coincidence which may bring new insights in both directions. On the one hand, we comment on possible implications for the so-called Bosenova collapses in cold atom Bose-Einstein condensates. On the other hand, Gross-Pitaevskii provides a toy model to study the relevance of either the resonance conditions or the nonlinearity for the problem of anti de Sitter instability.

Renormalization group scale-setting from the action—a road to modified gravity theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Domazet, Silvije; Štefančić, Hrvoje

2012-12-01

The renormalization group (RG) corrected gravitational action in Einstein-Hilbert and other truncations is considered. The running scale of the RG is treated as a scalar field at the level of the action and determined in a scale-setting procedure recently introduced by Koch and Ramirez for the Einstein-Hilbert truncation. The scale-setting procedure is elaborated for other truncations of the gravitational action and applied to several phenomenologically interesting cases. It is shown how the logarithmic dependence of the Newton's coupling on the RG scale leads to exponentially suppressed effective cosmological constant and how the scale-setting in particular RG-corrected gravitational theories yields the effective f(R) modified gravity theories with negative powers of the Ricci scalar R. The scale-setting at the level of the action at the non-Gaussian fixed point in Einstein-Hilbert and more general truncations is shown to lead to universal effective action quadratic in the Ricci tensor.

Light, Gravity and Black Holes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falla, David

2012-01-01

The nature of light and how it is affected by gravity is discussed. Einstein's prediction of the deflection of light as it passes near the Sun was verified by observations made during the solar eclipse of 1919. Another prediction was that of gravitational redshift, which occurs when light emitted by a star loses energy in the gravitational field…

Quantum space foam and string theory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nekrasov, Nikita

2006-11-03

String theory is originally defined as a modification of the Feynman rules in perturbation theory. It contains gravity in its perturbative spectrum. We review some recent developments which demonstrate that nonperturbative effects of quantum gravity, such as spacetime foam, arise in string theory as well.Prepared for the proceedings of 'Albert Einstein Century Conference' , Paris July 2005.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dehghani, M.H.; Department of Physics, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1; Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 35 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, Ontario

We investigate the existence of Taub-NUT (Newman-Unti-Tamburino) and Taub-bolt solutions in Gauss-Bonnet gravity and obtain the general form of these solutions in d dimensions. We find that for all nonextremal NUT solutions of Einstein gravity having no curvature singularity at r=N, there exist NUT solutions in Gauss-Bonnet gravity that contain these solutions in the limit that the Gauss-Bonnet parameter {alpha} goes to zero. Furthermore there are no NUT solutions in Gauss-Bonnet gravity that yield nonextremal NUT solutions to Einstein gravity having a curvature singularity at r=N in the limit {alpha}{yields}0. Indeed, we have nonextreme NUT solutions in 2+2k dimensions withmore » nontrivial fibration only when the 2k-dimensional base space is chosen to be CP{sup 2k}. We also find that the Gauss-Bonnet gravity has extremal NUT solutions whenever the base space is a product of 2-torii with at most a two-dimensional factor space of positive curvature. Indeed, when the base space has at most one positively curved two-dimensional space as one of its factor spaces, then Gauss-Bonnet gravity admits extreme NUT solutions, even though there a curvature singularity exists at r=N. We also find that one can have bolt solutions in Gauss-Bonnet gravity with any base space with factor spaces of zero or positive constant curvature. The only case for which one does not have bolt solutions is in the absence of a cosmological term with zero curvature base space.« less

Solutions to horava gravity.

PubMed

Lü, H; Mei, Jianwei; Pope, C N

2009-08-28

Recently Horava proposed a nonrelativistic renormalizable theory of gravitation, which reduces to Einstein's general relativity at large distances, and that may provide a candidate for a UV completion of Einstein's theory. In this Letter, we derive the full set of equations of motion, and then we obtain spherically symmetric solutions and discuss their properties. We also obtain solutions for the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker cosmological metric.

Chapter 5. Hidden Symmetry and Exact Solutions in Einstein Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yasui, Y.; Houri, T.

Conformal Killing-Yano tensors are introduced as ageneralization of Killing vectors. They describe symmetries of higher-dimensional rotating black holes. In particular, a rank-2 closed conformal Killing-Yano tensor generates the tower of both hidden symmetries and isometries. We review a classification of higher-dimensional spacetimes admitting such a tensor, and present exact solutions to the Einstein equations for these spacetimes.

Actions for particles and strings and Chern-Simons gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiusi, Lei; Nair, V. P.

2017-09-01

We consider actions for particles and strings, including twistorial descriptions on 4D Minkowski and AdS5 spacetimes from the point of view of coadjoint orbits for the isometry group. We also consider the collective coordinate dynamics of singular solutions in Chern-Simons (CS) theories and CS theories of gravity. This is a generalization of the work of Einstein, Infeld, and Hoffmann and also has potential points of contact with fluid-gravity correspondence.

Lovelock-Brans-Dicke gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wenjie Tian, David; Booth, Ivan

2016-02-01

According to Lovelock’s theorem, the Hilbert-Einstein and the Lovelock actions are indistinguishable from their field equations. However, they have different scalar-tensor counterparts, which correspond to the Brans-Dicke and the Lovelock-Brans-Dicke (LBD) gravities, respectively. In this paper the LBD model of alternative gravity with the Lagrangian density {{L}}{LBD}=\\frac{1}{16π }≤ft[φ ≤ft(R+\\frac{a}{\\sqrt{-g}}{}*{RR}+b{ G }\\right)-\\frac{{ω }{{L}}}{φ }{{{\

Cosine problem in EPRL/FK spinfoam model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vojinović, Marko

2014-01-01

We calculate the classical limit effective action of the EPRL/FK spinfoam model of quantum gravity coupled to matter fields. By employing the standard QFT background field method adapted to the spinfoam setting, we find that the model has many different classical effective actions. Most notably, these include the ordinary Einstein-Hilbert action coupled to matter, but also an action which describes antigravity. All those multiple classical limits appear as a consequence of the fact that the EPRL/FK vertex amplitude has cosine-like large spin asymptotics. We discuss some possible ways to eliminate the unwanted classical limits.

A gauge-theoretic approach to gravity

PubMed Central

Krasnov, Kirill

2012-01-01

Einstein's general relativity (GR) is a dynamical theory of the space–time metric. We describe an approach in which GR becomes an SU(2) gauge theory. We start at the linearized level and show how a gauge-theoretic Lagrangian for non-interacting massless spin two particles (gravitons) takes a much more simple and compact form than in the standard metric description. Moreover, in contrast to the GR situation, the gauge theory Lagrangian is convex. We then proceed with a formulation of the full nonlinear theory. The equivalence to the metric-based GR holds only at the level of solutions of the field equations, that is, on-shell. The gauge-theoretic approach also makes it clear that GR is not the only interacting theory of massless spin two particles, in spite of the GR uniqueness theorems available in the metric description. Thus, there is an infinite-parameter class of gravity theories all describing just two propagating polarizations of the graviton. We describe how matter can be coupled to gravity in this formulation and, in particular, how both the gravity and Yang–Mills arise as sectors of a general diffeomorphism-invariant gauge theory. We finish by outlining a possible scenario of the ultraviolet completion of quantum gravity within this approach. PMID:22792040

Holographic self-tuning of the cosmological constant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Charmousis, Christos; Kiritsis, Elias; Nitti, Francesco

2017-09-01

We propose a brane-world setup based on gauge/gravity duality in which the four-dimensional cosmological constant is set to zero by a dynamical self-adjustment mechanism. The bulk contains Einstein gravity and a scalar field. We study holographic RG flow solutions, with the standard model brane separating an infinite volume UV region and an IR region of finite volume. For generic values of the brane vacuum energy, regular solutions exist such that the four-dimensional brane is flat. Its position in the bulk is determined dynamically by the junction conditions. Analysis of linear fluctuations shows that a regime of 4-dimensional gravity is possible at large distances, due to the presence of an induced gravity term. The graviton acquires an effective mass, and a five-dimensional regime may exist at large and/or small scales. We show that, for a broad choice of potentials, flat-brane solutions are manifestly stable and free of ghosts. We compute the scalar contribution to the force between brane-localized sources and show that, in certain models, the vDVZ discontinuity is absent and the effective interaction at short distances is mediated by two transverse graviton helicities.

Hidden simplicity of the gravity action

DOE PAGES

Cheung, Clifford; Remmen, Grant N.

2017-09-01

We derive new representations of the Einstein-Hilbert action in which graviton perturbation theory is immensely simplified. To accomplish this, we recast the Einstein-Hilbert action as a theory of purely cubic interactions among gravitons and a single auxiliary field. The corresponding equations of motion are the Einstein field equations rewritten as two coupled first-order differential equations. Since all Feynman diagrams are cubic, we are able to derive new off-shell recursion relations for tree-level graviton scattering amplitudes. With a judicious choice of gauge fixing, we then construct an especially compact form for the Einstein-Hilbert action in which all graviton interactions are simplymore » proportional to the graviton kinetic term. Our results apply to graviton perturbations about an arbitrary curved background spacetime.« less

Hidden simplicity of the gravity action

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cheung, Clifford; Remmen, Grant N.

We derive new representations of the Einstein-Hilbert action in which graviton perturbation theory is immensely simplified. To accomplish this, we recast the Einstein-Hilbert action as a theory of purely cubic interactions among gravitons and a single auxiliary field. The corresponding equations of motion are the Einstein field equations rewritten as two coupled first-order differential equations. Since all Feynman diagrams are cubic, we are able to derive new off-shell recursion relations for tree-level graviton scattering amplitudes. With a judicious choice of gauge fixing, we then construct an especially compact form for the Einstein-Hilbert action in which all graviton interactions are simplymore » proportional to the graviton kinetic term. Our results apply to graviton perturbations about an arbitrary curved background spacetime.« less

Lifshitz black branes and DC transport coefficients in massive Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuang, Xiao-Mei; Papantonopoulos, Eleftherios; Wu, Jian-Pin; Zhou, Zhenhua

2018-03-01

We construct analytical Lifshitz massive black brane solutions in massive Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity theory. We also study the thermodynamics of these black brane solutions and obtain the thermodynamical stability conditions. On the dual nonrelativistic boundary field theory with Lifshitz symmetry, we analytically compute the DC transport coefficients, including the electric conductivity, thermoelectric conductivity, and thermal conductivity. The novel property of our model is that the massive term supports the Lifshitz black brane solutions with z ≠1 in such a way that the DC transport coefficients in the dual field theory are finite. We also find that the Wiedemann-Franz law in this dual boundary field theory is violated, which indicates that it may involve strong interactions.

Dark matter admixed strange quark stars in the Starobinsky model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopes, Ilídio; Panotopoulos, Grigoris

2018-01-01

We compute the mass-to-radius profiles for dark matter admixed strange quark stars in the Starobinsky model of modified gravity. For quark matter, we assume the MIT bag model, while self-interacting dark matter inside the star is modeled as a Bose-Einstein condensate with a polytropic equation of state. We numerically integrate the structure equations in the Einstein frame, adopting the two-fluid formalism, and we treat the curvature correction term nonperturbatively. The effects on the properties of the stars of the amount of dark matter as well as the higher curvature term are investigated. We find that strange quark stars (in agreement with current observational constraints) with the highest masses are equally affected by dark matter and modified gravity.

Cyclic completion of the anamorphic universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ijjas, Anna

2018-04-01

Cyclic models of the universe have the advantage of avoiding initial conditions problems related to postulating any sort of beginning in time. To date, the best known viable examples of cyclic models have been ekpyrotic. In this paper, we show that the recently proposed anamorphic scenario can also be made cyclic. The key to the cyclic completion is a classically stable, non-singular bounce. Remarkably, even though the bounce construction was originally developed to connect a period of contraction with a period of expansion both described by Einstein gravity, we show here that it can naturally be modified to connect an ordinary contracting phase described by Einstein gravity with a phase of anamorphic smoothing. The paper will present the basic principles and steps in constructing cyclic anamorphic models.

Einstein-Yang-Mills-Dirac systems from the discretized Kaluza-Klein theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wali, Kameshwar; Viet, Nguyen Ali

2017-01-01

A unified theory of the non-Abelian gauge interactions with gravity in the framework of a discretized Kaluza-Klein theory is constructed with a modified Dirac operator and wedge product. All the couplings of chiral spinors to the non-Abelian gauge fields emerge naturally as components of the coupling of the chiral spinors in the generalized gravity together with some new interactions. In particular, the currently prevailing gravity-QCD quark and gravity-electroweak-quark and lepton models are shown to follow as special cases of the general framework.

Testing the weak gravity-cosmic censorship connection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crisford, Toby; Horowitz, Gary T.; Santos, Jorge E.

2018-03-01

A surprising connection between the weak gravity conjecture and cosmic censorship has recently been proposed. In particular, it was argued that a promising class of counterexamples to cosmic censorship in four-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-Λ theory would be removed if charged particles (with sufficient charge) were present. We test this idea and find that indeed if the weak gravity conjecture is true, one cannot violate cosmic censorship this way. Remarkably, the minimum value of charge required to preserve cosmic censorship appears to agree precisely with that proposed by the weak gravity conjecture.

Deflection of light by black holes and massless wormholes in massive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jusufi, Kimet; Sarkar, Nayan; Rahaman, Farook; Banerjee, Ayan; Hansraj, Sudan

2018-04-01

Weak gravitational lensing by black holes and wormholes in the context of massive gravity (Bebronne and Tinyakov, JHEP 0904:100, 2009) theory is studied. The particular solution examined is characterized by two integration constants, the mass M and an extra parameter S namely `scalar charge'. These black hole reduce to the standard Schwarzschild black hole solutions when the scalar charge is zero and the mass is positive. In addition, a parameter λ in the metric characterizes so-called `hair'. The geodesic equations are used to examine the behavior of the deflection angle in four relevant cases of the parameter λ . Then, by introducing a simple coordinate transformation r^λ =S+v^2 into the black hole metric, we were able to find a massless wormhole solution of Einstein-Rosen (ER) (Einstein and Rosen, Phys Rev 43:73, 1935) type with scalar charge S. The programme is then repeated in terms of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem in the weak field limit after a method is established to deal with the angle of deflection using different domains of integration depending on the parameter λ . In particular, we have found new analytical results corresponding to four special cases which generalize the well known deflection angles reported in the literature. Finally, we have established the time delay problem in the spacetime of black holes and wormholes, respectively.

KSC-04pd0940

NASA Image and Video Library

2004-04-20

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The Gravity Probe B spacecraft, atop a Boeing Delta II vehicle, launches at 12:57:24 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Gravity Probe B is the relativity gyroscope experiment being developed by NASA and Stanford University to test two extraordinary, unverified predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Why Do Things Fall? How to Explain Why Gravity Is Not a Force

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stannard, Warren B.

2018-01-01

In most high school physics classes, gravity is described as an attractive force between two masses as formulated by Newton over 300 years ago. Einstein's general theory of relativity implies that gravitational effects are instead the result of a "curvature" of space-time. However, explaining why things fall without resorting to Newton's…

NOTE: Circular symmetry in topologically massive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deser, S.; Franklin, J.

2010-05-01

We re-derive, compactly, a topologically massive gravity (TMG) decoupling theorem: source-free TMG separates into its Einstein and Cotton sectors for spaces with a hypersurface-orthogonal Killing vector, here concretely for circular symmetry. We then generalize the theorem to include matter; surprisingly, the single Killing symmetry also forces conformal invariance, requiring the sources to be null.

KSC-04PD-0940

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. The Gravity Probe B spacecraft, atop a Boeing Delta II vehicle, launches at 12:57:24 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Gravity Probe B is the relativity gyroscope experiment being developed by NASA and Stanford University to test two extraordinary, unverified predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Holographic superconductors in Einstein-æther gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Kai; Wu, Yumei

2017-11-01

In this paper, we apply Anti-de Sitter (AdS) black hole solution of the Einstein-æther theory to the study of the holographic superconductor and show that the AdS black hole solution can be rewritten in some very simple forms, from which it is easy to identify the locations of various killing horizons. Then, we investigate the different effects of these horizons on the holographic superconductor.

Geometric phase of cosmological scalar and tensor perturbations in f(R) gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balajany, Hamideh; Mehrafarin, Mohammad

2018-05-01

By using the conformal equivalence of f(R) gravity in vacuum and the usual Einstein theory with scalar-field matter, we derive the Hamiltonian of the linear cosmological scalar and tensor perturbations in f(R) gravity in the form of time-dependent harmonic oscillator Hamiltonians. We find the invariant operators of the resulting Hamiltonians and use their eigenstates to calculate the adiabatic Berry phase for sub-horizon modes as a Lewis-Riesenfeld phase.

The theoretical tools of experimental gravitation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Will, C. M.

1972-01-01

Theoretical frameworks for testing relativistic gravity are presented in terms of a system for analyzing theories of gravity invented as alternatives to Einstein. The parametrized post-Newtonian (PPN) formalism, based on the Dicke framework and the Eotvos-Dicke-Braginsky experiment, is discussed in detail. The metric theories of gravity, and their post-Newtonian limits are reviewed, and PPN equations of motion are derived. These equations are used to analyze specific effects and experimental tests in the solar system.

Emergent universe with wormholes in massive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paul, B. C.; Majumdar, A. S.

2018-03-01

An emergent universe (EU) scenario is proposed to obtain a universe free from big-bang singularity. In this framework the present universe emerged from a static Einstein universe phase in the infinite past. A flat EU scenario is found to exist in Einstein’s gravity with a non-linear equation of state (EoS). It has been shown subsequently that a physically realistic EU model can be obtained considering cosmic fluid composed of interacting fluids with a non-linear equation of state. It results a viable cosmological model accommodating both early inflation and present accelerating phases. In the present paper, the origin of an initial static Einstein universe needed in the EU model is explored in a massive gravity theory which subsequently emerged to be a dynamically evolving universe. A new gravitational instanton solution in a flat universe is obtained in the massive gravity theory which is a dynamical wormhole that might play an important role in realizing the origin of the initial state of the emergent universe. The emergence of a Lorentzian universe from a Euclidean gravity is understood by a Wick rotation τ = i t . A universe with radiation at the beginning finally transits into the present observed universe with a non-linear EoS as the interactions among the fluids set in. Thus a viable flat EU scenario where the universe stretches back into time infinitely, with no big bang is permitted in a massive gravity.

Solitons and black holes in non-Abelian Einstein-Born-Infeld theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dyadichev, V. V.; Gal'tsov, D. V.

2000-08-01

Recently it was shown that the Born-Infeld modification of the quadratic Yang-Mills action gives rise to classical particle-like solutions in the flat space which have a striking similarity with the Bartnik-McKinnon solutions obtained within the gravity coupled Yang-Mills theory. We show that both families of solutions are continuously related within the framework of the Einstein-Born-Infeld theory via interpolating sequences of parameters. We also investigate an internal structure of the associated black holes and find that the Born-Infeld non-linearity changes drastically the black hole interior typical for the usual quadratic Yang-Mills theory. In the latter case a generic solution exhibits violent metric oscillations near the singularity. In the Born-Infeld case the generic interior solution is smooth, the metric tends to the standard Schwarzschild type singularity, and we did not observe internal horizons. Smoothing of the `violent' EYM singularity may be interpreted as a result of non-gravitational quantum effects.

Testing Einstein's Gravity on Large Scales

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prescod-Weinstein, Chandra

2011-01-01

A little over a decade has passed since two teams studying high redshift Type Ia supernovae announced the discovery that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. After all this time, we?re still not sure how cosmic acceleration fits into the theory that tells us about the large-scale universe: General Relativity (GR). As part of our search for answers, we have been forced to question GR itself. But how will we test our ideas? We are fortunate enough to be entering the era of precision cosmology, where the standard model of gravity can be subjected to more rigorous testing. Various techniques will be employed over the next decade or two in the effort to better understand cosmic acceleration and the theory behind it. In this talk, I will describe cosmic acceleration, current proposals to explain it, and weak gravitational lensing, an observational effect that allows us to do the necessary precision cosmology.

General relativity with small cosmological constant from spontaneous compactification of Lovelock theory in vacuum

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Canfora, Fabrizio; Willison, Steven; Giacomini, Alex

2009-08-15

It is shown that Einstein gravity in four dimensions with small cosmological constant and small extra dimensions can be obtained by spontaneous compactification of Lovelock gravity in vacuum. Assuming that the extra dimensions are compact spaces of constant curvature, general relativity is recovered within a certain class of Lovelock theories possessing necessarily cubic or higher order terms in curvature. This bounds the higher dimension to at least 7. Remarkably, the effective gauge coupling and Newton constant in four dimensions are not proportional to the gravitational constant in higher dimensions, but are shifted with respect to their standard values. This effectmore » opens up new scenarios where a maximally symmetric solution in higher dimensions could decay into the compactified spacetime either by tunneling or through a gravitational analog of ghost condensation. Indeed, this is what occurs requiring both the extra dimensions and the four-dimensional cosmological constant to be small.« less

Gravitational waves in the spectral action of noncommutative geometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nelson, William; Ochoa, Joseph; Sakellariadou, Mairi

2010-10-01

The spectral triple approach to noncommutative geometry allows one to develop the entire standard model (and supersymmetric extensions) of particle physics from a purely geometry standpoint and thus treats both gravity and particle physics on the same footing. The bosonic sector of the theory contains a modification to Einstein-Hilbert gravity, involving a nonconformal coupling of curvature to the Higgs field and conformal Weyl term (in addition to a nondynamical topological term). In this paper we derive the weak-field limit of this gravitational theory and show that the production and dynamics of gravitational waves are significantly altered. In particular, we show that the graviton contains a massive mode that alters the energy lost to gravitational radiation, in systems with evolving quadrupole moment. We explicitly calculate the general solution and apply it to systems with periodically varying quadrupole moments, focusing, in particular, on the well-known energy loss formula for circular binaries.

Brown-York quasilocal energy in Lanczos-Lovelock gravity and black hole horizons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraborty, Sumanta; Dadhich, Naresh

2015-12-01

A standard candidate for quasilocal energy in general relativity is the Brown-York energy, which is essentially a two dimensional surface integral of the extrinsic curvature on the two-boundary of a spacelike hypersurface referenced to flat spacetime. Several years back one of us had conjectured that the black hole horizon is defined by equipartition of gravitational and non-gravitational energy. By employing the above definition of quasilocal Brown-York energy, we have verified the equipartition conjecture for static charged and charged axi-symmetric black holes in general relativity. We have further generalized the Brown-York formalism to all orders in Lanczos-Lovelock theories of gravity and have verified the conjecture for pure Lovelock charged black hole in all even d = 2 m + 2 dimensions, where m is the degree of Lovelock action. It turns out that the equipartition conjecture works only for pure Lovelock, and not for Einstein-Lovelock black holes.

The theory of spherically symmetric thin shells in conformal gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berezin, Victor; Dokuchaev, Vyacheslav; Eroshenko, Yury

The spherically symmetric thin shells are the nearest generalizations of the point-like particles. Moreover, they serve as the simple sources of the gravitational fields both in General Relativity and much more complex quadratic gravity theories. We are interested in the special and physically important case when all the quadratic in curvature tensor (Riemann tensor) and its contractions (Ricci tensor and scalar curvature) terms are present in the form of the square of Weyl tensor. By definition, the energy-momentum tensor of the thin shell is proportional to Diracs delta-function. We constructed the theory of the spherically symmetric thin shells for three types of gravitational theories with the shell: (1) General Relativity; (2) Pure conformal (Weyl) gravity where the gravitational part of the total Lagrangian is just the square of the Weyl tensor; (3) Weyl-Einstein gravity. The results are compared with these in General Relativity (Israel equations). We considered in detail the shells immersed in the vacuum. Some peculiar properties of such shells are found. In particular, for the traceless ( = massless) shell, it is shown that their dynamics cannot be derived from the matching conditions and, thus, is completely arbitrary. On the contrary, in the case of the Weyl-Einstein gravity, the trajectory of the same type of shell is completely restored even without knowledge of the outside solution.

Celebrating Einstein

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Key, Joey; Yunes, Nicolas

2013-04-01

The Gravity Group at Montana State University (MSU) hosted Celebrating Einstein, a free public arts and multimedia event celebrating Einstein and his ideas in Bozeman, Montana April 2-6, 2013. The products of our efforts are now available to any party interested in hosting a similar event. Celebrating Einstein is a truly interdisciplinary effort including art, film, dance, music, physics, history, and education. Events included a black hole immersive art installation, a series of public talks by physicists, and Einstein lessons in the public schools leading up to a live free public multimedia performance including a professional dance company, a live interview with a renowned physicist, and an original score composed for the MSU student symphony to be performed with an original film produced by the Science and Natural History film program at MSU. This project is funded by the Montana Space Grant Consortium, Montana State University, and the National Science Foundation.

Is Electromagnetic Gravity Control Possible?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vargas, Jose G.; Torr, Douglas G.

2004-02-04

We study the interplay of Einstein's Gravitation (GR) and Maxwell's Electromagnetism, where the distribution of energy-momentum is not presently known (The Feynman Lectures, Vol 2, Chapter 27, section 4). As Feynman himself stated, one might in principle use Einstein's equations of GR to find such a distribution. GR (born in 1915) presently uses the Levi-Civita connection, LCC (the LCC was born two years after GR as a new concept, and not just as the pre-existing Christoffel symbols that represent it). Around 1927, Einstein proposed for physics an alternative to the LCC that constitutes a far more sensible and powerful affinemore » enrichment of metric Riemannian geometry. It is called teleparallelism (TP). Its Finslerian version (i.e. in the space-time-velocity arena) permits an unequivocal identification of the EM field as a geometric quantity. This in turn permits one to identify a completely geometric set of Einstein equations from curvature equations. From their right hand side, one may obtain the actual distribution of EM energy-momentum. It is consistent with Maxwell's equations, since these also are implied by the equations of structure of TP. We find that the so-far-unknown terms in this distribution amount to a total differential and do not, therefore, alter the value of the total EM energy-momentum. And yet these extra terms are at macroscopic distances enormously larger than the standard quadratic terms. This allows for the generation of measurable gravitational fields by EM fields. We thus answer affirmatively the question of the title.« less

Scale factor duality for conformal cyclic cosmologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Camara da Silva, U.; Alves Lima, A. L.; Sotkov, G. M.

2016-11-01

The scale factor duality is a symmetry of dilaton gravity which is known to lead to pre-big-bang cosmologies. A conformal time version of the scale factor duality (SFD) was recently implemented as a UV/IR symmetry between decelerated and accelerated phases of the post-big-bang evolution within Einstein gravity coupled to a scalar field. The problem investigated in the present paper concerns the employment of the conformal time SFD methods to the construction of pre-big-bang and cyclic extensions of these models. We demonstrate that each big-bang model gives rise to two qualitatively different pre-big-bang evolutions: a contraction/expansion SFD model and Penrose's Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC). A few examples of SFD symmetric cyclic universes involving certain gauged Kähler sigma models minimally coupled to Einstein gravity are studied. We also describe the specific SFD features of the thermodynamics and the conditions for validity of the generalized second law in the case of Gauss-Bonnet (GB) extension of these selected CCC models.

Tidal Forces: A Different Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masters, Roy

2010-10-01

We revisit the theories describing the moon raising the tides by virtue of pull gravity combined with the moon's centripetal angular momentum. We show that if gravity is considered as the attractive interaction between individual bodies, then the moon would have fallen to earth eons ago. Isaac Newton's laws of motion cannot work with pull gravity. However, they do with gravity as a property of the universe as Einstein said with a huge energy bonus. In other words, the moon-Earth system becomes the first observable vacuum gravity energy machine, meaning that it not only produces energy, but provides also escape momentum for the moon's centripetal motion at 4cm per year.

Exploring New Physics Frontiers Through Numerical Relativity.

PubMed

Cardoso, Vitor; Gualtieri, Leonardo; Herdeiro, Carlos; Sperhake, Ulrich

2015-01-01

The demand to obtain answers to highly complex problems within strong-field gravity has been met with significant progress in the numerical solution of Einstein's equations - along with some spectacular results - in various setups. We review techniques for solving Einstein's equations in generic spacetimes, focusing on fully nonlinear evolutions but also on how to benchmark those results with perturbative approaches. The results address problems in high-energy physics, holography, mathematical physics, fundamental physics, astrophysics and cosmology.

Gravitation: Foundations and Frontiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Padmanabhan, T.

2010-01-01

1. Special relativity; 2. Scalar and electromagnetic fields in special relativity; 3. Gravity and spacetime geometry: the inescapable connection; 4. Metric tensor, geodesics and covariant derivative; 5. Curvature of spacetime; 6. Einstein's field equations and gravitational dynamics; 7. Spherically symmetric geometry; 8. Black holes; 9. Gravitational waves; 10. Relativistic cosmology; 11. Differential forms and exterior calculus; 12. Hamiltonian structure of general relativity; 13. Evolution of cosmological perturbations; 14. Quantum field theory in curved spacetime; 15. Gravity in higher and lower dimensions; 16. Gravity as an emergent phenomenon; Notes; Index.

SL(2,C) gravity on noncommutative space with Poisson structure

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miao Yangang; Zhang Shaojun

2010-10-15

The Einstein's gravity theory can be formulated as an SL(2,C) gauge theory in terms of spinor notations. In this paper, we consider a noncommutative space with the Poisson structure and construct an SL(2,C) formulation of gravity on such a space. Using the covariant coordinate technique, we build a gauge invariant action in which, according to the Seiberg-Witten map, the physical degrees of freedom are expressed in terms of their commutative counterparts up to the first order in noncommutative parameters.

Einstein's Elevator in Class: A Self-Construction by Students for the Study of the Equival

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kapotis, Efstratios; Kalkanis, George

2016-01-01

According to the principle of equivalence, it is impossible to distinguish between gravity and inertial forces that a noninertial observer experiences in his own frame of reference. For example, let's consider an elevator in space that is being accelerated in one direction. An observer inside it would feel as if there was gravity force pulling him…

Positivity of Curvature-Squared Corrections in Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheung, Clifford; Remmen, Grant N.

2017-02-01

We study the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) term as the leading higher-curvature correction to pure Einstein gravity. Assuming a tree-level ultraviolet completion free of ghosts or tachyons, we prove that the GB term has a nonnegative coefficient in dimensions greater than 4. Our result follows from unitarity of the spectral representation for a general ultraviolet completion of the GB term.

Thought-Experiments about Gravity in the History of Science and in Research into Children's Thinking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blown, E. J.; Bryce, T. G. K.

2013-01-01

This article examines the main strands of thinking about gravity through the ages and the continuity of thought-experiments, from the early Greeks, through medieval times, to Galileo, Newton and Einstein. The key ideas are used to contextualise an empirical study of 247 children's ideas about falling objects carried out in China and New Zealand,…

New and Topologically Massive Gravity, from the Outside In

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cunliff, Colin

This thesis examines the asymptotically anti-de Sitter solutions of higher-derivative gravity in 2+1 dimensions, using a Fefferman-Graham-like approach that expands solutions from the boundary (at infinity) into the interior. First, solutions of topologically massive gravity (TMG) are analyzed for values of the mass parameter in the range mu ≥ 1. The traditional Fefferman-Graham expansion fails to capture the dynamics of TMG, and new terms in the asymptotic expansion are needed to include the massive graviton modes. The linearized modes of Carlip, Deser, Waldron and Wise map onto the non-Einstein solutions for all μ, with nonlinear corrections appearing at higher order in the expansion. A similar result is found for new massive gravity (NMG), where the asymptotic behavior of massive gravitons is found to depend on the coupling parameter m2. Additionally, new boundary conditions are discovered for a range of values -1 < 2m2 l2 < 1 at which non-Einstein modes decay more slowly than the rate required for Brown-Henneaux boundary conditions. The holographically renormalized stress tensor is computed for these modes, and the relevant counterterms are identified up to unphysical ambiguities.

Gravitomagnetism: From Einstein's 1912 Paper to the Satellites LAGEOS and Gravity Probe B

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pfister, Herbert

The first concrete calculations of (linear) gravitomagnetic effects were performed by Einstein in 1912-1913. Einstein also directly and decisively contributed to the "famous" papers by Thirring (and Lense) from 1918. Generalizations to strong fields were performed not earlier than in 1966 by Brill and Cohen. Extensions to higher orders of the angular velocity ω by Pfister and Braun (1985-1989) led to a solution of the centrifugal force problem and to a quasiglobal principle of equivalence. The difficulties but also the recent successes to measure gravitomagnetic effects are reviewed, and cosmological and Machian aspects of gravitomagnetism are discussed.

Charged black holes in quartic quasi-topological gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghanaatian, M.; Naeimipour, F.; Bazrafshan, A.; Abkar, M.

2018-05-01

In this paper, we construct exact solutions of charged black holes in the presence of quartic quasi-topological gravity. We obtain thermodynamics and conserved quantities of the solutions and check the first law of thermodynamics. In studying the physical properties of the solutions, we consider anti-de Sitter, de Sitter, and flat solutions of charged black holes in quartic quasi-topological gravity and compare them with Einstein and third-order quasi-topological gravities. We also investigate the thermal stability of the solutions and show that thermal stability is just for anti-de Sitter solutions, not for de Sitter and flat ones.

Gravity, antigravity and gravitational shielding in (2+1) dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Accioly, Antonio; Helayël-Neto, José; Lobo, Matheus

2009-07-01

Higher-derivative terms are introduced into three-dimensional gravity, thereby allowing for a dynamical theory. The resulting system, viewed as a classical field model, is endowed with a novel and peculiar feature: its nonrelativistic potential describes three gravitational regimes. Depending on the choice of the parameters in the action functional, one obtains gravity, antigravity or gravitational shielding. Interesting enough, this potential is very similar, mutatis mutandis, to the potential for the interaction of two superconducting vortices. Furthermore, the gravitational deflection angle of a light ray, unlike that of Einstein gravity in (2+1) dimensions, is dependent on the impact parameter.

Bianchi type-I magnetized cosmological models for the Einstein-Boltzmann equation with the cosmological constant

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ayissi, Raoul Domingo, E-mail: raoulayissi@yahoo.fr; Noutchegueme, Norbert, E-mail: nnoutch@yahoo.fr

Global solutions regular for the Einstein-Boltzmann equation on a magnetized Bianchi type-I cosmological model with the cosmological constant are investigated. We suppose that the metric is locally rotationally symmetric. The Einstein-Boltzmann equation has been already considered by some authors. But, in general Bancel and Choquet-Bruhat [Ann. Henri Poincaré XVIII(3), 263 (1973); Commun. Math. Phys. 33, 83 (1973)], they proved only the local existence, and in the case of the nonrelativistic Boltzmann equation. Mucha [Global existence of solutions of the Einstein-Boltzmann equation in the spatially homogeneous case. Evolution equation, existence, regularity and singularities (Banach Center Publications, Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academymore » of Science, 2000), Vol. 52] obtained a global existence result, for the relativistic Boltzmann equation coupled with the Einstein equations and using the Yosida operator, but confusing unfortunately with the nonrelativistic case. Noutchegueme and Dongho [Classical Quantum Gravity 23, 2979 (2006)] and Noutchegueme, Dongho, and Takou [Gen. Relativ. Gravitation 37, 2047 (2005)], have obtained a global solution in time, but still using the Yosida operator and considering only the uncharged case. Noutchegueme and Ayissi [Adv. Stud. Theor. Phys. 4, 855 (2010)] also proved a global existence of solutions to the Maxwell-Boltzmann system using the characteristic method. In this paper, we obtain using a method totally different from those used in the works of Noutchegueme and Dongho [Classical Quantum Gravity 23, 2979 (2006)], Noutchegueme, Dongho, and Takou [Gen. Relativ. Gravitation 37, 2047 (2005)], Noutchegueme and Ayissi [Adv. Stud. Theor. Phys. 4, 855 (2010)], and Mucha [Global existence of solutions of the Einstein-Boltzmann equation in the spatially homogeneous case. Evolution equation, existence, regularity and singularities (Banach Center Publications, Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Science, 2000), Vol. 52] the global in time existence and uniqueness of a regular solution to the Einstein-Maxwell-Boltzmann system with the cosmological constant. We define and we use the weighted Sobolev separable spaces for the Boltzmann equation; some special spaces for the Einstein equations, then we clearly display all the proofs leading to the global existence theorems.« less

Bianchi type-I magnetized cosmological models for the Einstein-Boltzmann equation with the cosmological constant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ayissi, Raoul Domingo; Noutchegueme, Norbert

2015-01-01

Global solutions regular for the Einstein-Boltzmann equation on a magnetized Bianchi type-I cosmological model with the cosmological constant are investigated. We suppose that the metric is locally rotationally symmetric. The Einstein-Boltzmann equation has been already considered by some authors. But, in general Bancel and Choquet-Bruhat [Ann. Henri Poincaré XVIII(3), 263 (1973); Commun. Math. Phys. 33, 83 (1973)], they proved only the local existence, and in the case of the nonrelativistic Boltzmann equation. Mucha [Global existence of solutions of the Einstein-Boltzmann equation in the spatially homogeneous case. Evolution equation, existence, regularity and singularities (Banach Center Publications, Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Science, 2000), Vol. 52] obtained a global existence result, for the relativistic Boltzmann equation coupled with the Einstein equations and using the Yosida operator, but confusing unfortunately with the nonrelativistic case. Noutchegueme and Dongho [Classical Quantum Gravity 23, 2979 (2006)] and Noutchegueme, Dongho, and Takou [Gen. Relativ. Gravitation 37, 2047 (2005)], have obtained a global solution in time, but still using the Yosida operator and considering only the uncharged case. Noutchegueme and Ayissi [Adv. Stud. Theor. Phys. 4, 855 (2010)] also proved a global existence of solutions to the Maxwell-Boltzmann system using the characteristic method. In this paper, we obtain using a method totally different from those used in the works of Noutchegueme and Dongho [Classical Quantum Gravity 23, 2979 (2006)], Noutchegueme, Dongho, and Takou [Gen. Relativ. Gravitation 37, 2047 (2005)], Noutchegueme and Ayissi [Adv. Stud. Theor. Phys. 4, 855 (2010)], and Mucha [Global existence of solutions of the Einstein-Boltzmann equation in the spatially homogeneous case. Evolution equation, existence, regularity and singularities (Banach Center Publications, Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Science, 2000), Vol. 52] the global in time existence and uniqueness of a regular solution to the Einstein-Maxwell-Boltzmann system with the cosmological constant. We define and we use the weighted Sobolev separable spaces for the Boltzmann equation; some special spaces for the Einstein equations, then we clearly display all the proofs leading to the global existence theorems.

Attractor cosmology from nonminimally coupled gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Odintsov, S. D.; Oikonomou, V. K.

2018-03-01

By using a bottom-up reconstruction technique for nonminimally coupled scalar-tensor theories, we realize the Einstein frame attractor cosmologies in the Ω (ϕ )-Jordan frame. For our approach, what is needed for the reconstruction method to work is the functional form of the nonminimal coupling Ω (ϕ ) and of the scalar-to-tensor ratio, and also the assumption of the slow-roll inflation in the Ω (ϕ )-Jordan frame. By appropriately choosing the scalar-to-tensor ratio, we demonstrate that the observational indices of the attractor cosmologies can be realized directly in the Ω (ϕ )-Jordan frame. We investigate the special conditions that are required to hold true in for this realization to occur, and we provide the analytic form of the potential in the Ω (ϕ )-Jordan frame. Also, by performing a conformal transformation, we find the corresponding Einstein frame canonical scalar-tensor theory, and we calculate in detail the corresponding observational indices. The result indicates that although the spectral index of the primordial curvature perturbations is the same in the Jordan and Einstein frames, at leading order in the e -foldings number, the scalar-to-tensor ratio differs. We discuss the possible reasons behind this discrepancy, and we argue that the difference is due to some approximation we performed to the functional form of the potential in the Einstein frame, in order to obtain analytical results, and also due to the difference in the definition of the e -foldings number in the two frames, which is also pointed out in the related literature. Finally, we find the F (R ) gravity corresponding to the Einstein frame canonical scalar-tensor theory.

Constraining torsion with Gravity Probe B

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mao Yi; Guth, Alan H.; Cabi, Serkan

2007-11-15

It is well-entrenched folklore that all torsion gravity theories predict observationally negligible torsion in the solar system, since torsion (if it exists) couples only to the intrinsic spin of elementary particles, not to rotational angular momentum. We argue that this assumption has a logical loophole which can and should be tested experimentally, and consider nonstandard torsion theories in which torsion can be generated by macroscopic rotating objects. In the spirit of action=reaction, if a rotating mass like a planet can generate torsion, then a gyroscope would be expected to feel torsion. An experiment with a gyroscope (without nuclear spin) suchmore » as Gravity Probe B (GPB) can test theories where this is the case. Using symmetry arguments, we show that to lowest order, any torsion field around a uniformly rotating spherical mass is determined by seven dimensionless parameters. These parameters effectively generalize the parametrized post-Newtonian formalism and provide a concrete framework for further testing Einstein's general theory of relativity (GR). We construct a parametrized Lagrangian that includes both standard torsion-free GR and Hayashi-Shirafuji maximal torsion gravity as special cases. We demonstrate that classic solar system tests rule out the latter and constrain two observable parameters. We show that Gravity Probe B is an ideal experiment for further constraining nonstandard torsion theories, and work out the most general torsion-induced precession of its gyroscope in terms of our torsion parameters.« less

Journeys through antigravity?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carrasco, John Joseph M.; Chemissany, Wissam; Kallosh, Renata

2014-01-01

A possibility of journeys through antigravity has recently been proposed, with the suggestion that Weyl-invariant extension of scalars coupled to Einstein gravity allows for an unambiguous classical evolution through cosmological singularities in anisotropic spacetimes. We compute the Weyl invariant curvature squared and find that it blows up for the proposed anisotropic solution both at the Big Crunch as well as at the Big Bang. Therefore the cosmological singularities are not resolved by uplifting Einstein theory to a Weyl invariant model.

New variables for classical and quantum gravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ashtekar, Abhay

1986-01-01

A Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity based on certain spinorial variables is introduced. These variables simplify the constraints of general relativity considerably and enable one to imbed the constraint surface in the phase space of Einstein's theory into that of Yang-Mills theory. The imbedding suggests new ways of attacking a number of problems in both classical and quantum gravity. Some illustrative applications are discussed.

The interaction of Dirac particles with non-abelian gauge fields and gravity - bound states

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finster, Felix; Smoller, Joel; Yau, Shing-Tung

2000-09-01

We consider a spherically symmetric, static system of a Dirac particle interacting with classical gravity and an SU(2) Yang-Mills field. The corresponding Einstein-Dirac-Yang-Mills equations are derived. Using numerical methods, we find different types of soliton-like solutions of these equations and discuss their properties. Some of these solutions are stable even for arbitrarily weak gravitational coupling.

Extreme gravity tests with gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences: (I) inspiral-merger

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berti, Emanuele; Yagi, Kent; Yunes, Nicolás

2018-04-01

The observation of the inspiral and merger of compact binaries by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration ushered in a new era in the study of strong-field gravity. We review current and future tests of strong gravity and of the Kerr paradigm with gravitational-wave interferometers, both within a theory-agnostic framework (the parametrized post-Einsteinian formalism) and in the context of specific modified theories of gravity (scalar-tensor, Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet, dynamical Chern-Simons, Lorentz-violating, and extra dimensional theories). In this contribution we focus on (i) the information carried by the inspiral radiation, and (ii) recent progress in numerical simulations of compact binary mergers in modified gravity.

Nonlinear Dynamics of Multi-Component Bose-Einstein Condensates ---Anti-Gravity Transport and Vortex Chaos---

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakamura, K.

Bose-Einstein condensate(BEC) provides a nice stage when the nonlinearSchrödinger equation plays a vital role. We study the dynamics of multi-component repulsive BEC in 2 dimensions with harmonic traps by using the nonlinear Schrödinger (or Gross-Pitaevskii) equation. Firstly we consider a driven two-component BEC with each component trapped in different vertical positions. The appropriate tuning of the oscillation frequency of the magnetic field leads to a striking anti-gravity transport of BEC. This phenomenon is a manifestation of macroscopic non-adiabatic tunneling in a system with two internal(electronic) degrees of freedom. The dynamics splits into a fast complex spatio-temporal oscillation of each condensate wavefunctions together with a slow levitation of the total center of mass. Secondly, we examine the three-component repulsive BEC in 2 dimensions in a harmonic trap in the absence of magnetic field, and construct a model of conservative chaos based on a picture of vortex molecules. We obtain an effective nonlinear dynamics for three vortex cores, which represents three charged particles under the uniform magnetic field with the repulsive inter-particle potential quadratic in the inter-vortex distance r_{ij} on short scale and logarithmic in r_{ij} on large scale. The vortices here acquire the inertia in marked contrast to the standard theory of point vortices since Onsager. We then explore ``the chaos in the three-body problem" in the context of vortices with inertia.

Complex Teichmüller Space below the Planck Length for the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winterberg, Friedwardt

2014-03-01

As Newton's mysterious action at a distance law of gravity was explained as a Riemannian geometry by Einstein, it is proposed that the likewise mysterious non-local quantum mechanics is explained by the analytic continuation below the Planck length into a complex Teichmüller space. Newton's theory worked extremely well, as does quantum mechanics, but no satisfactory explanation has been given for quantum mechanics. In one space dimension, sufficient to explain the EPR paradox, the Teichmüller space is reduced to a space of complex Riemann surfaces. Einstein's curved space-time theory of gravity was confirmed by a tiny departure from Newton's theory in the motion of the planet Mercury, and an experiment is proposed to demonstrate the possible existence of a Teichmüller space below the Planck length.

A restricted proof that the weak equivalence principle implies the Einstein equivalence principle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lightman, A. P.; Lee, D. L.

1973-01-01

Schiff has conjectured that the weak equivalence principle (WEP) implies the Einstein equivalence principle (EEP). A proof is presented of Schiff's conjecture, restricted to: (1) test bodies made of electromagnetically interacting point particles, that fall from rest in a static, spherically symmetric gravitational field; (2) theories of gravity within a certain broad class - a class that includes almost all complete relativistic theories that have been found in the literature, but with each theory truncated to contain only point particles plus electromagnetic and gravitational fields. The proof shows that every nonmentric theory in the class (every theory that violates EEP) must violate WEP. A formula is derived for the magnitude of the violation. It is shown that WEP is a powerful theoretical and experimental tool for constraining the manner in which gravity couples to electromagnetism in gravitation theories.

Binary neutron star mergers: a review of Einstein's richest laboratory.

PubMed

Baiotti, Luca; Rezzolla, Luciano

2017-09-01

In a single process, the merger of binary neutron star systems combines extreme gravity, the copious emission of gravitational waves, complex microphysics and electromagnetic processes, which can lead to astrophysical signatures observable at the largest redshifts. We review here the recent progress in understanding what could be considered Einstein's richest laboratory, highlighting in particular the numerous significant advances of the last decade. Although special attention is paid to the status of models, techniques and results for fully general-relativistic dynamical simulations, a review is also offered on the initial data and advanced simulations with approximate treatments of gravity. Finally, we review the considerable amount of work carried out on the post-merger phase, including black-hole formation, torus accretion onto the merged compact object, the connection with gamma-ray burst engines, ejected material, and its nucleosynthesis.

Holographic butterfly velocities in brane geometry and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with matters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Wung-Hong

2018-03-01

In the first part of the paper we generalize the butterfly velocity formula to anisotropic spacetime. We apply the formula to evaluate the butterfly velocities in M-branes, D-branes, and strings backgrounds. We show that the butterfly velocities in M2-branes, M5-branes and the intersection M 2 ⊥ M 5 equal to those in fundamental strings, D4-branes and the intersection F 1 ⊥ D 4 backgrounds, respectively. These observations lead us to conjecture that the butterfly velocity is generally invariant under a double-dimensional reduction. In the second part of the paper, we study the butterfly velocity for Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with arbitrary matter fields. A general formula is obtained. We use this formula to compute the butterfly velocities in different backgrounds and discuss the associated properties.

Vacuum energy in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet anti-de Sitter gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kofinas, Georgios; Olea, Rodrigo

2006-10-15

A finite action principle for Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet anti-de Sitter gravity is achieved by supplementing the bulk Lagrangian by a suitable boundary term, whose form substantially differs in odd and even dimensions. For even dimensions, this term is given by the boundary contribution in the Euler theorem with a coupling constant fixed, demanding the spacetime to have constant (negative) curvature in the asymptotic region. For odd dimensions, the action is stationary under a boundary condition on the variation of the extrinsic curvature. A well-posed variational principle leads to an appropriate definition of energy and other conserved quantities using the Noether theorem, andmore » to a correct description of black hole thermodynamics. In particular, this procedure assigns a nonzero energy to anti-de Sitter spacetime in all odd dimensions.« less

Do massive compact objects without event horizon exist in infinite derivative gravity?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koshelev, Alexey S.; Mazumdar, Anupam

2017-10-01

Einstein's general theory of relativity is plagued by cosmological and black-hole type singularities Recently, it has been shown that infinite derivative, ghost free, gravity can yield nonsingular cosmological and mini-black hole solutions. In particular, the theory possesses a mass-gap determined by the scale of new physics. This paper provides a plausible argument, not a no-go theorem, based on the Area-law of gravitational entropy that within infinite derivative, ghost free, gravity nonsingular compact objects in the static limit need not have horizons.

Twofold symmetries of the pure gravity action

DOE PAGES

Cheung, Clifford; Remmen, Grant N.

2017-01-25

Here, we recast the action of pure gravity into a form that is invariant under a twofold Lorentz symmetry. To derive this representation, we construct a general parameterization of all theories equivalent to the Einstein-Hilbert action up to a local field redefinition and gauge fixing. We then exploit this freedom to eliminate all interactions except those exhibiting two sets of independently contracted Lorentz indices. The resulting action is local, remarkably simple, and naturally expressed in a field basis analogous to the exponential parameterization of the nonlinear sigma model. The space of twofold Lorentz invariant field redefinitions then generates an infinitemore » class of equivalent representations. By construction, all off-shell Feynman diagrams are twofold Lorentz invariant while all on-shell tree amplitudes are automatically twofold gauge invariant. We extend our results to curved spacetime and calculate the analogue of the Einstein equations. Finally, while these twofold invariances are hidden in the canonical approach of graviton perturbation theory, they are naturally expected given the double copy relations for scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and gravity.« less

Twofold symmetries of the pure gravity action

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cheung, Clifford; Remmen, Grant N.

Here, we recast the action of pure gravity into a form that is invariant under a twofold Lorentz symmetry. To derive this representation, we construct a general parameterization of all theories equivalent to the Einstein-Hilbert action up to a local field redefinition and gauge fixing. We then exploit this freedom to eliminate all interactions except those exhibiting two sets of independently contracted Lorentz indices. The resulting action is local, remarkably simple, and naturally expressed in a field basis analogous to the exponential parameterization of the nonlinear sigma model. The space of twofold Lorentz invariant field redefinitions then generates an infinitemore » class of equivalent representations. By construction, all off-shell Feynman diagrams are twofold Lorentz invariant while all on-shell tree amplitudes are automatically twofold gauge invariant. We extend our results to curved spacetime and calculate the analogue of the Einstein equations. Finally, while these twofold invariances are hidden in the canonical approach of graviton perturbation theory, they are naturally expected given the double copy relations for scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and gravity.« less

Conserved charges of black holes in Weyl and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Jun-Jin

2014-11-01

An off-shell generalization of the Abbott-Deser-Tekin (ADT) conserved charge was recently proposed by Kim et al. They achieved this by introducing off-shell Noether currents and potentials. In this paper, we construct the crucial off-shell Noether current by the variation of the Bianchi identity for the expression of EOM, with the help of the property of Killing vector. Our Noether current, which contains an additional term that is just one half of the Lie derivative of a surface term with respect to the Killing vector, takes a different form in comparison with the one in their work. Then we employ the generalized formulation to calculate the quasi-local conserved charges for the most general charged spherically symmetric and the dyonic rotating black holes with AdS asymptotics in four-dimensional conformal Weyl gravity, as well as the charged spherically symmetric black holes in arbitrary dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity coupled to Maxwell or nonlinear electrodynamics in AdS spacetime. Our results confirm those obtained through other methods in the literature.

Spacetime from Entanglement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swingle, Brian

2018-03-01

This is an idiosyncratic colloquium-style review of the idea that spacetime and gravity can emerge from entanglement. Drawing inspiration from the conjectured duality between quantum gravity in anti de Sitter space and certain conformal field theories, we argue that tensor networks can be used to define a discrete geometry that encodes entanglement geometrically. With the additional assumption that a continuum limit can be taken, the resulting geometry necessarily obeys Einstein's equations. The discussion takes the point of view that the emergence of spacetime and gravity is a mysterious phenomenon of quantum many-body physics that we would like to understand. We also briefly discuss possible experiments to detect emergent gravity in highly entangled quantum systems.

Gauge-gravity duality and the black hole interior.

PubMed

Marolf, Donald; Polchinski, Joseph

2013-10-25

We present a further argument that typical black holes with field theory duals have firewalls at the horizon. This argument makes no reference to entanglement between the black hole and any distant system, and so is not evaded by identifying degrees of freedom inside the black hole with those outside. We also address the Einstein-Rosen=Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen conjecture of Maldacena and Susskind, arguing that the correlations in generic highly entangled states cannot be geometrized as a smooth wormhole.

Casimir effect in the rainbow Einstein's universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bezerra, V. B.; Mota, H. F.; Muniz, C. R.

2017-10-01

In the present paper we investigate the effects caused by the modification of the dispersion relation obtained by solving the Klein-Gordon equation in the closed Einstein's universe in the context of rainbow's gravity models. Thus, we analyse how the quantum vacuum fluctuations of the scalar field are modified when compared with the results obtained in the usual General Relativity scenario. The regularization, and consequently the renormalization, of the vacuum energy is performed adopting the Epstein-Hurwitz and Riemann's zeta functions.

Violating the Weak Cosmic Censorship Conjecture in Four-Dimensional Anti-de Sitter Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crisford, Toby; Santos, Jorge E.

2017-05-01

We consider time-dependent solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell equations using anti-de Sitter (AdS) boundary conditions, and provide the first counterexample to the weak cosmic censorship conjecture in four spacetime dimensions. Our counterexample is entirely formulated in the Poincaré patch of AdS. We claim that our results have important consequences for quantum gravity, most notably to the weak gravity conjecture.

Violating the Weak Cosmic Censorship Conjecture in Four-Dimensional Anti-de Sitter Space.

PubMed

Crisford, Toby; Santos, Jorge E

2017-05-05

We consider time-dependent solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell equations using anti-de Sitter (AdS) boundary conditions, and provide the first counterexample to the weak cosmic censorship conjecture in four spacetime dimensions. Our counterexample is entirely formulated in the Poincaré patch of AdS. We claim that our results have important consequences for quantum gravity, most notably to the weak gravity conjecture.

General Relativity without paradigm of space-time covariance, and resolution of the problem of time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soo, Chopin; Yu, Hoi-Lai

2014-01-01

The framework of a theory of gravity from the quantum to the classical regime is presented. The paradigm shift from full space-time covariance to spatial diffeomorphism invariance, together with clean decomposition of the canonical structure, yield transparent physical dynamics and a resolution of the problem of time. The deep divide between quantum mechanics and conventional canonical formulations of quantum gravity is overcome with a Schrödinger equation for quantum geometrodynamics that describes evolution in intrinsic time. Unitary time development with gauge-invariant temporal ordering is also viable. All Kuchar observables become physical; and classical space-time, with direct correlation between its proper times and intrinsic time intervals, emerges from constructive interference. The framework not only yields a physical Hamiltonian for Einstein's theory, but also prompts natural extensions and improvements towards a well behaved quantum theory of gravity. It is a consistent canonical scheme to discuss Horava-Lifshitz theories with intrinsic time evolution, and of the many possible alternatives that respect 3-covariance (rather than the more restrictive 4-covariance of Einstein's theory), Horava's "detailed balance" form of the Hamiltonian constraint is essentially pinned down by this framework. Issues in quantum gravity that depend on radiative corrections and the rigorous definition and regularization of the Hamiltonian operator are not addressed in this work.

A parametrisation of modified gravity on nonlinear cosmological scales

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lombriser, Lucas, E-mail: llo@roe.ac.uk

2016-11-01

Viable modifications of gravity on cosmological scales predominantly rely on screening mechanisms to recover Einstein's Theory of General Relativity in the Solar System, where it has been well tested. A parametrisation of the effects of such modifications in the spherical collapse model is presented here for the use of modelling the modified nonlinear cosmological structure. The formalism allows an embedding of the different screening mechanisms operating in scalar-tensor theories through large values of the gravitational potential or its first or second derivatives as well as of linear suppression effects or more general transitions between modified and Einstein gravity limits. Eachmore » screening or suppression mechanism is parametrised by a time, mass, and environment dependent screening scale, an effective modified gravitational coupling in the fully unscreened limit that can be matched to linear theory, the exponent of a power-law radial profile of the screened coupling, determined by derivatives, symmetries, and potentials in the scalar field equation, and an interpolation rate between the screened and unscreened limits. Along with generalised perturbative methods, the parametrisation may be used to formulate a nonlinear extension to the linear parametrised post-Friedmannian framework to enable generalised tests of gravity with the wealth of observations from the nonlinear cosmological regime.« less

Quantum singularities in (2+1) dimensional matter coupled black hole spacetimes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Unver, O.; Gurtug, O.

2010-10-15

Quantum singularities considered in the 3D Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) spacetime by Pitelli and Letelier [Phys. Rev. D 77, 124030 (2008)] is extended to charged BTZ and 3D Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity spacetimes. The occurrence of naked singularities in the Einstein-Maxwell extension of the BTZ spacetime both in linear and nonlinear electrodynamics as well as in the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity spacetimes are analyzed with the quantum test fields obeying the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations. We show that with the inclusion of the matter fields, the conical geometry near r=0 is removed and restricted classes of solutions are admitted for the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations. Hence,more » the classical central singularity at r=0 turns out to be quantum mechanically singular for quantum particles obeying the Klein-Gordon equation but nonsingular for fermions obeying the Dirac equation. Explicit calculations reveal that the occurrence of the timelike naked singularities in the considered spacetimes does not violate the cosmic censorship hypothesis as far as the Dirac fields are concerned. The role of horizons that clothes the singularity in the black hole cases is replaced by repulsive potential barrier against the propagation of Dirac fields.« less

Immirzi parameter without Immirzi ambiguity: Conformal loop quantization of scalar-tensor gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veraguth, Olivier J.; Wang, Charles H.-T.

2017-10-01

Conformal loop quantum gravity provides an approach to loop quantization through an underlying conformal structure i.e. conformally equivalent class of metrics. The property that general relativity itself has no conformal invariance is reinstated with a constrained scalar field setting the physical scale. Conformally equivalent metrics have recently been shown to be amenable to loop quantization including matter coupling. It has been suggested that conformal geometry may provide an extended symmetry to allow a reformulated Immirzi parameter necessary for loop quantization to behave like an arbitrary group parameter that requires no further fixing as its present standard form does. Here, we find that this can be naturally realized via conformal frame transformations in scalar-tensor gravity. Such a theory generally incorporates a dynamical scalar gravitational field and reduces to general relativity when the scalar field becomes a pure gauge. In particular, we introduce a conformal Einstein frame in which loop quantization is implemented. We then discuss how different Immirzi parameters under this description may be related by conformal frame transformations and yet share the same quantization having, for example, the same area gaps, modulated by the scalar gravitational field.

Constraining models of f(R) gravity with Planck and WiggleZ power spectrum data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dossett, Jason; Hu, Bin; Parkinson, David

2014-03-01

In order to explain cosmic acceleration without invoking ``dark'' physics, we consider f(R) modified gravity models, which replace the standard Einstein-Hilbert action in General Relativity with a higher derivative theory. We use data from the WiggleZ Dark Energy survey to probe the formation of structure on large scales which can place tight constraints on these models. We combine the large-scale structure data with measurements of the cosmic microwave background from the Planck surveyor. After parameterizing the modification of the action using the Compton wavelength parameter B0, we constrain this parameter using ISiTGR, assuming an initial non-informative log prior probability distribution of this cross-over scale. We find that the addition of the WiggleZ power spectrum provides the tightest constraints to date on B0 by an order of magnitude, giving log10(B0) < -4.07 at 95% confidence limit. Finally, we test whether the effect of adding the lensing amplitude ALens and the sum of the neutrino mass ∑mν is able to reconcile current tensions present in these parameters, but find f(R) gravity an inadequate explanation.

Static solutions in Einstein-Chern-Simons gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Crisóstomo, J.; Gomez, F.; Mella, P.

In this paper we study static solutions with more general symmetries than the spherical symmetry of the five-dimensional Einstein-Chern-Simons gravity. In this context, we study the coupling of the extra bosonic field h{sup a} with ordinary matter which is quantified by the introduction of an energy-momentum tensor field associated with h{sup a}. It is found that exist (i) a negative tangential pressure zone around low-mass distributions (μ < μ{sub 1}) when the coupling constant α is greater than zero; (ii) a maximum in the tangential pressure, which can be observed in the outer region of a field distribution that satisfiesmore » μ < μ{sub 2}; (iii) solutions that behave like those obtained from models with negative cosmological constant. In such a situation, the field h{sup a} plays the role of a cosmological constant.« less

Gravity Probe B: Testing Einstein with Gyroscopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Geveden, Rex D.; May, Todd

2003-01-01

Some 40 years in the making, NASA' s historic Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission is scheduled to launch aboard a Delta II in 2003. GP-B will test two extraordinary predictions from Einstein's General Relativity: geodetic precession and the Lense-Thirring effect (frame-dragging). Employing tiny, ultra-precise gyroscopes, GP-B features a measurement accuracy of 0.5 milli-arc-seconds per year. The extraordinary measurement precision is made possible by a host of breakthrough technologies, including electro-statically suspended, super-conducting quartz gyroscopes; virtual elimination of magnetic flux; a solid quartz star tracking telescope; helium microthrusters for drag-free control of the spacecraft; and a 2400 liter superfluid helium dewar. This paper will provide an overview of the science, key technologies, flight hardware, integration and test, and flight operations of the GP-B space vehicle. It will also examine some of the technical management challenges of a large-scale, technology-driven, Principal Investigator-led mission.

Gravity Probe B: Testing Einstein with Gyroscopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Geveden, Rex D.; May, Todd

2003-01-01

Some 40 years in the making, NASA s historic Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission is scheduled to launch aboard a Delta I1 in 2003. GP-B will test two extraordinary predictions from Einstein s General Relativity: geodetic precession and the Lense-Thirring effect (frame-dragging). Employing tiny, ultra-precise gyroscopes, GP-B features a measurement accuracy of 0.5 milli-arc-seconds per year. The extraordinary measurement precision is made possible by a host of breakthrough technologies, including electro-statically suspended, super-conducting quartz gyroscopes; virtual elimination of magnetic flux; a solid quartz star- tracking telescope; helium microthrusters for drag-free control of the spacecraft; and a 2400 liter superfluid helium dewar. This paper will provide an overview of the science, key technologies, flight hardware, integration and test, and flight operations of the GP-B space vehicle. It will also examine some of the technical management challenges of a large-scale, technology-driven, Principal Investigator-led mission.

Dark matter influence on black objects thermodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogatko, Marek; Wojnar, Aneta

2018-05-01

Physical process version of the first law of black hole thermodynamics in Einstein-Maxwell dark matter gravity was derived. The dark matter sector is mimicked by the additional U(1)-gauge field coupled to the ordinary Maxwell one. By considering any cross section of the black hole event horizon to the future of the bifurcation surface, the equilibrium state version of the first law of black hole mechanics was achieved. The considerations were generalized to the case of Einstein-Yang-Mills dark matter gravity theory. The main conclusion is that the influence of dark matter is crucial in the formation process of black objects. This fact may constitute the explanation of the recent observations of the enormous mass of the super luminous quasars formed in a relatively short time after Big Bang. We also pay attention to the compact binaries thermodynamics, when dark matter sector enters the game.

Iron line spectroscopy with Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet black holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nampalliwar, Sourabh; Bambi, Cosimo; Kokkotas, Kostas D.; Konoplya, Roman A.

2018-06-01

Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet gravity is a well-motivated alternative theory of gravity that emerges naturally from string theory. While black hole solutions have been known in this theory in numerical form for a while, an approximate analytical metric was obtained recently by some of us, which allows for faster and more detailed analysis. Here we test the accuracy of the analytical metric in the context of X-ray reflection spectroscopy. We analyze innermost stable circular orbits (ISCO) and relativistically broadened iron lines and find that both the ISCO and iron lines are determined sufficiently accurately up to the limit of the approximation. We also find that, though the ISCO increases by about 7% as dilaton coupling increases from zero to extremal values, the redshift at ISCO changes by less than 1%. Consequently, the shape of the iron line is much less sensitive to the dilaton charge than expected.

Constraining the noncommutative spectral action via astrophysical observations.

PubMed

Nelson, William; Ochoa, Joseph; Sakellariadou, Mairi

2010-09-03

The noncommutative spectral action extends our familiar notion of commutative spaces, using the data encoded in a spectral triple on an almost commutative space. Varying a rather simple action, one can derive all of the standard model of particle physics in this setting, in addition to a modified version of Einstein-Hilbert gravity. In this Letter we use observations of pulsar timings, assuming that no deviation from general relativity has been observed, to constrain the gravitational sector of this theory. While the bounds on the coupling constants remain rather weak, they are comparable to existing bounds on deviations from general relativity in other settings and are likely to be further constrained by future observations.

Excavating black hole continuum spectrum: Possible signatures of scalar hairs and of higher dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banerjee, Indrani; Chakraborty, Sumanta; SenGupta, Soumitra

2017-10-01

Continuum spectrum from black hole accretion disc holds enormous information regarding the strong gravity regime around the black hole and hence about the nature of gravitational interaction in extreme situations. Since in such strong gravity regime the dynamics of gravity should be modified from the Einstein-Hilbert one, its effect should be imprinted on the continuum spectrum originating from the black hole accretion. To explore the effects of these alternative theories on the black hole continuum spectrum in an explicit manner, we have discussed three alternative gravitational models having their origin in three distinct paradigms—(a) higher dimensions, (b) higher curvature gravity, and (c) generalized Horndeski theories. All of them can have signatures sculptured on the black hole continuum spectrum, distinct from the standard general relativistic scenario. Interestingly all these models exhibit black hole solutions with tidal charge parameter which in these alternative gravity scenarios can become negative, in sharp contrast with the Reissner-Nordström black hole. Using the observational data of optical luminosity for eighty Palomer Green quasars we have illustrated that the difference between the theoretical estimates and the observational results gets minimized for negative values of the tidal charge parameter. As a quantitative estimate of this result we concentrate on several error estimators, including reduced χ2 , Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency, index of agreement etc. Remarkably, all of them indicates a negative value of the tidal charge parameter, signaling the possibility of higher dimensions as well as scalar charge at play in those high gravity regimes.

Quantum spreading of a self-gravitating wave-packet in singularity free gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buoninfante, Luca; Lambiase, Gaetano; Mazumdar, Anupam

2018-01-01

In this paper we will study for the first time how the wave-packet of a self-gravitating meso-scopic system spreads in theories beyond Einstein's general relativity. In particular, we will consider a ghost-free infinite derivative gravity, which resolves the 1 / r singularity in the potential - such that the gradient of the potential vanishes within the scale of non-locality. We will show that a quantum wave-packet spreads faster for a ghost-free and singularity-free gravity as compared to the Newtonian case, therefore providing us a unique scenario for testing classical and quantum properties of short-distance gravity in a laboratory in the near future.

Looking for empty topological wormhole spacetimes in F(R)-modified gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Di Criscienzo, R.; Myrzakulov, R.; Sebastiani, L.

2013-12-01

Much attention has been recently devoted to modified theories of gravity, the simplest models of which overcome General Relativity simply by replacing R with F(R) in the Einstein-Hilbert action. Unfortunately, such models typically lack most of the beautiful solutions discovered in Einstein’s gravity. Nonetheless, in F(R) gravity, it has been possible to get at least few black holes, but still we do not know any empty wormhole-like spacetime solution. This paper aims to explain why it is so hard to get such solutions (given that they exist!). Few solutions are derived in the simplest cases, while only an implicit form has been obtained in the non-trivial case.

Probing Modified Gravity with Double Pulsars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deng, Xue-Mei; Xie, Yi; Huang, Tian-Yi

2015-01-01

Although Einstein's general relativity has passed all the tests so far, alternative theories are still required for deeper understanding of the nature of gravity. Double pulsars provide us a significant opportunity to test them. In order to probe some modified gravities which try to explain some astrophysical phenomena without dark matter, we use periastron advance dot ω of four binary pulsars (PSR B1913+16, PSR B1534+12, PSR J0737-3039 and PSR B2127+11C) to constrain their Yukawa parameters: λ = (3.97 ± 0.01) × 108m and α = (2.40 ± 0.02) × 10-8. It might help us to distinguish different gravity theories and get closer to the new physics.

Black hole solutions in mimetic Born-Infeld gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Che-Yu; Bouhmadi-López, Mariam; Chen, Pisin

2018-01-01

The vacuum, static, and spherically symmetric solutions in the mimetic Born-Infeld gravity are studied. The mimetic Born-Infeld gravity is a reformulation of the Eddington-inspired-Born-Infeld (EiBI) model under the mimetic approach. Due to the mimetic field, the theory contains non-trivial vacuum solutions different from those in Einstein gravity. We find that with the existence of the mimetic field, the spacelike singularity inside a Schwarzschild black hole could be altered to a lightlike singularity, even though the curvature invariants still diverge at the singularity. Furthermore, in this case, the maximal proper time for a timelike radially-infalling observer to reach the singularity is found to be infinite.

Black hole solutions in mimetic Born-Infeld gravity.

PubMed

Chen, Che-Yu; Bouhmadi-López, Mariam; Chen, Pisin

2018-01-01

The vacuum, static, and spherically symmetric solutions in the mimetic Born-Infeld gravity are studied. The mimetic Born-Infeld gravity is a reformulation of the Eddington-inspired-Born-Infeld (EiBI) model under the mimetic approach. Due to the mimetic field, the theory contains non-trivial vacuum solutions different from those in Einstein gravity. We find that with the existence of the mimetic field, the spacelike singularity inside a Schwarzschild black hole could be altered to a lightlike singularity, even though the curvature invariants still diverge at the singularity. Furthermore, in this case, the maximal proper time for a timelike radially-infalling observer to reach the singularity is found to be infinite.

Black hole solutions in mimetic Born-Infeld gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Che-Yu; Bouhmadi-López, Mariam; Chen, Pisin

The vacuum, static, and spherically symmetric solutions in the mimetic Born-Infeld gravity are studied. The mimetic Born-Infeld gravity is a reformulation of the Eddington-inspired-Born-Infeld (EiBI) model under the mimetic approach. Due to the mimetic field, the theory contains non-trivial vacuum solutions different from those in Einstein gravity. Here, we find that with the existence of the mimetic field, the spacelike singularity inside a Schwarzschild black hole could be altered to a lightlike singularity, even though the curvature invariants still diverge at the singularity. Furthermore, in this case, the maximal proper time for a timelike radially-infalling observer to reach the singularitymore » is found to be infinite.« less

Black hole solutions in mimetic Born-Infeld gravity

DOE PAGES

Chen, Che-Yu; Bouhmadi-López, Mariam; Chen, Pisin

2018-01-23

The vacuum, static, and spherically symmetric solutions in the mimetic Born-Infeld gravity are studied. The mimetic Born-Infeld gravity is a reformulation of the Eddington-inspired-Born-Infeld (EiBI) model under the mimetic approach. Due to the mimetic field, the theory contains non-trivial vacuum solutions different from those in Einstein gravity. Here, we find that with the existence of the mimetic field, the spacelike singularity inside a Schwarzschild black hole could be altered to a lightlike singularity, even though the curvature invariants still diverge at the singularity. Furthermore, in this case, the maximal proper time for a timelike radially-infalling observer to reach the singularitymore » is found to be infinite.« less

A NOTE ON THE UNIFIED FIRST LAW IN f(R) GRAVITY THEORY

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yi; Gong, Yungui; Zhu, Zong-Hong

2012-04-01

Because of the dynamical equivalence between the f(R) gravity and the Brans-Dicke theory, the dynamical equation in the f(R) gravity is suggested to be derived from a view point of thermodynamics here. By a conformal transformation, the Brans-Dicke theory in the Jordan frame could be expressed as a minimal coupling scalar field theory in Einstein frame. Using the entropy-area relation d˜ {S} = d˜ {A}/4 G, the correct Friedmann equations could be gotten in both frames. Furthermore, we also discuss the corresponding generalized Misner-Sharp energies for theoretical consistence.

From SL(5, ℝ) Yang-Mills theory to induced gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Assimos, T. S.; Pereira, A. D.; Santos, T. R. S.; Sobreiro, R. F.; Tomaz, A. A.; Otoya, V. J. Vasquez

From pure Yang-Mills action for the SL(5, ℝ) group in four Euclidean dimensions we obtain a gravity theory in the first order formalism. Besides the Einstein-Hilbert term, the effective gravity has a cosmological constant term, a curvature squared term, a torsion squared term and a matter sector. To obtain such geometrodynamical theory, asymptotic freedom and the Gribov parameter (soft BRST symmetry breaking) are crucial. Particularly, Newton and cosmological constant are related to these parameters and they also run as functions of the energy scale. One-loop computations are performed and the results are interpreted.

New 2D dilaton gravity for nonsingular black holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kunstatter, Gabor; Maeda, Hideki; Taves, Tim

2016-05-01

We construct a two-dimensional action that is an extension of spherically symmetric Einstein-Lanczos-Lovelock (ELL) gravity. The action contains arbitrary functions of the areal radius and the norm squared of its gradient, but the field equations are second order and obey Birkhoff’s theorem. In complete analogy with spherically symmetric ELL gravity, the field equations admit the generalized Misner-Sharp mass as the first integral that determines the form of the vacuum solution. The arbitrary functions in the action allow for vacuum solutions that describe a larger class of interesting nonsingular black hole spacetimes than previously available.

Chameleon f(R) gravity on the Virgo cluster scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moran, C. Corbett; Teyssier, R.; Li, B.

2015-03-01

Models of modified gravity offer promising alternatives to the concordance Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmology to explain the late-time acceleration of the universe. A popular such model is f(R) gravity, in which the Ricci scalar in the Einstein-Hilbert action is replaced by a general function of it. We study the f(R) model of Hu & Sawicki, which recovers standard general relativity in high-density regimes, while reproducing the desired late time acceleration at cosmological scales. We run a suite of high-resolution zoom simulations using the ECOSMOG code to examine the effect of f(R) gravity on the properties of a halo that is analogous to the Virgo cluster. We show that the velocity dispersion profiles can potentially discriminate between f(R) models and ΛCDM, and provide complementary analysis of lensing signal profiles to explore the possibility to further distinguish the different f(R) models. Our results confirm the techniques explored by Cabré et al. to quantify the effect of environment in the behaviour of f(R) gravity, and we extend them to study halo satellites at various redshifts. We find that the modified gravity effects in our models are most observable at low redshifts, and that effects are generally stronger for satellites far from the centre of the main halo. We show that the screening properties of halo satellites trace very well that of dark matter particles, which means that low-resolution simulations in which subhaloes are not very well resolved can in principle be used to study satellite properties. We discuss observables, particularly for halo satellites, that can potentially be used to constrain the observational viability of f(R) gravity.

Semi-classical Reissner-Nordstrom model for the structure of charged leptons

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosen, G.

1980-01-01

The lepton self-mass problem is examined within the framework of the quantum theory of electromagnetism and gravity. Consideration is given to the Reissner-Nordstrom solution to the Einstein-Maxwell classical field equations for an electrically charged mass point, and the WKB theory for a semiclassical system with total energy zero is used to obtain an expression for the Einstein-Maxwell action factor. The condition obtained is found to account for the observed mass values of the three charged leptons, and to be in agreement with the correspondence principle.

Gravity and the Spin-2 Planar Schrödinger Equation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergshoeff, Eric A.; Rosseel, Jan; Townsend, Paul K.

2018-04-01

A Schrödinger equation proposed for the Girvin-MacDonald-Platzman gapped spin-2 mode of fractional quantum Hall states is found from a novel nonrelativistic limit, applicable only in 2 +1 dimensions, of the massive spin-2 Fierz-Pauli field equations. It is also found from a novel null reduction of the linearized Einstein field equations in 3 +1 dimensions, and in this context a uniform distribution of spin-2 particles implies, via a Brinkmann-wave solution of the nonlinear Einstein equations, a confining harmonic oscillator potential for the individual particles.

The metric on field space, functional renormalization, and metric–torsion quantum gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reuter, Martin, E-mail: reuter@thep.physik.uni-mainz.de; Schollmeyer, Gregor M., E-mail: schollmeyer@thep.physik.uni-mainz.de

Searching for new non-perturbatively renormalizable quantum gravity theories, functional renormalization group (RG) flows are studied on a theory space of action functionals depending on the metric and the torsion tensor, the latter parameterized by three irreducible component fields. A detailed comparison with Quantum Einstein–Cartan Gravity (QECG), Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG), and “tetrad-only” gravity, all based on different theory spaces, is performed. It is demonstrated that, over a generic theory space, the construction of a functional RG equation (FRGE) for the effective average action requires the specification of a metric on the infinite-dimensional field manifold as an additional input. A modifiedmore » FRGE is obtained if this metric is scale-dependent, as it happens in the metric–torsion system considered.« less

Positive signs in massive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheung, Clifford; Remmen, Grant N.

2016-04-01

We derive new constraints on massive gravity from unitarity and analyticity of scattering amplitudes. Our results apply to a general effective theory defined by Einstein gravity plus the leading soft diffeomorphism-breaking corrections. We calculate scattering amplitudes for all combinations of tensor, vector, and scalar polarizations. The high-energy behavior of these amplitudes prescribes a specific choice of couplings that ameliorates the ultraviolet cutoff, in agreement with existing literature. We then derive consistency conditions from analytic dispersion relations, which dictate positivity of certain combinations of parameters appearing in the forward scattering amplitudes. These constraints exclude all but a small island in the parameter space of ghost-free massive gravity. While the theory of the "Galileon" scalar mode alone is known to be inconsistent with positivity constraints, this is remedied in the full massive gravity theory.

Gravity with free initial conditions: A solution to the cosmological constant problem testable by CMB B -mode polarization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Totani, Tomonori

2017-10-01

In standard general relativity the universe cannot be started with arbitrary initial conditions, because four of the ten components of the Einstein's field equations (EFE) are constraints on initial conditions. In the previous work it was proposed to extend the gravity theory to allow free initial conditions, with a motivation to solve the cosmological constant problem. This was done by setting four constraints on metric variations in the action principle, which is reasonable because the gravity's physical degrees of freedom are at most six. However, there are two problems about this theory; the three constraints in addition to the unimodular condition were introduced without clear physical meanings, and the flat Minkowski spacetime is unstable against perturbations. Here a new set of gravitational field equations is derived by replacing the three constraints with new ones requiring that geodesic paths remain geodesic against metric variations. The instability problem is then naturally solved. Implications for the cosmological constant Λ are unchanged; the theory converges into EFE with nonzero Λ by inflation, but Λ varies on scales much larger than the present Hubble horizon. Then galaxies are formed only in small Λ regions, and the cosmological constant problem is solved by the anthropic argument. Because of the increased degrees of freedom in metric dynamics, the theory predicts new non-oscillatory modes of metric anisotropy generated by quantum fluctuation during inflation, and CMB B -mode polarization would be observed differently from the standard predictions by general relativity.

Planck-scale constraints on anisotropic Lorentz and C P T invariance violations from optical polarization measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kislat, Fabian; Krawczynski, Henric

2017-04-01

Lorentz invariance is the fundamental symmetry of Einstein's theory of special relativity and has been tested to a great level of detail. However, theories of quantum gravity at the Planck scale indicate that Lorentz symmetry may be broken at that scale, motivating further tests. While the Planck energy is currently unreachable by experiment, tiny residual effects at attainable energies can become measurable when photons propagate over sufficiently large distances. The Standard-Model extension (SME) is an effective field-theory approach to describe low-energy effects of quantum gravity theories. Lorentz- and C P T -symmetry-violating effects are introduced by adding additional terms to the Standard-Model Lagrangian. These terms can be ordered by the mass dimension of the corresponding operator, and the leading terms of interest have dimension d =5 . Effects of these operators are a linear variation of the speed of light with photon energy, and a rotation of the linear polarization of photons quadratic in photon energy, as well as anisotropy. We analyze optical polarization data from 72 active galactic nuclei and GRBs and derive the first set of limits on all 16 coefficients of mass dimension d =5 of the SME photon sector. Our constraints imply a lower limit on the energy scale of quantum gravity of 1 06 times the Planck energy, severely limiting the phase space for any theory that predicts a rotation of the photon polarization quadratic in energy.

Black holes in six-dimensional conformal gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lü, H.; Pang, Yi; Pope, C. N.

2013-05-01

We study conformally invariant theories of gravity in six dimensions. In four dimensions, there is a unique such theory that is polynomial in the curvature and its derivatives, namely, Weyl-squared, and furthermore all solutions of Einstein gravity are also solutions of the conformal theory. By contrast, in six dimensions there are three independent conformally invariant polynomial terms one could consider. There is a unique linear combination (up to overall scale) for which Einstein metrics are also solutions, and this specific theory forms the focus of our attention in this paper. We reduce the equations of motion for the most general spherically symmetric black hole to a single fifth-order differential equation. We obtain the general solution in the form of an infinite series, characterized by five independent parameters, and we show how a finite three-parameter truncation reduces to the already known Schwarzschild-AdS metric and its conformal scaling. We derive general results for the thermodynamics and the first law for the full five-parameter solutions. We also investigate solutions in extended theories coupled to conformally invariant matter, and in addition we derive some general results for conserved charges in cubic-curvature theories in arbitrary dimensions.

Probing the effects of Lorentz-symmetry violating Chern-Simons and Ricci-Cotton terms in higher derivative gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pereira-Dias, B.; Hernaski, C. A.; Helayeel-Neto, J. A.

The combined effects of the Lorentz-symmetry violating Chern-Simons and Ricci-Cotton actions are investigated for the Einstein-Hilbert gravity in the second-order formalism modified by higher derivative terms, and their consequences on the spectrum of excitations are analyzed. We follow the lines of previous works and build up an orthonormal basis of projector-like operators for the degrees of freedom, rather than for the spin modes of the fields. With this new basis, the attainment of the propagators is remarkably simplified and the identification of the physical and unphysical modes becomes more immediate. Our conclusion is that the only tachyon- and ghost-free modelmore » is the Einstein-Hilbert action added up by the Chern-Simons term with a timelike vector of the type v{sup {mu}=}({mu},0-vector). Spectral consistency imposes that the Ricci-Cotton term must be switched off. We then infer that gravity with Lorentz-symmetry violation imposes a drastically different constraint on the background if compared to ordinary gauge theories whenever conditions for the suppression of tachyons and ghosts are imposed.« less

Einstein gravity 3-point functions from conformal field theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Afkhami-Jeddi, Nima; Hartman, Thomas; Kundu, Sandipan; Tajdini, Amirhossein

2017-12-01

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 〈 T T T 〉, normally specified by three constants, should approach a universal structure controlled by a single parameter as the gap to higher spin operators is increased. We demonstrate this phenomenon by a direct CFT calculation. Stress tensor exchange, by itself, violates causality and unitarity unless the three-point functions are carefully tuned, and the unique consistent choice exactly matches the prediction of Einstein gravity. Under some assumptions about the other potential contributions, we conclude that this structure is universal, and in particular, that the anomaly coefficients satisfy a ≈ c as conjectured by Camanho et al. The argument is based on causality of a four-point function, with kinematics designed to probe bulk locality, and invokes the chaos bound of Maldacena, Shenker, and Stanford.

Conserved charges for black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics in AdS space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mišković, Olivera; Olea, Rodrigo

2011-01-01

Motivated by possible applications within the framework of anti-de Sitter gravity/conformal field theory correspondence, charged black holes with AdS asymptotics, which are solutions to Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in D dimensions, and whose electric field is described by nonlinear electrodynamics are studied. For a topological static black hole ansatz, the field equations are exactly solved in terms of the electromagnetic stress tensor for an arbitrary nonlinear electrodynamic Lagrangian in any dimension D and for arbitrary positive values of Gauss-Bonnet coupling. In particular, this procedure reproduces the black hole metric in Born-Infeld and conformally invariant electrodynamics previously found in the literature. Altogether, it extends to D>4 the four-dimensional solution obtained by Soleng in logarithmic electrodynamics, which comes from vacuum polarization effects. Falloff conditions for the electromagnetic field that ensure the finiteness of the electric charge are also discussed. The black hole mass and vacuum energy as conserved quantities associated to an asymptotic timelike Killing vector are computed using a background-independent regularization of the gravitational action based on the addition of counterterms which are a given polynomial in the intrinsic and extrinsic curvatures.

Conserved charges for black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics in AdS space

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miskovic, Olivera; Olea, Rodrigo; Instituto de Fisica, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Casilla 4059, Valparaiso

2011-01-15

Motivated by possible applications within the framework of anti-de Sitter gravity/conformal field theory correspondence, charged black holes with AdS asymptotics, which are solutions to Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in D dimensions, and whose electric field is described by nonlinear electrodynamics are studied. For a topological static black hole ansatz, the field equations are exactly solved in terms of the electromagnetic stress tensor for an arbitrary nonlinear electrodynamic Lagrangian in any dimension D and for arbitrary positive values of Gauss-Bonnet coupling. In particular, this procedure reproduces the black hole metric in Born-Infeld and conformally invariant electrodynamics previously found in the literature. Altogether, itmore » extends to D>4 the four-dimensional solution obtained by Soleng in logarithmic electrodynamics, which comes from vacuum polarization effects. Falloff conditions for the electromagnetic field that ensure the finiteness of the electric charge are also discussed. The black hole mass and vacuum energy as conserved quantities associated to an asymptotic timelike Killing vector are computed using a background-independent regularization of the gravitational action based on the addition of counterterms which are a given polynomial in the intrinsic and extrinsic curvatures.« less

Massive gravity in three dimensions.

PubMed

Bergshoeff, Eric A; Hohm, Olaf; Townsend, Paul K

2009-05-22

A particular higher-derivative extension of the Einstein-Hilbert action in three spacetime dimensions is shown to be equivalent at the linearized level to the (unitary) Pauli-Fierz action for a massive spin-2 field. A more general model, which also includes "topologically-massive" gravity as a special case, propagates the two spin-2 helicity states with different masses. We discuss the extension to massive N-extended supergravity, and we present a "cosmological" extension that admits an anti-de Sitter vacuum.

The Einstein equations on the 3-brane world

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shiromizu, Tetsuya; Maeda, Kei-Ichi; Sasaki, Misao

2000-07-01

We carefully investigate the gravitational equations of the brane world, in which all the matter forces except gravity are confined on the 3-brane in a 5-dimensional spacetime with Z2 symmetry. We derive the effective gravitational equations on the brane, which reduce to the conventional Einstein equations in the low energy limit. From our general argument we conclude that the first Randall-Sundrum-type theory predicts that the brane with a negative tension is an antigravity world and hence should be excluded from the physical point of view. Their second-type theory where the brane has a positive tension provides the correct signature of gravity. In this latter case, if the bulk spacetime is exactly anti-de Sitter spacetime, generically the matter on the brane is required to be spatially homogeneous because of the Bianchi identities. By allowing deviations from anti-de Sitter spacetime in the bulk, the situation will be relaxed and the Bianchi identities give just the relation between the Weyl tensor and the energy momentum tensor. In the present brane world scenario, the effective Einstein equations cease to be valid during an era when the cosmological constant on the brane is not well defined, such as in the case of the matter dominated by the potential energy of the scalar field.

Hairy AdS black holes with a toroidal horizon in 4D Einstein-nonlinear σ-model system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Astorino, Marco; Canfora, Fabrizio; Giacomini, Alex; Ortaggio, Marcello

2018-01-01

An exact hairy asymptotically locally AdS black hole solution with a flat horizon in the Einstein-nonlinear sigma model system in (3+1) dimensions is constructed. The ansatz for the nonlinear SU (2) field is regular everywhere and depends explicitly on Killing coordinates, but in such a way that its energy-momentum tensor is compatible with a metric with Killing fields. The solution is characterized by a discrete parameter which has neither topological nor Noether charge associated with it and therefore represents a hair. A U (1) gauge field interacting with Einstein gravity can also be included. The thermodynamics is analyzed. Interestingly, the hairy black hole is always thermodynamically favoured with respect to the corresponding black hole with vanishing Pionic field.

Einstein's osmotic equilibrium of colloidal suspensions in conservative force fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Jinxin; Ou-Yang, H. Daniel

2014-09-01

Predicted by Einstein in his 1905 paper on Brownian motion, colloidal particles in suspension reach osmotic equilibrium under gravity. The idea was demonstrated by J.B. Perrin to win Nobel Prize in Physics in 1926. We show Einstein's equation for osmotic equilibrium can be applied to colloids in a conservative force field generated by optical gradient forces. We measure the osmotic equation of state of 100nm Polystyrene latex particles in the presence of KCl salt and PEG polymer. We also obtain the osmotic compressibility, which is important for determining colloidal stability and the internal chemical potential, which is useful for predicting the phase transition of colloidal systems. This generalization allows for the use of any conservative force fields for systems ranging from colloidal systems to macromolecular solutions.

Nonsingular solutions and instabilities in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet cosmology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sberna, Laura; Pani, Paolo

2017-12-01

It is generically believed that higher-order curvature corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action might cure the curvature singularities that plague general relativity. Here we consider Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, the only four-dimensional, ghost-free theory with quadratic curvature terms. For any choice of the coupling function and of the scalar potential, we show that the theory does not allow for bouncing solutions in the flat and open Friedmann universe. For the case of a closed universe, using a reverse-engineering method, we explicitly provide a bouncing solution which is nevertheless linearly unstable in the scalar gravitational sector. Moreover, we show that the expanding, singularity-free, early-time cosmologies allowed in the theory are unstable. These results rely only on analyticity and finiteness of cosmological variables at early times.

General relativity at 75: how right was einstein?

PubMed

Will, C M

1990-11-09

The status of experimental tests of general relativity is reviewed on the occasion of its 75th anniversary. Einstein's equivalence principle is well supported by experiments such as the Eötvös experiment, tests of special relativity, and the gravitational redshift experiment. Tests of general relativity have reached high precision, including the light deflection and the perihelion advance of Mercury, proposed by Einstein 75 years ago, and new tests such as the Shapiro time delay and the Nordtvedt effect in lunar motion. Gravitational wave damping has been detected to an accuracy of 1 percent on the basis of measurements of the binary pulsar. The status of the "fifth force" is discussed, along with the frontiers of experimental relativity, including proposals for testing relativistic gravity with advanced technology and spacecraft.

New classes of modified teleparallel gravity models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bahamonde, Sebastian; Böhmer, Christian G.; Krššák, Martin

2017-12-01

New classes of modified teleparallel theories of gravity are introduced. The action of this theory is constructed to be a function of the irreducible parts of torsion f (Tax ,Tten ,Tvec), where Tax ,Tten and Tvec are squares of the axial, tensor and vector components of torsion, respectively. This is the most general (well-motivated) second order teleparallel theory of gravity that can be constructed from the torsion tensor. Different particular second order theories can be recovered from this theory such as new general relativity, conformal teleparallel gravity or f (T) gravity. Additionally, the boundary term B which connects the Ricci scalar with the torsion scalar via R = - T + B can also be incorporated into the action. By performing a conformal transformation, it is shown that the two unique theories which have an Einstein frame are either the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity or f (- T + B) = f (R) gravity, as expected.

A self-interfering clock as a "which path" witness.

PubMed

Margalit, Yair; Zhou, Zhifan; Machluf, Shimon; Rohrlich, Daniel; Japha, Yonathan; Folman, Ron

2015-09-11

In Einstein's general theory of relativity, time depends locally on gravity; in standard quantum theory, time is global-all clocks "tick" uniformly. We demonstrate a new tool for investigating time in the overlap of these two theories: a self-interfering clock, comprising two atomic spin states. We prepare the clock in a spatial superposition of quantum wave packets, which evolve coherently along two paths into a stable interference pattern. If we make the clock wave packets "tick" at different rates, to simulate a gravitational time lag, the clock time along each path yields "which path" information, degrading the pattern's visibility. In contrast, in standard interferometry, time cannot yield "which path" information. This proof-of-principle experiment may have implications for the study of time and general relativity and their impact on fundamental effects such as decoherence and the emergence of a classical world. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Gravitational consequences of modern field theories

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Horowitz, Gary T.

1989-01-01

Some gravitational consequences of certain extensions of Einstein's general theory of relativity are discussed. These theories are not alternative theories of gravity in the usual sense. It is assumed that general relativity is the appropriate description of all gravitational phenomena which were observed to date.

The Binary Pulsar: Gravity Waves Exist.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Will, Clifford

1987-01-01

Reviews the history of pulsars generally and the 1974 discovery of the binary pulsar by Joe Taylor and Russell Hulse specifically. Details the data collection and analysis used by Taylor and Hulse. Uses this discussion as support for Albert Einstein's theory of gravitational waves. (CW)

NONSINGULAR UNIVERSES IN GAUSS–BONNET GRAVITY’S RAINBOW

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hendi, Seyed Hossein; Momennia, Mehrab; Panah, Behzad Eslam

In this paper, we study the rainbow deformation of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) cosmology in both Einstein gravity and Gauss–Bonnet (GB) gravity. We demonstrate that the singularity in FRW cosmology can be removed because of the rainbow deformation of the FRW metric. We obtain the general constraints required for FRW cosmology to be free of singularities. We observe that the inclusion of GB gravity can significantly change the constraints required to obtain nonsingular universes. We use rainbow functions motivated by the hard spectra of gamma-ray bursts to deform FRW cosmology and explicitly demonstrate that such a deformation removes the singularity in FRWmore » cosmology.« less

Geometric actions for three-dimensional gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnich, G.; González, H. A.; Salgado-Rebolledo, P.

2018-01-01

The solution space of three-dimensional asymptotically anti-de Sitter or flat Einstein gravity is given by the coadjoint representation of two copies of the Virasoro group in the former and the centrally extended BMS3 group in the latter case. Dynamical actions that control these solution spaces are usually constructed by starting from the Chern–Simons formulation and imposing all boundary conditions. In this note, an alternative route is followed. We study in detail how to derive these actions from a group-theoretical viewpoint by constructing geometric actions for each of the coadjoint orbits, including the appropriate Hamiltonians. We briefly sketch relevant generalizations and potential applications beyond three-dimensional gravity.

Revisiting the analogue of the Jebsen-Birkhoff theorem in Brans-Dicke gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faraoni, Valerio; Hammad, Fayçal; Cardini, Adriana M.; Gobeil, Thomas

2018-04-01

We report the explicit form of the general static, spherically symmetric, and asymptotically flat solution of vacuum Brans-Dicke gravity in the Jordan frame, assuming that the Brans-Dicke scalar field has no singularities or zeros (except possibly for a central singularity). This general solution is conformal to the Fisher-Wyman geometry of Einstein theory and its nature depends on a scalar charge parameter. Apart from the Schwarzschild black hole, only wormhole throats and central naked singularities are possible.

Tracking Gravity Probe B gyroscope polhode motion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keiser, George M.; Parkinson, Bradford W.; Cohen, Clark E.

1990-01-01

The superconducting Gravity Probe B spacecraft is being developed to measure two untested predictions of Einstein's theory of general relativity by using orbiting gyroscopes; it possesses an intrinsic magnetic field which rotates with the rotor and is fixed with respect to the rotor body frame. In this paper, the path of the rotor spin axes is tracked using this trapped magnetic flux as a reference. Both the rotor motion and the magnetic field shape are estimated simultaneously, employing the higher order components of the magnetic field shape.

A quantum trampoline for ultra-cold atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robert-de-Saint-Vincent, M.; Brantut, J.-P.; Bordé, Ch. J.; Aspect, A.; Bourdel, T.; Bouyer, P.

2010-01-01

We have observed the interferometric suspension of a free-falling Bose-Einstein condensate periodically submitted to multiple-order diffraction by a vertical 1D standing wave. This scheme permits simultaneously the compensation of gravity and coherent splitting/recombination of the matter waves. It results in high-contrast interference in the number of atoms detected at constant height. For long suspension times, multiple-wave interference is revealed through a sharpening of the fringes. We characterize our atom interferometer and use it to measure the acceleration of gravity.

BOOK REVIEW: Black Holes, Cosmology and Extra Dimensions Black Holes, Cosmology and Extra Dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frolov, Valeri P.

2013-10-01

The book Black holes, Cosmology and Extra Dimensions written by Kirill A Bronnikov and Sergey G Rubin has been published recently by World Scientific Publishing Company. The authors are well known experts in gravity and cosmology. The book is a monograph, a considerable part of which is based on the original work of the authors. Their original point of view on some of the problems makes the book quite interesting, covering a variety of important topics of the modern theory of gravity, astrophysics and cosmology. It consists of 11 chapters which are organized in three parts. The book starts with an introduction, where the authors briefly discuss the main ideas of General Relativity, giving some historical remarks on its development and application to cosmology, and mentioning some more recent subjects such as brane worlds, f(R)-theories and gravity in higher dimensions. Part I of the book is called 'Gravity'. Chapters two and three are devoted to the Einstein equations and their spherical symmetric black hole solutions. This material is quite standard and can be found in practically any book on General Relativity. A brief summary of the Kerr metric and black hole thermodynamics are given in chapter four. The main part of this chapter is devoted to spherically symmetric black holes in non-Einstein gravity (with scalar and phantom fields), black holes with regular interior, and black holes in brane worlds. Chapters five and six are mainly dedicated to wormholes and the problem of their stability. Part II (Cosmology) starts with discussion of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker and de Sitter solutions of the Einstein equations and their properties. It follows by describing a `big picture' of the modern cosmology (inflation, post-inflationary reheating, the radiation-dominated and matter-dominated states, and modern stage of the (secondary) inflation). The authors explain how the inflation models allow one to solve many of the long-standing problems of cosmology, such as flatness of the Universe, the horizon problem and isotropy of cosmological microwave background. All this material is covered in chapter seven. Chapter eight contains brief discussion of several popular inflation models. Chapter nine is devoted to the problem of the large-scale structure formation from initial quantum vacuum fluctuation during the inflation and the spectrum of the density fluctuations. It also contains remarks on the baryonic asymmetry of the Universe, baryogenesis and primordial black holes. Part III covers the material on extra dimensions. It describes how Einstein gravity is modified in the presence of one or more additional spatial dimensions and how these extra dimensions are compactified in the Kaluza-Klein scheme. The authors also discuss how extra dimensions may affect low energy physics. They present examples of higher-dimensional generalizations of the gravity with higher-in-curvature corrections and discuss a possible mechanism of self-stabilization of an extra space. A considerable part of the chapter 10 is devoted to cosmological models with extra dimensions. In particular, the authors discuss how extra dimensions can modify 'standard' inflation models. At the end of this chapter they make several remarks on a possible relation of the value of fundamental constants in our universe with the existence of extra dimensions. Finally, in chapter 11 they demonstrate that several observable properties of the Universe are closely related with the special value of the fundamental physical constants and their fine tuning. They give interesting examples of such fine tuning and summarize many other cases. The book ends with discussion of a so-called 'cascade birth of universes in multidimensional spaces' model, proposed by one of the authors. As is evident from this brief summary of topics presented in the book, many interesting areas of modern gravity and cosmology are covered. However, since the subject is so wide, this inevitably implies that the selection of the topics and level of their presentation in many cases reflects the authors' own preferences. As a result, several important subjects on black holes, cosmology and extra dimensions, widely discussed in the modern literature, are not covered by the book. For example, a reader will not find discussion of non-spherically symmetric higher dimensional black holes which are either non-trivial generalization of the Kerr black holes, or even have a non-spherical topology of the horizon (black rings, black strings and so on). The book does not contain any information on supersymmetric black holes, black branes solutions and their properties. This list can easily be continued (black hole perturbations, gravitational radiation from binary black hole coalescence, cosmology in massive gravity and Hořava-Lifshitz models, etc). However the number of publications connected with the title of the book is so huge now, that it is practically impossible to cover all of them in a single book. Some selection of topics is inevitable. To summarize, I think that the authors did a great job and the book will find its readers. It might be interesting for researchers working in theoretical physics, astrophysics and cosmology. I do not think that it would be very helpful as a textbook for students, although it contains a lot of interesting material which can be used by students for additional reading connected with the basic university courses on gravity and cosmology. It might be also useful to students for their term paper projects and presentations.

Positive signs in massive gravity

DOE PAGES

Cheung, Clifford; Remmen, Grant N.

2016-04-01

Here, we derive new constraints on massive gravity from unitarity and analyticity of scattering amplitudes. Our results apply to a general effective theory defined by Einstein gravity plus the leading soft diffeomorphism-breaking corrections. We calculate scattering amplitudes for all combinations of tensor, vector, and scalar polarizations. Furthermore, the high-energy behavior of these amplitudes prescribes a specific choice of couplings that ameliorates the ultraviolet cutoff, in agreement with existing literature. We then derive consistency conditions from analytic dispersion relations, which dictate positivity of certain combinations of parameters appearing in the forward scattering amplitudes. These constraints exclude all but a small islandmore » in the parameter space of ghost-free massive gravity. And while the theory of the "Galileon" scalar mode alone is known to be inconsistent with positivity constraints, this is remedied in the full massive gravity theory.« less

Dark energy domination in the Virgocentric flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chernin, A. D.; Karachentsev, I. D.; Nasonova, O. G.; Teerikorpi, P.; Valtonen, M. J.; Dolgachev, V. P.; Domozhilova, L. M.; Byrd, G. G.

2010-09-01

Context. The standard ΛCDM cosmological model implies that all celestial bodies are embedded in a perfectly uniform dark energy background, represented by Einstein's cosmological constant, and experience its repulsive antigravity action. Aims: Can dark energy have strong dynamical effects on small cosmic scales as well as globally? Continuing our efforts to clarify this question, we now focus on the Virgo Cluster and the flow of expansion around it. Methods: We interpret the Hubble diagram from a new database of velocities and distances of galaxies in the cluster and its environment, using a nonlinear analytical model, which incorporates the antigravity force in terms of Newtonian mechanics. The key parameter is the zero-gravity radius, the distance at which gravity and antigravity are in balance. Results: 1. The interplay between the gravity of the cluster and the antigravity of the dark energy background determines the kinematical structure of the system and controls its evolution. 2. The gravity dominates the quasi-stationary bound cluster, while the antigravity controls the Virgocentric flow, bringing order and regularity to the flow, which reaches linearity and the global Hubble rate at distances ⪆15 Mpc. 3. The cluster and the flow form a system similar to the Local Group and its outflow. In the velocity-distance diagram, the cluster-flow structure reproduces the group-flow structure with a scaling factor of about 10; the zero-gravity radius for the cluster system is also 10 times larger. Conclusions: The phase and dynamical similarity of the systems on the scales of 1-30 Mpc suggests that a two-component pattern may be universal for groups and clusters: a quasi-stationary bound central component and an expanding outflow around it, caused by the nonlinear gravity-antigravity interplay with the dark energy dominating in the flow component.

Freud's superpotential in general relativity and in Einstein-Cartan theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Böhmer, Christian G.; Hehl, Friedrich W.

2018-02-01

The identification of a suitable gravitational energy in theories of gravity has a long history, and it is well known that a unique answer cannot be given. In the first part of this paper we present a streamlined version of the derivation of Freud's superpotential in general relativity. It is found if we once integrate the gravitational field equation by parts. This allows us to extend these results directly to the Einstein-Cartan theory. Interestingly, Freud's original expression, first stated in 1939, remains valid even when considering gravitational theories in Riemann-Cartan or, more generally, in metric-affine spacetimes.

Scale-invariant curvature fluctuations from an extended semiclassical gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pinamonti, Nicola, E-mail: pinamont@dima.unige.it, E-mail: siemssen@dima.unige.it; INFN Sezione di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova; Siemssen, Daniel, E-mail: pinamont@dima.unige.it, E-mail: siemssen@dima.unige.it

2015-02-15

We present an extension of the semiclassical Einstein equations which couple n-point correlation functions of a stochastic Einstein tensor to the n-point functions of the quantum stress-energy tensor. We apply this extension to calculate the quantum fluctuations during an inflationary period, where we take as a model a massive conformally coupled scalar field on a perturbed de Sitter space and describe how a renormalization independent, almost-scale-invariant power spectrum of the scalar metric perturbation is produced. Furthermore, we discuss how this model yields a natural basis for the calculation of non-Gaussianities of the considered metric fluctuations.

Radiative double copy for Einstein-Yang-Mills theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chester, David

2018-04-01

Recently, a double-copy formalism was used to calculate gravitational radiation from classical Yang-Mills radiation solutions. This work shows that the Yang-Mills theory coupled to a biadjoint scalar field admits a radiative double copy that agrees with solutions in the Einstein-Yang-Mills theory at the lowest finite order. Within this context, the trace-reversed metric h¯μ ν is a natural double copy of the gauge boson Aμ a . This work provides additional evidence that solutions in gauge and gravity theories are related, even though their respective Lagrangians and nonlinear equations of motion appear to be different.

General Relativistic Theory of the VLBI Time Delay in the Gravitational Field of Moving Bodies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kopeikin, Sergei

2003-01-01

The general relativistic theory of the gravitational VLBI experiment conducted on September 8, 2002 by Fomalont and Kopeikin is explained. Equations of radio waves (light) propagating from the quasar to the observer are integrated in the time-dependent gravitational field of the solar system by making use of either retarded or advanced solutions of the Einstein field equations. This mathematical technique separates explicitly the effects associated with the propagation of gravity from those associated with light in the integral expression for the relativistic VLBI time delay of light. We prove that the relativistic correction to the Shapiro time delay, discovered by Kopeikin (ApJ, 556, L1, 2001), changes sign if one retains direction of the light propagation but replaces the retarded for the advanced solution of the Einstein equations. Hence, this correction is associated with the propagation of gravity. The VLBI observation measured its speed, and that the retarded solution is the correct one.

Nonstandard gravitational waves imply gravitational slip: On the difficulty of partially hiding new gravitational degrees of freedom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sawicki, Ignacy; Saltas, Ippocratis D.; Motta, Mariele; Amendola, Luca; Kunz, Martin

2017-04-01

In many generalized models of gravity, perfect fluids in cosmology give rise to gravitational slip. Simultaneously, in very broad classes of such models, the propagation of gravitational waves is altered. We investigate the extent to which there is a one-to-one relationship between these two properties in three classes of models with one extra degree of freedom: scalar (Horndeski and beyond), vector (Einstein-aether), and tensor (bimetric). We prove that in bimetric gravity and Einstein-aether, it is impossible to dynamically hide the gravitational slip on all scales whenever the propagation of gravitational waves is modified. Horndeski models are much more flexible, but it is nonetheless only possible to hide gravitational slip dynamically when the action for perturbations is tuned to evolve in time toward a divergent kinetic term. These results provide an explicit, theoretical argument for the interpretation of future observations if they disfavored the presence of gravitational slip.

Quantum Cause of Gravity Waves and Dark Matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goradia, Shantilal; Goradia Team

2016-09-01

Per Einstein's theory mass tells space how to curve and space tells mass how to move. How do they tell''? The question boils down to information created by quantum particles blinking ON and OFF analogous to `Ying and Yang' or some more complex ways that may include dark matter. If not, what creates curvature of space-time? Consciousness, dark matter, quantum physics, uncertainty principle, constants of nature like strong coupling, fine structure constant, cosmological constant introduced by Einstein, information, gravitation etc. are fundamentally consequences of that ONE TOE. Vedic philosophers, who impressed Schrodinger so much, called it ATMA split in the categories of AnuAtma (particle soul), JivAtma (life soul) and ParamAtma (Omnipresent soul) which we relate to quantum physics, biology and cosmology. There is no separate TOE for any one thing. The long range relativistic propagations of the strong and weak couplings of the microscopic black holes in are just gravity waves. What else could they be?

Bulk entanglement gravity without a boundary: Towards finding Einstein's equation in Hilbert space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, ChunJun; Carroll, Sean M.

2018-04-01

We consider the emergence from quantum entanglement of spacetime geometry in a bulk region. For certain classes of quantum states in an appropriately factorized Hilbert space, a spatial geometry can be defined by associating areas along codimension-one surfaces with the entanglement entropy between either side. We show how radon transforms can be used to convert these data into a spatial metric. Under a particular set of assumptions, the time evolution of such a state traces out a four-dimensional spacetime geometry, and we argue using a modified version of Jacobson's "entanglement equilibrium" that the geometry should obey Einstein's equation in the weak-field limit. We also discuss how entanglement equilibrium is related to a generalization of the Ryu-Takayanagi formula in more general settings, and how quantum error correction can help specify the emergence map between the full quantum-gravity Hilbert space and the semiclassical limit of quantum fields propagating on a classical spacetime.

Gravitational-Wave Tests of General Relativity with Ground-Based Detectors and Pulsar-Timing Arrays.

PubMed

Yunes, Nicolás; Siemens, Xavier

2013-01-01

This review is focused on tests of Einstein's theory of general relativity with gravitational waves that are detectable by ground-based interferometers and pulsar-timing experiments. Einstein's theory has been greatly constrained in the quasi-linear, quasi-stationary regime, where gravity is weak and velocities are small. Gravitational waves will allow us to probe a complimentary, yet previously unexplored regime: the non-linear and dynamical strong-field regime . Such a regime is, for example, applicable to compact binaries coalescing, where characteristic velocities can reach fifty percent the speed of light and gravitational fields are large and dynamical. This review begins with the theoretical basis and the predicted gravitational-wave observables of modified gravity theories. The review continues with a brief description of the detectors, including both gravitational-wave interferometers and pulsar-timing arrays, leading to a discussion of the data analysis formalism that is applicable for such tests. The review ends with a discussion of gravitational-wave tests for compact binary systems.

Competing s-wave orders from Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Zhi-Hong; Fu, Yun-Chang; Nie, Zhang-Yu

2018-01-01

In this paper, the holographic superconductor model with two s-wave orders from 4 + 1 dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity is explored in the probe limit. At different values of the Gauss-Bonnet coefficient α, we study the influence of tuning the mass and charge parameters of the bulk scalar field on the free energy curve of condensed solution with signal s-wave order, and compare the difference of tuning the two different parameters while the changes of the critical temperature are the same. Based on the above results, it is indicated that the two free energy curves of different s-wave orders can have one or two intersection points, where two typical phase transition behaviors of the s + s coexistent phase, including the reentrant phase transition near the Chern-Simons limit α = 0.25, can be found. We also give an explanation to the nontrivial behavior of the Tc- α curves near the Chern-Simons limit, which might be heuristic to understand the origin of the reentrant behavior near the Chern-Simons limit.

Nonsingular universe in massive gravity's rainbow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hendi, S. H.; Momennia, M.; Eslam Panah, B.; Panahiyan, S.

2017-06-01

One of the fundamental open questions in cosmology is whether we can regard the universe evolution without singularity like a Big Bang or a Big Rip. This challenging subject stimulates one to regard a nonsingular universe in the far past with an arbitrarily large vacuum energy. Considering the high energy regime in the cosmic history, it is believed that Einstein gravity should be corrected to an effective energy dependent theory which could be acquired by gravity's rainbow. On the other hand, employing massive gravity provided us with solutions to some of the long standing fundamental problems of cosmology such as cosmological constant problem and self acceleration of the universe. Considering these aspects of gravity's rainbow and massive gravity, in this paper, we initiate studying FRW cosmology in the massive gravity's rainbow formalism. At first, we show that although massive gravity modifies the FRW cosmology, but it does not itself remove the big bang singularity. Then, we generalize the massive gravity to the case of energy dependent spacetime and find that massive gravity's rainbow can remove the early universe singularity. We bring together all the essential conditions for having a nonsingular universe and the effects of both gravity's rainbow and massive gravity generalizations on such criteria are determined.

Bose-Einstein condensation of the classical axion field in cosmology?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Davidson, Sacha; Elmer, Martin, E-mail: s.davidson@ipnl.in2p3.fr, E-mail: m.elmer@ipnl.in2p3.fr

The axion is a motivated cold dark matter candidate, which it would be interesting to distinguish from weakly interacting massive particles. Sikivie has suggested that axions could behave differently during non-linear galaxy evolution, if they form a Bose-Einstein condensate, and argues that ''gravitational thermalisation'' drives them to a Bose-Einstein condensate during the radiation dominated era. Using classical equations of motion during linear structure formation, we explore whether the gravitational interactions of axions can generate enough entropy. At linear order in G{sub N}, we interpret that the principle activities of gravity are to expand the Universe and grow density fluctuations. Tomore » quantify the rate of entropy creation we use the anisotropic stress to estimate a short dissipation scale for axions which does not confirm previous estimates of their gravitational thermalisation rate.« less

Stability of the Einstein static universe in open cosmological models

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Canonico, Rosangela; Parisi, Luca; INFN, Sezione di Napoli, GC di Salerno, Via Ponte Don Melillo, I-84081 Baronissi

2010-09-15

The stability properties of the Einstein static solution of general relativity are altered when corrective terms arising from modification of the underlying gravitational theory appear in the cosmological equations. In this paper the existence and stability of static solutions are considered in the framework of two recently proposed quantum gravity models. The previously known analysis of the Einstein static solutions in the semiclassical regime of loop quantum cosmology with modifications to the gravitational sector is extended to open cosmological models where a static neutrally stable solution is found. A similar analysis is also performed in the framework of Horava-Lifshitz gravitymore » under detailed balance and projectability conditions. In the case of open cosmological models the two solutions found can be either unstable or neutrally stable according to the admitted values of the parameters.« less

Polymer quantization of the Einstein-Rosen wormhole throat

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kunstatter, Gabor; Peltola, Ari; Louko, Jorma

2010-01-15

We present a polymer quantization of spherically symmetric Einstein gravity in which the polymerized variable is the area of the Einstein-Rosen wormhole throat. In the classical polymer theory, the singularity is replaced by a bounce at a radius that depends on the polymerization scale. In the polymer quantum theory, we show numerically that the area spectrum is evenly spaced and in agreement with a Bohr-Sommerfeld semiclassical estimate, and this spectrum is not qualitatively sensitive to issues of factor ordering or boundary conditions except in the lowest few eigenvalues. In the limit of small polymerization scale we recover, within the numericalmore » accuracy, the area spectrum obtained from a Schroedinger quantization of the wormhole throat dynamics. The prospects of recovering from the polymer throat theory a full quantum-corrected spacetime are discussed.« less

f( R, L m ) gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harko, Tiberiu; Lobo, Francisco S. N.

2010-11-01

We generalize the f( R) type gravity models by assuming that the gravitational Lagrangian is given by an arbitrary function of the Ricci scalar R and of the matter Lagrangian L m . We obtain the gravitational field equations in the metric formalism, as well as the equations of motion for test particles, which follow from the covariant divergence of the energy-momentum tensor. The equations of motion for test particles can also be derived from a variational principle in the particular case in which the Lagrangian density of the matter is an arbitrary function of the energy density of the matter only. Generally, the motion is non-geodesic, and it takes place in the presence of an extra force orthogonal to the four-velocity. The Newtonian limit of the equation of motion is also considered, and a procedure for obtaining the energy-momentum tensor of the matter is presented. The gravitational field equations and the equations of motion for a particular model in which the action of the gravitational field has an exponential dependence on the standard general relativistic Hilbert-Einstein Lagrange density are also derived.

Impact of nonlinear effective interactions on group field theory quantum gravity condensates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pithis, Andreas G. A.; Sakellariadou, Mairi; Tomov, Petar

2016-09-01

We present the numerical analysis of effectively interacting group field theory models in the context of the group field theory quantum gravity condensate analog of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for real Bose-Einstein condensates including combinatorially local interaction terms. Thus, we go beyond the usually considered construction for free models. More precisely, considering such interactions in a weak regime, we find solutions for which the expectation value of the number operator N is finite, as in the free case. When tuning the interaction to the strongly nonlinear regime, however, we obtain solutions for which N grows and eventually blows up, which is reminiscent of what one observes for real Bose-Einstein condensates, where a strong interaction regime can only be realized at high density. This behavior suggests the breakdown of the Bogoliubov ansatz for quantum gravity condensates and the need for non-Fock representations to describe the system when the condensate constituents are strongly correlated. Furthermore, we study the expectation values of certain geometric operators imported from loop quantum gravity in the free and interacting cases. In particular, computing solutions around the nontrivial minima of the interaction potentials, one finds, already in the weakly interacting case, a nonvanishing condensate population for which the spectra are dominated by the lowest nontrivial configuration of the quantum geometry. This result indicates that the condensate may indeed consist of many smallest building blocks giving rise to an effectively continuous geometry, thus suggesting the interpretation of the condensate phase to correspond to a geometric phase.

Emergent gravity from vanishing energy-momentum tensor

DOE PAGES

Carone, Christopher D.; Erlich, Joshua; Vaman, Diana

2017-03-27

A constraint of vanishing energy-momentum tensor is motivated by a variety of perspectives on quantum gravity. We demonstrate in a concrete example how this constraint leads to a metric-independent theory in which quantum gravity emerges as a nonperturbative artifact of regularization-scale physics. We analyze a scalar theory similar to the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) theory with vanishing gauge fields, with the DBI Lagrangian modulated by a scalar potential. In the limit of a large number of scalars, we explicitly demonstrate the existence of a composite massless spin-2 graviton in the spectrum that couples to matter as in Einstein gravity. As a result,more » we comment on the cosmological constant problem and the generalization to theories with fermions and gauge fields.« less

Asymptotic symmetries of colored gravity in three dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joung, Euihun; Kim, Jaewon; Kim, Jihun; Rey, Soo-Jong

2018-03-01

Three-dimensional colored gravity refers to nonabelian isospin extension of Einstein gravity. We investigate the asymptotic symmetry algebra of the SU( N)-colored gravity in (2+1)-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime. Formulated by the Chern-Simons theory with SU( N, N) × SU( N, N) gauge group, the theory contains graviton, SU( N) Chern-Simons gauge fields and massless spin-two multiplets in the SU( N) adjoint representation, thus extending diffeomorphism to colored, nonabelian counterpart. We identify the asymptotic symmetry as Poisson algebra of generators associated with the residual global symmetries of the nonabelian diffeomorphism set by appropriately chosen boundary conditions. The resulting asymptotic symmetry algebra is a nonlinear extension of \\widehat{su(N)} Kac-Moody algebra, supplemented by additional generators corresponding to the massless spin-two adjoint matter fields.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cheung, Clifford; Remmen, Grant N.

Here, we derive new constraints on massive gravity from unitarity and analyticity of scattering amplitudes. Our results apply to a general effective theory defined by Einstein gravity plus the leading soft diffeomorphism-breaking corrections. We calculate scattering amplitudes for all combinations of tensor, vector, and scalar polarizations. Furthermore, the high-energy behavior of these amplitudes prescribes a specific choice of couplings that ameliorates the ultraviolet cutoff, in agreement with existing literature. We then derive consistency conditions from analytic dispersion relations, which dictate positivity of certain combinations of parameters appearing in the forward scattering amplitudes. These constraints exclude all but a small islandmore » in the parameter space of ghost-free massive gravity. And while the theory of the "Galileon" scalar mode alone is known to be inconsistent with positivity constraints, this is remedied in the full massive gravity theory.« less

Beyond Lovelock gravity: Higher derivative metric theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crisostomi, M.; Noui, K.; Charmousis, C.; Langlois, D.

2018-02-01

We consider theories describing the dynamics of a four-dimensional metric, whose Lagrangian is diffeomorphism invariant and depends at most on second derivatives of the metric. Imposing degeneracy conditions we find a set of Lagrangians that, apart form the Einstein-Hilbert one, are either trivial or contain more than 2 degrees of freedom. Among the partially degenerate theories, we recover Chern-Simons gravity, endowed with constraints whose structure suggests the presence of instabilities. Then, we enlarge the class of parity violating theories of gravity by introducing new "chiral scalar-tensor theories." Although they all raise the same concern as Chern-Simons gravity, they can nevertheless make sense as low energy effective field theories or, by restricting them to the unitary gauge (where the scalar field is uniform), as Lorentz breaking theories with a parity violating sector.

Cosmology of f(R) gravity in the metric variational approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Baojiu; Barrow, John D.

2007-04-01

We consider the cosmologies that arise in a subclass of f(R) gravity with f(R)=R+μ2n+2/(-R)n and n∈(-1,0) in the metric (as opposed to the Palatini) variational approach to deriving the gravitational field equations. The calculations of the isotropic and homogeneous cosmological models are undertaken in the Jordan frame and at both the background and the perturbation levels. For the former, we also discuss the connection to the Einstein frame in which the extra degree of freedom in the theory is associated with a scalar field sharing some of the properties of a “chameleon” field. For the latter, we derive the cosmological perturbation equations in general theories of f(R) gravity in covariant form and implement them numerically to calculate the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and matter power spectra of the cosmological model. The CMB power is shown to reduce at low l’s, and the matter power spectrum is almost scale independent at small scales, thus having a similar shape to that in standard general relativity. These are in stark contrast with what was found in the Palatini f(R) gravity, where the CMB power is largely amplified at low l’s and the matter spectrum is strongly scale dependent at small scales. These features make the present model more adaptable than that arising from the Palatini f(R) field equations, and none of the data on background evolution, CMB power spectrum, or matter power spectrum currently rule it out.

New method for the detection of light deflection by solar gravity.

PubMed

Shapiro, I I

1967-08-18

The prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity that light will be deflected by the sun may be tested by sending radio waves from the earth to Venus or Mercury when either passes behind the sun and detecting the echoes with a radar interferometer.

Canceling the Gravity Gradient Phase Shift in Atom Interferometry.

PubMed

D'Amico, G; Rosi, G; Zhan, S; Cacciapuoti, L; Fattori, M; Tino, G M

2017-12-22

Gravity gradients represent a major obstacle in high-precision measurements by atom interferometry. Controlling their effects to the required stability and accuracy imposes very stringent requirements on the relative positioning of freely falling atomic clouds, as in the case of precise tests of Einstein's equivalence principle. We demonstrate a new method to exactly compensate the effects introduced by gravity gradients in a Raman-pulse atom interferometer. By shifting the frequency of the Raman lasers during the central π pulse, it is possible to cancel the initial position- and velocity-dependent phase shift produced by gravity gradients. We apply this technique to simultaneous interferometers positioned along the vertical direction and demonstrate a new method for measuring local gravity gradients that does not require precise knowledge of the relative position between the atomic clouds. Based on this method, we also propose an improved scheme to determine the Newtonian gravitational constant G towards the 10 ppm relative uncertainty.

One-loop renormalization of a gravity-scalar system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, I. Y.

2017-05-01

Extending the renormalizability proposal of the physical sector of 4D Einstein gravity, we have recently proposed renormalizability of the 3D physical sector of gravity-matter systems. The main goal of the present work is to conduct systematic one-loop renormalization of a gravity-matter system by applying our foliation-based quantization scheme. In this work we explicitly carry out renormalization of a gravity-scalar system with a Higgs-type potential. With the fluctuation part of the scalar field gauged away, the system becomes renormalizable through a metric field redefinition. We use dimensional regularization throughout. One of the salient aspects of our analysis is how the graviton propagator acquires the "mass" term. One-loop calculations lead to renormalization of the cosmological and Newton constants. We discuss other implications of our results as well: time-varying vacuum energy density and masses of the elementary particles as well as the potential relevance of Neumann boundary condition for black hole information.

Canceling the Gravity Gradient Phase Shift in Atom Interferometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Amico, G.; Rosi, G.; Zhan, S.; Cacciapuoti, L.; Fattori, M.; Tino, G. M.

2017-12-01

Gravity gradients represent a major obstacle in high-precision measurements by atom interferometry. Controlling their effects to the required stability and accuracy imposes very stringent requirements on the relative positioning of freely falling atomic clouds, as in the case of precise tests of Einstein's equivalence principle. We demonstrate a new method to exactly compensate the effects introduced by gravity gradients in a Raman-pulse atom interferometer. By shifting the frequency of the Raman lasers during the central π pulse, it is possible to cancel the initial position- and velocity-dependent phase shift produced by gravity gradients. We apply this technique to simultaneous interferometers positioned along the vertical direction and demonstrate a new method for measuring local gravity gradients that does not require precise knowledge of the relative position between the atomic clouds. Based on this method, we also propose an improved scheme to determine the Newtonian gravitational constant G towards the 10 ppm relative uncertainty.

Constraints on Yukawa parameters by double pulsars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deng, Xue-Mei; Xie, Yi; Huang, Tian-Yi

2013-03-01

Although Einstein's general relativity has passed all the tests so far, alternative theories are still required for deeper understanding of the nature of gravity. Double pulsars provide us a significant opportunity to test them. In order to probe some modified gravities which try to explain some astrophysical phenomena without dark matter, we use periastron advance dot{ω} of four binary pulsars (PSR B1913+16, PSR B1534+12, PSR J0737-3039 and PSR B2127+11C) to constrain their Yukawa parameters: λ = (3.97 ± 0.01) × 108m and α = (2.40 ± 0.02) × 10-8. It might help us to distinguish different gravity theories and get closer to the new physics.

Mimicking dark matter in Horndeski gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rinaldi, Massimiliano

2017-06-01

Since the rediscovery of Horndeski gravity, a lot of work has been devoted to the exploration of its properties, especially in the context of dark energy. However, one sector of this theory, namely the one containing the coupling of the Einstein tensor to the kinetic term of the scalar field, shows some surprising features in the construction of black holes and neutron stars. Motivated by these new results, I explore the possibility that this sector of Horndeski gravity can mimic cold dark matter at cosmological level and also explain the flattening of galactic rotation curves. I will show that, in principle, it is possible to achieve both goals with at least two scalar fields and a minimal set of assumptions.

Nonmetricity formulation of general relativity and its scalar-tensor extension

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Järv, Laur; Rünkla, Mihkel; Saal, Margus; Vilson, Ott

2018-06-01

Einstein's celebrated theory of gravitation can be presented in three forms: general relativity, teleparallel gravity, and the rarely considered before symmetric teleparallel gravity. Extending the latter, we introduce a new class of theories where a scalar field is coupled nonminimally to nonmetricity Q , which here encodes the gravitational effects like curvature R in general relativity or torsion T in teleparallel gravity. We point out the similarities and differences with analogous scalar-curvature and scalar-torsion theories by discussing the field equations, role of connection, conformal transformations, relation to f (Q ) theory, and cosmology. The equations for a spatially flat universe coincide with those of teleparallel dark energy, thus allowing us to explain accelerating expansion.

Thickenings and conformal gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lebrun, Claude

1991-07-01

A twistor correspondence is given for complex conformal space-times with vanishing Bach and Eastwood-Dighton tensors; when the Weyl curvature is algebraically general, these equations are precisely the conformal version of Einstein's vacuum equations with cosmological constant. This gives a fully curved version of the linearized correspondence of Baston and Mason [B-M].

Criteria for resolving the cosmological singularity in infinite derivative gravity around expanding backgrounds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edholm, James; Conroy, Aindriú

2017-12-01

We derive the conditions whereby null rays "defocus" within infinite derivative gravity for perturbations around an (A)dS background, and show that it is therefore possible to avoid singularities within this framework. This is in contrast to Einstein's theory of general relativity, where singularities are generated unless the null energy condition is violated. We further extend this to an (A)dS-Bianchi I background metric, and also give an example of a specific perturbation where defocusing is possible given certain conditions.

Gravitation theory - Empirical status from solar system experiments.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nordtvedt, K. L., Jr.

1972-01-01

Review of historical and recent experiments which speak in favor of a post-Newtonian relativistic gravitational theory. The topics include the foundational experiments, metric theories of gravity, experiments designed to differentiate among the metric theories, and tests of Machian concepts of gravity. It is shown that the metric field for any metric theory can be specified by a series of potential terms with several parameters. It is pointed out that empirical results available up to date yield values of the parameters which are consistent with the prediction of Einstein's general relativity.

KIP THORNE: The Shaman of Space and Time.

PubMed

Irion, R

2000-11-24

A generation of physicists probing the extremes of gravity can trace its scientific heritage to one man: Kip Thorne of the California Institute of Technology. A recent symposium to mark Thorne's 60th birthday brought together nearly 200 experts on gravity at its strongest and strangest: the domains of black holes, colliding neutron stars, and other exotic deep-space objects. Participants came to honor their mentor, who has led the way in converting Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity from a purely theoretical science into an astrophysical and observational one.

Dark Energy from Violation of Energy Conservation.

PubMed

Josset, Thibaut; Perez, Alejandro; Sudarsky, Daniel

2017-01-13

In this Letter, we consider the possibility of reconciling metric theories of gravitation with a violation of the conservation of energy-momentum. Under some circumstances, this can be achieved in the context of unimodular gravity, and it leads to the emergence of an effective cosmological constant in Einstein's equation. We specifically investigate two potential sources of energy nonconservation-nonunitary modifications of quantum mechanics and phenomenological models motivated by quantum gravity theories with spacetime discreteness at the Planck scale-and show that such locally negligible phenomena can nevertheless become relevant at the cosmological scale.

Testing Einstein in Space: The Gravity Probe B Relativity Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mester, John

The Gravity Probe B Relativity Mission was successfully launched on April 20, 2004 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a culmination of 40 years of collaborative development at Stanford University and NASA. The goal of the GP-B experiment is to perform precision tests of two independent predictions of general relativity, the geodetic effect and frame dragging. On-orbit cryogenic operations lasted 17.3 months, exceeding requirements. Analysis of the science data is now in progress with a planned announcement of results scheduled for December 2007.

The Gravity-Probe-B relativity gyroscope experiment - Development of the prototype flight instrument

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turneaure, J. P.; Everitt, C. W. F.; Parkinson, B. W.; Bardas, D.; Breakwell, J. V.

1989-01-01

The Gravity-Probe-B relativity gyroscope experiment (GP-B) will measure the geodetic and frame-dragging precession rates of gyroscopes in a 650 km high polar orbit about the earth. The goal is to measure these two effects, which are predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, to 0.01 percent (geodetic) and 1 percent (frame-dragging). This paper presents the development progress for full-size prototype flight hardware including the gyroscopes, gyro readout and magnetic shielding system, and an integrated ground test instrument.

Dark Energy from Violation of Energy Conservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Josset, Thibaut; Perez, Alejandro; Sudarsky, Daniel

2017-01-01

In this Letter, we consider the possibility of reconciling metric theories of gravitation with a violation of the conservation of energy-momentum. Under some circumstances, this can be achieved in the context of unimodular gravity, and it leads to the emergence of an effective cosmological constant in Einstein's equation. We specifically investigate two potential sources of energy nonconservation—nonunitary modifications of quantum mechanics and phenomenological models motivated by quantum gravity theories with spacetime discreteness at the Planck scale—and show that such locally negligible phenomena can nevertheless become relevant at the cosmological scale.

Weyl gravity revisited

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Álvarez, Enrique; González-Martín, Sergio, E-mail: enrique.alvarez@uam.es, E-mail: sergio.gonzalez.martin@csic.es

2017-02-01

The on shell equivalence of first order and second order formalisms for the Einstein-Hilbert action does not hold for those actions quadratic in curvature. It would seem that by considering the connection and the metric as independent dynamical variables, there are no quartic propagators for any dynamical variable. This suggests that it is possible to get both renormalizability and unitarity along these lines. We have studied a particular instance of those theories, namely Weyl gravity. In this first paper we show that it is not possible to implement this program with the Weyl connection alone.

Singularity-free spinors in gravity with propagating torsion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fabbri, Luca

2017-12-01

We consider the most general renormalizable theory of propagating torsion in Einstein gravity for the Dirac matter distribution and we demonstrate that in this case, torsion is a massive axial-vector field whose coupling to the spinor gives rise to conditions in terms of which gravitational singularities are not bound to form; we discuss how our results improve those that are presented in the existing literature, and that no further improvement can be achieved unless one is ready to re-evaluate some considerations on the renormalizability of the theory.

Understanding Dark Energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greyber, Howard

2009-11-01

By careful analysis of the data from the WMAP satellite, scientists were surprised to determine that about 70% of the matter in our universe is in some unknown form, and labeled it Dark Energy. Earlier, in 1998, two separate international groups of astronomers studying Ia supernovae were even more surprised to be forced to conclude that an amazing smooth transition occurred, from the expected slowing down of the expansion of our universe (due to normal positive gravitation) to an accelerating expansion of the universe that began at at a big bang age of the universe of about nine billion years. In 1918 Albert Einstein stated that his Lambda term in his theory of general relativity was ees,``the energy of empty space,'' and represented a negative pressure and thus a negative gravity force. However my 2004 ``Strong'' Magnetic Field model (SMF) for the origin of magnetic fields at Combination Time (Astro-ph0509223 and 0509222) in our big bang universe produces a unique topology for Superclusters, having almost all the mass, visible and invisible, i.e. from clusters of galaxies down to particles with mass, on the surface of an ellipsoid surrounding a growing very high vacuum. If I hypothesize, with Einstein, that there exists a constant ees force per unit volume, then, gradually, as the universe expands from Combination Time, two effects occur (a) the volume of the central high vacuum region increases, and (b) the density of positive gravity particles in the central region of each Supercluster in our universe decreases dramatically. Thus eventually Einstein's general relativity theory's repulsive gravity of the central very high vacuum region becomes larger than the positive gravitational attraction of all the clusters of galaxies, galaxies, quasars, stars and plasma on the Supercluster shell, and the observed accelerating expansion of our universe occurs. This assumes that our universe is made up mostly of such Superclusters. It is conceivable that the high vacuum region between Superclusters also plays a role in adding extra repulsive gravity force. Note that cosmologist Stephen Hawking comments on his website that ``There is no reason to rule out negative pressure. This is just tension.''

Einstein Revisited - Gravity in Curved Spacetime Without Event Horizons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leiter, Darryl

2000-04-01

In terms of covariant derivatives with respect to flat background spacetimes upon which the physical curved spacetime is imposed (1), covariant conservation of energy momentum requires, via the Bianchi Identity, that the Einstein tensor be equated to the matter energy momentum tensor. However the Einstein tensor covariantly splits (2) into two tensor parts: (a) a term proportional to the gravitational stress energy momentum tensor, and (b) an anti-symmetric tensor which obeys a covariant 4-divergence identity called the Freud Identity. Hence covariant conservation of energy momentum requires, via the Freud Identity, that the Freud tensor be equal to a constant times the matter energy momentum tensor. The resultant field equations (3) agree with the Einstein equations to first order, but differ in higher orders (4) such that black holes are replaced by "red holes" i.e., dense objects collapsed inside of their photon orbits with no event horizons. (1) Rosen, N., (1963), Ann. Phys. v22, 1; (2) Rund, H., (1991), Alg. Grps. & Geom. v8, 267; (3) Yilmaz, Hl, (1992), Nuo. Cim. v107B, 946; (4) Roberstson, S., (1999),Ap.J. v515, 365.

Black hole dynamics in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirschmann, Eric W.; Lehner, Luis; Liebling, Steven L.; Palenzuela, Carlos

2018-03-01

We consider the properties and dynamics of black holes within a family of alternative theories of gravity, namely Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory. We analyze the dynamical evolution of individual black holes as well as the merger of binary black hole systems. We do this for a wide range of parameter values for the family of Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theories, investigating, in the process, the stability of these black holes. We examine radiative degrees of freedom, explore the impact of the scalar field on the dynamics of merger, and compare with other scalar-tensor theories. We argue that the dilaton can largely be discounted in understanding merging binary systems and that the end states essentially interpolate between charged and uncharged, rotating black holes. For the relatively small charge values considered here, we conclude that these black hole systems will be difficult to distinguish from their analogs within General Relativity.

Nonholonomic relativistic diffusion and exact solutions for stochastic Einstein spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vacaru, S. I.

2012-03-01

We develop an approach to the theory of nonholonomic relativistic stochastic processes in curved spaces. The Itô and Stratonovich calculus are formulated for spaces with conventional horizontal (holonomic) and vertical (nonholonomic) splitting defined by nonlinear connection structures. Geometric models of the relativistic diffusion theory are elaborated for nonholonomic (pseudo) Riemannian manifolds and phase velocity spaces. Applying the anholonomic deformation method, the field equations in Einstein's gravity and various modifications are formally integrated in general forms, with generic off-diagonal metrics depending on some classes of generating and integration functions. Choosing random generating functions we can construct various classes of stochastic Einstein manifolds. We show how stochastic gravitational interactions with mixed holonomic/nonholonomic and random variables can be modelled in explicit form and study their main geometric and stochastic properties. Finally, the conditions when non-random classical gravitational processes transform into stochastic ones and inversely are analyzed.

Einstein’s Legacy to Astronomy: From Black Holes to the Expanding Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bartusiak, Marcia

2006-12-01

Albert Einstein placed a formidable imprint on astronomy. Not since the time of Isaac Newton, three centuries ago, has a single individual so influenced the field. Many of the great astronomical findings of the 20th century--the expanding universe, compact stars, origin of the Sun’s power, black holes, gravitational lensing, dark energy, gravity waves--are rooted in the physics that Einstein so brilliantly deduced. This illustrated presentation, the Gemant Award Lecture sponsored by the American Institute of Physics, will provide a guided tour through the cosmos and explain how our understanding of the universe was transformed by Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity.

Newton-Cartan gravity and torsion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergshoeff, Eric; Chatzistavrakidis, Athanasios; Romano, Luca; Rosseel, Jan

2017-10-01

We compare the gauging of the Bargmann algebra, for the case of arbitrary torsion, with the result that one obtains from a null-reduction of General Relativity. Whereas the two procedures lead to the same result for Newton-Cartan geometry with arbitrary torsion, the null-reduction of the Einstein equations necessarily leads to Newton-Cartan gravity with zero torsion. We show, for three space-time dimensions, how Newton-Cartan gravity with arbitrary torsion can be obtained by starting from a Schrödinger field theory with dynamical exponent z = 2 for a complex compensating scalar and next coupling this field theory to a z = 2 Schrödinger geometry with arbitrary torsion. The latter theory can be obtained from either a gauging of the Schrödinger algebra, for arbitrary torsion, or from a null-reduction of conformal gravity.

A precise extragalactic test of General Relativity.

PubMed

Collett, Thomas E; Oldham, Lindsay J; Smith, Russell J; Auger, Matthew W; Westfall, Kyle B; Bacon, David; Nichol, Robert C; Masters, Karen L; Koyama, Kazuya; van den Bosch, Remco

2018-06-22

Einstein's theory of gravity, General Relativity, has been precisely tested on Solar System scales, but the long-range nature of gravity is still poorly constrained. The nearby strong gravitational lens ESO 325-G004 provides a laboratory to probe the weak-field regime of gravity and measure the spatial curvature generated per unit mass, γ. By reconstructing the observed light profile of the lensed arcs and the observed spatially resolved stellar kinematics with a single self-consistent model, we conclude that γ = 0.97 ± 0.09 at 68% confidence. Our result is consistent with the prediction of 1 from General Relativity and provides a strong extragalactic constraint on the weak-field metric of gravity. Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Some classes of gravitational shock waves from higher order theories of gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oikonomou, V. K.

2017-02-01

We study the gravitational shock wave generated by a massless high energy particle in the context of higher order gravities of the form F(R,R_{μν}R^{μν},R_{μναβ}R^{μν αβ}). In the case of F(R) gravity, we investigate the gravitational shock wave solutions corresponding to various cosmologically viable gravities, and as we demonstrate the solutions are rescaled versions of the Einstein-Hilbert gravity solution. Interestingly enough, other higher order gravities result to the general relativistic solution, except for some specific gravities of the form F(R_{μν}R^{μν}) and F(R,R_{μν}R^{μν}), which we study in detail. In addition, when realistic Gauss-Bonnet gravities of the form R+F(G) are considered, the gravitational shock wave solutions are identical to the general relativistic solution. Finally, the singularity structure of the gravitational shock waves solutions is studied, and it is shown that the effect of higher order gravities makes the singularities milder in comparison to the general relativistic solutions, and in some particular cases the singularities seem to be absent.

Inducing the Einstein action in QCD-like theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donoghue, John F.; Menezes, Gabriel

2018-03-01

We evaluate the induced value of Newton's constant which would arise in QCD. The ingredients are modern lattice results, perturbation theory and the operator product expansion. The resulting shift in the Planck mass is positive. A scaled-up version of such a theory may be part of a quantum field theory treatment of gravity.

Homogeneous, anisotropic three-manifolds of topologically massive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nutku, Y.; Baekler, P.

1989-10-01

We present a new class of exact solutions of Deser, Jackiw, and Templeton's theory (DJT) of topologically massive gravity which consists of homogeneous, anisotropic manifolds. In these solutions the coframe is given by the left-invariant 1-forms of 3-dimensional Lie algebras up to constant scale factors. These factors are fixed in terms of the DJT coupling constant μ which is the constant of proportionality between the Einstein and Cotton tensors in 3-dimensions. Differences between the scale factors result in anisotropy which is a common feature of topologically massive 3-manifolds. We have found that only Bianchi Types VI, VIII, and IX lead to nontrivial solutions. Among these, a Bianchi Type IX, squashed 3-sphere solution of the Euclideanized DJT theory has finite action. Bianchi Type VIII, IX solutions can variously be embedded in the de Sitter/anti-de Sitter space. That is, some DJT 3-manifolds that we shall present here can be regarded as the basic constituent of anti-de Sitter space which is the ground state solution in higher dimensional generalization of Einstein's general relativity.

Homogeneous, anisotropic three-manifolds of topologically massive gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nutku, Y.; Baekler, P.

1989-10-01

We present a new class of exact solutions of Deser, Jackiw, and Templeton's theory (DJT) of topologically massive gravity which consists of homogeneous, anisotropic manifolds. In these solutions the coframe is given by the left-invariant 1-forms of 3-dimensional Lie algebras up to constant scale factors. These factors are fixed in terms of the DJT coupling constant {mu}m which is the constant of proportionality between the Einstein and Cotton tensors in 3-dimensions. Differences between the scale factors result in anisotropy which is a common feature of topologically massive 3-manifolds. We have found that only Bianchi Types VI, VIII, and IX leadmore » to nontrivial solutions. Among these, a Bianchi Type IX, squashed 3-sphere solution of the Euclideanized DJT theory has finite action, Bianchi Type VIII, IX solutions can variously be embedded in the de Sitter/anti-de Sitter space. That is, some DJT 3-manifolds that we shall present here can be regarded as the basic constitent of anti-de Sitter space which is the ground state solution in higher dimensional generalizations of Einstein's general relativity. {copyright} 1989 Academic Press, Inc.« less

Causality constraints on corrections to the graviton three-point coupling

DOE PAGES

Camanho, Xián O.; Edelstein, José D.; Maldacena, Juan; ...

2016-02-03

In this paper, we consider higher derivative corrections to the graviton three-point coupling within a weakly coupled theory of gravity. Lorentz invariance allows further structures beyond the one present in the Einstein theory. We argue that these are constrained by causality. We devise a thought experiment involving a high energy scattering process which leads to causality violation if the graviton three-point vertex contains the additional structures. This violation cannot be fixed by adding conventional particles with spins J ≤ 2. But, it can be fixed by adding an in finite tower of extra massive particles with higher spins, J > 2. In AdS theories this implies a constraint on the conformal anomaly coefficients |more » $$\\frac{a-c}{c}$$|≲ $$\\frac{1}{2}$$ $${^Δ}_{gap}$$ in terms of Δgap, the dimension of the lightest single trace operator with spin J > 2. Lastly, for inflation, or de Sitter-like solutions, it indicates the existence of massive higher spin particles if the gravity wave non-gaussianity deviates significantly from the one computed in the Einstein theory.« less

The mass formula for an exotic BTZ black hole

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Baocheng, E-mail: zhangbc.zhang@yahoo.com

2016-04-15

An exotic Bañados–Teitelboim–Zanelli (BTZ) black hole has an angular momentum larger than its mass in three dimension (3D), which suggests the possibility that cosmic censorship could be violated if angular momentum is extracted by the Penrose process. In this paper, we propose a mass formula for the exotic BTZ black hole and show no violation of weak cosmic censorship in the gedanken process above by understanding properly its mass formula. Unlike the other black holes, the total energy of the exotic BTZ black hole is represented by the angular momentum instead of the mass, which supports a basic point ofmore » view that the same geometry should be determined by the same energy in 3D general relativity whose equation of motion can be given either by normal 3D Einstein gravity or by exotic 3D Einstein gravity. However, only the mass of the exotic black hole is related to the thermodynamics and other forms of energy are “dumb”, which is consistent with the earlier thermodynamic analysis about exotic black holes.« less

Quantum potential induced UV-IR coupling in analogue Hawking radiation: From Bose-Einstein condensates to canonical acoustic black holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarkar, Supratik; Bhattacharyay, A.

2017-09-01

Arising out of a nonlocal nonrelativistic Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC), we present an analogue gravity model up to O (ξ2) accuracy (ξ being the healing length of the condensate) in the presence of the quantum potential term for a canonical acoustic black hole in (3 +1 )D spacetime, where the series solution of the free minimally coupled KG equation for the large-length-scale massive scalar modes is derived. We systematically address the issues of the presence of the quantum potential term being the root cause of a UV-IR coupling between short-wavelength primary modes which are supposedly Hawking-radiated through the sonic horizon and the large-wavelength secondary modes. In the quantum gravity experiments of analogue Hawking radiation within the scope of the laboratory set up, this UV-IR coupling is inevitable, and one cannot get rid of these large-wavelength excitations which would grow over space by gaining energy from the short-wavelength Hawking-radiated modes. We identify the characteristic feature in the growth rate(s) that would distinguish these primary and secondary modes.

REVIEWS OF TOPICAL PROBLEMS: Cosmological branes and macroscopic extra dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barvinsky, Andrei O.

2005-06-01

The idea of adding extra dimensions to the physical world — thus making the observable universe a timelike surface (or brane) embedded in a higher-dimensional space-time — is briefly reviewed, which is believed to hold serious promise for solving fundamental problems concerning the hierarchy of physical interactions and the cosmological constant. Brane localization of massless gravitons is discussed as a mechanism leading to the effective four-dimensional Einstein gravity theory on the brane in the low-energy limit. It is shown that this mechanism is a corollary of the AdS/CFT correspondence principle well-known from string theory. Inflation and other cosmological evolution scenarios induced by the local and nonlocal structures of the effective action of the gravitational brane are considered, as are the effects that enable the developing gravitational-wave astronomy to be used in the search for extra dimensions. Finally, a new approach to the cosmological constant and cosmological acceleration problems is discussed, which involves variable local and nonlocal gravitational 'constants' arising in the infrared modifications of the Einstein theory that incorporate brane-induced gravity models and models of massive gravitons.

Self-completeness and the generalized uncertainty principle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isi, Maximiliano; Mureika, Jonas; Nicolini, Piero

2014-03-01

The generalized uncertainty principle discloses a self-complete characteristic of gravity, namely the possibility of masking any curvature singularity behind an event horizon as a result of matter compression at the Planck scale. In this paper we extend the above reasoning in order to overcome some current limitations to the framework, including the absence of a consistent metric describing such Planck-scale black holes. We implement a minimum-size black hole in terms of the extremal configuration of a neutral non-rotating metric, which we derived by mimicking the effects of the generalized uncertainty principle via a short scale modified version of Einstein gravity. In such a way, we find a self- consistent scenario that reconciles the self-complete character of gravity and the generalized uncertainty principle.

Self-completeness and the generalized uncertainty principle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isi, Maximiliano; Mureika, Jonas; Nicolini, Piero

2013-11-01

The generalized uncertainty principle discloses a self-complete characteristic of gravity, namely the possibility of masking any curvature singularity behind an event horizon as a result of matter compression at the Planck scale. In this paper we extend the above reasoning in order to overcome some current limitations to the framework, including the absence of a consistent metric describing such Planck-scale black holes. We implement a minimum-size black hole in terms of the extremal configuration of a neutral non-rotating metric, which we derived by mimicking the effects of the generalized uncertainty principle via a short scale modified version of Einstein gravity. In such a way, we find a self-consistent scenario that reconciles the self-complete character of gravity and the generalized uncertainty principle.

Determination of angle of light deflection in higher-derivative gravity theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Chenmei; Yang, Yisong

2018-03-01

Gravitational light deflection is known as one of three classical tests of general relativity and the angle of deflection may be computed explicitly using approximate or exact solutions describing the gravitational force generated from a point mass. In various generalized gravity theories, however, such explicit determination is often impossible due to the difficulty in obtaining an exact expression for the deflection angle. In this work, we present some highly effective globally convergent iterative methods to determine the angle of semiclassical gravitational deflection in higher- and infinite-derivative formalisms of quantum gravity theories. We also establish the universal properties that the deflection angle always stays below the classical Einstein angle and is a strictly decreasing function of the incident photon energy, in these formalisms.

New perspectives on an old problem: The bending of light in Yang-Mills gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cottrell, Kazuo Ota; Hsu, Jong-Ping

Yang-Mills gravity with electromagnetism predicts, in the geometric optics limit, a value for the deflection of light by the sun which agrees closely with the reanalysis of Eddington's 1919 optical measurements done in 1979. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, on the other hand, agrees very closely with measurements of the deflection of electromagnetic waves made in the range of radio frequencies. Since both General Relativity and Yang-Mills gravity with electromagnetism in the geometric optics limit make predictions for the optical region which fall within experimental uncertainty, it becomes important to consider the possibility of the existence of a frequency dependence in the measurement results for the deflection of light, in order to determine which theory more closely describes nature...

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Carone, Christopher D.; Erlich, Joshua; Vaman, Diana

A constraint of vanishing energy-momentum tensor is motivated by a variety of perspectives on quantum gravity. We demonstrate in a concrete example how this constraint leads to a metric-independent theory in which quantum gravity emerges as a nonperturbative artifact of regularization-scale physics. We analyze a scalar theory similar to the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) theory with vanishing gauge fields, with the DBI Lagrangian modulated by a scalar potential. In the limit of a large number of scalars, we explicitly demonstrate the existence of a composite massless spin-2 graviton in the spectrum that couples to matter as in Einstein gravity. As a result,more » we comment on the cosmological constant problem and the generalization to theories with fermions and gauge fields.« less

Inflation in the mixed Higgs-R2 model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Minxi; Starobinsky, Alexei A.; Yokoyama, Jun'ichi

2018-05-01

We analyze a two-field inflationary model consisting of the Ricci scalar squared (R2) term and the standard Higgs field non-minimally coupled to gravity in addition to the Einstein R term. Detailed analysis of the power spectrum of this model with mass hierarchy is presented, and we find that one can describe this model as an effective single-field model in the slow-roll regime with a modified sound speed. The scalar spectral index predicted by this model coincides with those given by the R2 inflation and the Higgs inflation implying that there is a close relation between this model and the R2 inflation already in the original (Jordan) frame. For a typical value of the self-coupling of the standard Higgs field at the high energy scale of inflation, the role of the Higgs field in parameter space involved is to modify the scalaron mass, so that the original mass parameter in the R2 inflation can deviate from its standard value when non-minimal coupling between the Ricci scalar and the Higgs field is large enough.

Comparing fully general relativistic and Newtonian calculations of structure formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

East, William E.; Wojtak, Radosław; Abel, Tom

2018-02-01

In the standard approach to studying cosmological structure formation, the overall expansion of the Universe is assumed to be homogeneous, with the gravitational effect of inhomogeneities encoded entirely in a Newtonian potential. A topic of ongoing debate is to what degree this fully captures the dynamics dictated by general relativity, especially in the era of precision cosmology. To quantitatively assess this, we directly compare standard N-body Newtonian calculations to full numerical solutions of the Einstein equations, for cold matter with various magnitude initial inhomogeneities on scales comparable to the Hubble horizon. We analyze the differences in the evolution of density, luminosity distance, and other quantities defined with respect to fiducial observers. This is carried out by reconstructing the effective spacetime and matter fields dictated by the Newtonian quantities, and by taking care to distinguish effects of numerical resolution. We find that the fully general relativistic and Newtonian calculations show excellent agreement, even well into the nonlinear regime. They only notably differ in regions where the weak gravity assumption breaks down, which arise when considering extreme cases with perturbations exceeding standard values.

PREFACE: Loops 11: Non-Perturbative / Background Independent Quantum Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mena Marugán, Guillermo A.; Barbero G, J. Fernando; Garay, Luis J.; Villaseñor, Eduardo J. S.; Olmedo, Javier

2012-05-01

Loops 11 The international conference LOOPS'11 took place in Madrid from the 23-28 May 2011. It was hosted by the Instituto de Estructura de la Materia (IEM), which belongs to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientĺficas (CSIC). Like previous editions of the LOOPS meetings, it dealt with a wealth of state-of-the-art topics on Quantum Gravity, with special emphasis on non-perturbative background-independent approaches to spacetime quantization. The main topics addressed at the conference ranged from the foundations of Quantum Gravity to its phenomenological aspects. They encompassed different approaches to Loop Quantum Gravity and Cosmology, Polymer Quantization, Quantum Field Theory, Black Holes, and discrete approaches such as Dynamical Triangulations, amongst others. In addition, this edition celebrated the 25th anniversary of the introduction of the now well-known Ashtekar variables and the Wednesday morning session was devoted to this silver jubilee. The structure of the conference was designed to reflect the current state and future prospects of research on the different topics mentioned above. Plenary lectures that provided general background and the 'big picture' took place during the mornings, and the more specialised talks were distributed in parallel sessions during the evenings. To be more specific, Monday evening was devoted to Shape Dynamics and Phenomenology Derived from Quantum Gravity in Parallel Session A, and to Covariant Loop Quantum Gravity and Spin foams in Parallel Session B. Tuesday's three Parallel Sessions dealt with Black Hole Physics and Dynamical Triangulations (Session A), the continuation of Monday's session on Covariant Loop Quantum Gravity and Spin foams (Session B) and Foundations of Quantum Gravity (Session C). Finally, Thursday and Friday evenings were devoted to Loop Quantum Cosmology (Session A) and to Hamiltonian Loop Quantum Gravity (Session B). The result of the conference was very satisfactory and enlightening. Not only was it a showroom for the research currently being carried out by many groups throughout the world, but there was also a permanent look towards the future. During these days, the CSIC Campus witnessed many scientific conversations triggered by the interaction amongst the people and groups that participated in LOOPS'11 Madrid and which, in many cases, will crystallise into new results and advances in the field. The conference would not have been possible without the generous help of a number of national and international institutions. The organizers would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación), the Spanish Research Council, CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientĺficas), The BBVA Foundation (Fundación BBVA), The CONSOLIDER-CPAN project, the Spanish Society for Gravitation and Relativity (SEGRE), The Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M), and the European Science Foundation (ESF). The ESF, through the Quantum Gravity and Quantum Geometry network, provided full support for a number of young participants that have contributed to these proceedings: Dario Benedetti (Albert Einstein Institute, Potsdam, Germany), Norbert Bodendorfer (Institute for Theoretical Physics III, FAU Erlangen Nürnberg, Germany), Mariam Bouhmadi López (CENTRA, Centro Multidisciplinar de Astrofĺsica, Lisbon), Timothy Budd (Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands), Miguel Campiglia (Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, Penn State University, USA), Gianluca Delfino (School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK), Maite Dupuis (Institute for Theoretical Physics III, FAU Erlangen Nürnberg, Germany), Michał Dziendzikowski (Institute of Theoretical Physics, Warsaw University, Poland), Muxin Han (Centre de Physique Théorique de Luminy, Marseille, France), Philipp Höhn (Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands), Jacek Puchta (Centre de Physique Théorique de Luminy, Marseille, France), James Ryan (Albert Einstein Institute, Potsdam, Germany), Lorenzo Sindoni (Albert Einstein Institute, Golm, Germany), David Sloan (Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands), Johannes Tambornino (Laboratoire de Physique, ENS Lyon, France), Andreas Thurn (Institute for Theoretical Physics III, FAU Erlangen Nürnberg, Germany), Francesca Vidotto (Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, Grenoble, France), and Matteo Smerlak (Albert Einstein Institute, Golm, Germany). We would like to conclude this preamble by thanking all the attendants of the conference for their high and enthusiastic participation. The presence of a large number of past and present Loop Quantum Gravity practitioners, as well as a significant number of top researchers in other approaches to quantum gravity, provided ample opportunities for fruitful scientific exchanges and a very lively atmosphere. It is encouraging to see that, 25 years after the inception of Loop Quantum Gravity, there is a vibrant young community of researchers entering the field. Let us hope that, with their help, the quantization of general relativity can be successfully accomplished in the near future. The Editors Conference photograph

About Some Regge-Like Relations for (stable) Black Holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Recami, E.; Tonin-Zanchin, V.; del Popolo, A.; Gambera, M.

1997-08-01

We associated, in a classical formulation of "strong gravity", hadron constituents with suitable stationary, axisymmetric solutions of some new Einstein-type equations supposed to describe the strong field inside hadrons. These new equations can be obtained by the Einstein equations with cosmological term Lambda. As a consequence, Lambda and the masses M result in our theory to be scaled up, and transformed into a "hadronic constant" and into "strong masses", respectively. Due to the unusual range of Lambda and M values considered, we met a series of solutions of the Kerr-Newman-de Sitter (hereafter KNdS) type with rather interesting properties. The requirement that those solutions be stable, i.e., that their temperature (or surface gravity) be vanishingly small, implies the coincidence of at least two of their (in general, three) horizons. Imposing the stability condition of a certain horizon does yield (once chosen the values of J, q and Lambda) mass and radius of the associated black-hole (hereafter BH). In the case of ordinary Einstein equations and for stable BHs of the KNdS type, we get in particular Regge-like (hereafter RL) relations among mass M, angular momentum J, charge q and cosmological constant Lambda; which did not receive enough attention in the previous literature. Besides, we show some particular and interesting cases of these relations. Another interesting point is that, with few exceptions, all such relations (among M, J, q, Lambda) lead to solutions that can be regarded as (stable) cosmological models.

Why natural science needs phenomenological philosophy.

PubMed

Rosen, Steven M

2015-12-01

Through an exploration of theoretical physics, this paper suggests the need for regrounding natural science in phenomenological philosophy. To begin, the philosophical roots of the prevailing scientific paradigm are traced to the thinking of Plato, Descartes, and Newton. The crisis in modern science is then investigated, tracking developments in physics, science's premier discipline. Einsteinian special relativity is interpreted as a response to the threat of discontinuity implied by the Michelson-Morley experiment, a challenge to classical objectivism that Einstein sought to counteract. We see that Einstein's efforts to banish discontinuity ultimately fall into the "black hole" predicted in his general theory of relativity. The unavoidable discontinuity that haunts Einstein's theory is also central to quantum mechanics. Here too the attempt has been made to manage discontinuity, only to have this strategy thwarted in the end by the intractable problem of quantum gravity. The irrepressible discontinuity manifested in the phenomena of modern physics proves to be linked to a merging of subject and object that flies in the face of Cartesian philosophy. To accommodate these radically non-classical phenomena, a new philosophical foundation is called for: phenomenology. Phenomenological philosophy is elaborated through Merleau-Ponty's concept of depth and is then brought into focus for use in theoretical physics via qualitative work with topology and hypercomplex numbers. In the final part of this paper, a detailed summary is offered of the specific application of topological phenomenology to quantum gravity that was systematically articulated in The Self-Evolving Cosmos (Rosen, 2008a). Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

On the local well-posedness of Lovelock and Horndeski theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papallo, Giuseppe; Reall, Harvey S.

2017-08-01

We investigate local well-posedness of the initial value problem for Lovelock and Horndeski theories of gravity. A necessary condition for local well-posedness is strong hyperbolicity of the equations of motion. Even weak hyperbolicity can fail for strong fields so we restrict to weak fields. The Einstein equation is known to be strongly hyperbolic in harmonic gauge so we study Lovelock theories in harmonic gauge. We show that the equation of motion is always weakly hyperbolic for weak fields but, in a generic weak-field background, it is not strongly hyperbolic. For Horndeski theories, we prove that, for weak fields, the equation of motion is always weakly hyperbolic in any generalized harmonic gauge. For some Horndeski theories there exists a generalized harmonic gauge for which the equation of motion is strongly hyperbolic in a weak-field background. This includes "k-essence" like theories. However, for more general Horndeski theories, there is no generalized harmonic gauge for which the equation of motion is strongly hyperbolic in a generic weak-field background. Our results show that the standard method used to establish local well-posedness of the Einstein equation does not extend to Lovelock or general Horndeski theories. This raises the possibility that these theories may not admit a well-posed initial value problem even for weak fields.

BOOK REVIEW: The Legacy of Albert Einstein: A Collection of Essays in Celebration of the Year of Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Straumann, Norbert

2007-10-01

During the 'World Year of Physics' much has been written on the epoch-making 1905 papers of Albert Einstein and his later great contributions to physics. Why another book on the enormous impact of Einstein's work on 20th-century physics? The short answer is that the present collection of 13 relatively short essays on the legacy of Einstein by outstanding scientists is very pleasant to read and should be of interest to physicists of all branches. Beside looking back, most articles present later and topical developments, whose initiation began with the work of Einstein. During the year 2005, the growing recognition among physicists, historians, and philosophers of Einstein's revolutionary role in quantum theory was often emphasized. It is truly astonishing that most active physicists were largely unaware of this before. Fortunately, the article 'Einstein and the quantum' by V Singh puts the subject in perspective and describes all the main steps, beginning with the truly revolutionary 1905 paper on the light-quantum hypothesis and ending with Einstein's extension of the particle-wave duality to atoms and other particles in 1924 1925. The only point which, in my opinion, is not sufficiently emphasized in the discussion of the 1916 1917 papers on absorption and emission of radiation is the part on the momentum transfer in each elementary process. Einstein's result that there is a directed recoil hν/c—also for spontaneous emission—in complete contrast to classical theory, was particularly important to him. I enjoyed reading the articles on Brownian motion (S Majumdar), Bose Einstein condensation (N Kumar) and strongly correlated electrons (T Ramakrishnan), which are all written for non-experts. Connected with Einstein's most lasting work—general relativity—there are two articles on cosmology. The one by J Narlikar gives a brief historical account of the development that was initiated by the 1917 paper of Einstein. S Sarkar's essay emphasizes the remarkable recent observational progress in cosmology and the emergence of the 'cosmic concordance model', with dark matter and dark energy as the dominant components of the current universe. Their discovery is widely considered as the most direct evidence for fundamental physics beyond the standard model of particle physics. In an introductory section Sarkar recalls the main reasons why the cosmological constant (vacuum energy) problem is of a very profound nature. In spite of some interesting ideas, no satisfactory solution is in sight. The article by B Sathyapakhash on gravitational radiation provides a readable introduction to the status of current detectors and astronomical sources of gravitational radiation. Of great cosmological interest are planned searches for a stochastic background of gravitational waves that is expected to have been produced by quantum processes in the very early universe. More than the first third of the book is devoted to current speculative attempts at creating a quantum theory of gravity, possibly within a unified coherent description of the known four fundamental interactions. Thanks to the enormously large value of the Planck energy in comparison to elementary particle masses, physicists may maintain for a long time, with success, a schizophrenic attitude in working within the framework of our present understanding, based on quantum field theory and classical general relativity. That physics cannot stay with that was already pointed out by Einstein in 1916, as A Ashtekar recalls in his essay. 'Einstein and the search for unification' by D Gross is the first article of the present book. In this he describes the reasons why, for those working in speculative areas, 'Einstein remains an inspiration for his foresight, and his unyielding determination and courage'. This inspiration is also manifest in the essays by M Atiyah, A Sen, and A Dabholkar on string theory. Hopefully, this book will find many readers, especially among graduate students, who can get valuable impressions of what is interesting in physics and what some of the main open problems for future research are.

Space Time Theories Confirmed

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-04

Seated from left, Bill Danchi, Senior Astrophysicist and Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters, Francis Everitt, Principal Investigator for the Gravity Probe B Mission at Stanford University, Rex Geveden, President of Teledyne Brown Engineering, Colleen Hartman, a research professor at George Washington University, and Clifford Will, Professor of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., conduct a press conference, Wednesday, May 4, 2011, to discuss NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission which has confirmed two key predictions derived from Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which the spacecraft was designed to test. at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Paul E. Alers)

Traversable wormholes without exotic matter in multimetric repulsive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hohmann, Manuel

2014-04-01

We present a static, spherically symmetric, traversable wormhole solution to multimetric gravity which is sustained by only nonexotic matter, i.e., matter which satisfies all energy conditions. The possibility of this solution arises from the fact that under certain conditions the multimetric gravitational field equations reduce to the Einstein equations, but with a negative effective gravitational constant. We show that the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner mass of this wormhole vanishes, so that it appears massless to observers in the asymptotically flat spacetime. We finally speculate on the feasibility of creating and maintaining this type of wormhole by an advanced civilization.

Nonassociative differential geometry and gravity with non-geometric fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aschieri, Paolo; Ćirić, Marija Dimitrijević; Szabo, Richard J.

2018-02-01

We systematically develop the metric aspects of nonassociative differential geometry tailored to the parabolic phase space model of constant locally non-geometric closed string vacua, and use it to construct preliminary steps towards a nonassociative theory of gravity on spacetime. We obtain explicit expressions for the torsion, curvature, Ricci tensor and Levi-Civita connection in nonassociative Riemannian geometry on phase space, and write down Einstein field equations. We apply this formalism to construct R-flux corrections to the Ricci tensor on spacetime, and comment on the potential implications of these structures in non-geometric string theory and double field theory.

Quantum properties of affine-metric gravity with the cosmological term

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baurov, A. Yu; Pronin, P. I.; Stepanyantz, K. V.

2018-04-01

The paper contains analysis of the one-loop effective action for affine-metric gravity of the Hilbert–Einstein type with the cosmological term. We discuss different approaches to the calculation of the effective action, which depends on two independent variables, namely, the metric tensor and the affine connection. In the one-loop approximation we explain how the effective action can be obtained, if, at the first step of the calculation, the metric tensor is integrated out. It is demonstrated that the result is the same as in the case when one starts by integrating out the connection.

Testing subleading multiple soft graviton theorem for CHY prescription

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakrabarti, Subhroneel; Kashyap, Sitender Pratap; Sahoo, Biswajit; Sen, Ashoke; Verma, Mritunjay

2018-01-01

In arXiv:1707.06803 we derived the subleading multiple soft graviton theorem in a generic quantum theory of gravity for arbitrary number of soft external gravitons and arbitrary number of finite energy external states carrying arbitrary mass and spin. In this paper we verify this explicitly using the CHY formula for tree level scattering amplitudes of arbitrary number of gravitons in Einstein gravity. We pay special care to fix the signs of the amplitudes and resolve an apparent discrepancy between our general results in arXiv:1707.06803 and previous results on soft graviton theorem from CHY formula.

Scalar field collapse in Gauss-Bonnet gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banerjee, Narayan; Paul, Tanmoy

2018-02-01

We consider a "scalar-Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet" theory in four dimension, where the scalar field couples non-minimally with the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) term. This coupling with the scalar field ensures the non-topological character of the GB term. In this scenario, we examine the possibility for collapsing of the scalar field. Our result reveals that such a collapse is possible in the presence of Gauss-Bonnet gravity for suitable choices of parametric regions. The singularity formed as a result of the collapse is found to be a curvature singularity which is hidden from the exterior by an apparent horizon.

FLRW cosmological models with quark and strange quark matters in f(R,T) gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagpal, Ritika; Singh, J. K.; Aygün, S.

2018-06-01

In this paper, we have studied the magnetized quark matter (QM) and strange quark matter (SQM) distributions in the presence of f(R,T) gravity in the background of Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metric. To get exact solutions of modified field equations we have used f(R,T ) = R + 2 f(T) model given by Harko et al. with two different parametrization of geometrical parameters i.e. the parametrization of the deceleration parameter q , and the scale factor a in hybrid expansion form. Also, we have obtained Einstein Static Universe (ESU) solutions for QM and SQM distributions in f(R,T) gravity and General Relativity (GR). All models in f(R,T) gravity and GR for FRW and ESU Universes with QM also SQM distributions, we get zero magnetic field. These results agree with the solutions of Aktaş and Aygün in f(R,T) gravity. However, we have also discussed the physical consequences of our obtained models.

Energy-dependent topological anti-de Sitter black holes in Gauss-Bonnet Born-Infeld gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hendi, S. H.; Behnamifard, H.; Bahrami-Asl, B.

2018-03-01

Employing higher-curvature corrections to Einstein-Maxwell gravity has garnered a great deal of attention motivated by the high-energy regime in the quantum nature of black hole physics. In addition, one may employ gravity's rainbow to encode quantum gravity effects into black hole solutions. In this paper, we regard an energy-dependent static spacetime with various topologies and study its black hole solutions in the context of Gauss-Bonnet Born-Infeld (GB-BI) gravity. We study the thermodynamic properties and examine the first law of thermodynamics. Using a suitable local transformation, we endow the Ricci-flat black hole solutions with a global rotation and study the effects of rotation on thermodynamic quantities. We also investigate thermal stability in a canonical ensemble by calculating the heat capacity. We obtain the effects of various parameters on the horizon radius of stable black holes. Finally, we discuss a second-order phase transition in the extended phase space thermodynamics and investigate the critical behavior.

Modified gravity in Arnowitt-Deser-Misner formalism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Changjun

2010-02-01

Motivated by Hořava-Lifshitz gravity theory, we propose and investigate two kinds of modified gravity theories, the f(R) kind and the K-essence kind, in the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) formalism. The f(R) kind includes one ultraviolet (UV) term and one infrared (IR) term together with the Einstein-Hilbert action. We find that these two terms naturally present the ultraviolet and infrared modifications to the Friedmann equation. The UV and IR modifications can avoid the past Big-Bang singularity and the future Big-Rip singularity, respectively. Furthermore, the IR modification can naturally account for the current acceleration of the Universe. The Lagrangian of K-essence kind modified gravity is made up of the three-dimensional Ricci scalar and an arbitrary function of the extrinsic curvature term. We find the cosmic acceleration can also be naturally interpreted without invoking any kind of dark energy. The static, spherically symmetry and vacuum solutions of both theories are Schwarzschild or Schwarzschild-de Sitter solution. Thus these modified gravity theories are viable for solar system tests.

Discrete gravity on random tensor network and holographic Rényi entropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Muxin; Huang, Shilin

2017-11-01

In this paper we apply the discrete gravity and Regge calculus to tensor networks and Anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence. We construct the boundary many-body quantum state |Ψ〉 using random tensor networks as the holographic mapping, applied to the Wheeler-deWitt wave function of bulk Euclidean discrete gravity in 3 dimensions. The entanglement Rényi entropy of |Ψ〉 is shown to holographically relate to the on-shell action of Einstein gravity on a branch cover bulk manifold. The resulting Rényi entropy S n of |Ψ〉 approximates with high precision the Rényi entropy of ground state in 2-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT). In particular it reproduces the correct n dependence. Our results develop the framework of realizing the AdS3/CFT2 correspondence on random tensor networks, and provide a new proposal to approximate the CFT ground state.

Gauge assisted quadratic gravity: A framework for UV complete quantum gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donoghue, John F.; Menezes, Gabriel

2018-06-01

We discuss a variation of quadratic gravity in which the gravitational interaction remains weakly coupled at all energies, but is assisted by a Yang-Mills gauge theory which becomes strong at the Planck scale. The Yang-Mills interaction is used to induce the usual Einstein-Hilbert term, which was taken to be small or absent in the original action. We study the spin-two propagator in detail, with a focus on the high mass resonance which is shifted off the real axis by the coupling to real decay channels. We calculate scattering in the J =2 partial wave and show explicitly that unitarity is satisfied. The theory will in general have a large cosmological constant and we study possible solutions to this, including a unimodular version of the theory. Overall, the theory satisfies our present tests for being a ultraviolet completion of quantum gravity.

Testing quantum gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hansson, Johan; Francois, Stephane

The search for a theory of quantum gravity is the most fundamental problem in all of theoretical physics, but there are as yet no experimental results at all to guide this endeavor. What seems to be needed is a pragmatic way to test if gravitation really occurs between quantum objects or not. In this paper, we suggest such a potential way out of this deadlock, utilizing macroscopic quantum systems; superfluid helium, gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates and “macroscopic” molecules. It turns out that true quantum gravity effects — here defined as observable gravitational interactions between truly quantum objects — could and should be seen (if they occur in nature) using existing technology. A falsification of the low-energy limit in the accessible weak-field regime would also falsify the full theory of quantum gravity, making it enter the realm of testable, potentially falsifiable theories, i.e. becoming real physics after almost a century of pure theorizing. If weak-field gravity between quantum objects is shown to be absent (in the regime where the approximation should apply), we know that gravity then is a strictly classical phenomenon absent at the quantum level.

On dynamical systems approaches and methods in f ( R ) cosmology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Alho, Artur; Carloni, Sante; Uggla, Claes, E-mail: aalho@math.ist.utl.pt, E-mail: sante.carloni@tecnico.ulisboa.pt, E-mail: claes.uggla@kau.se

We discuss dynamical systems approaches and methods applied to flat Robertson-Walker models in f ( R )-gravity. We argue that a complete description of the solution space of a model requires a global state space analysis that motivates globally covering state space adapted variables. This is shown explicitly by an illustrative example, f ( R ) = R + α R {sup 2}, α > 0, for which we introduce new regular dynamical systems on global compactly extended state spaces for the Jordan and Einstein frames. This example also allows us to illustrate several local and global dynamical systems techniquesmore » involving, e.g., blow ups of nilpotent fixed points, center manifold analysis, averaging, and use of monotone functions. As a result of applying dynamical systems methods to globally state space adapted dynamical systems formulations, we obtain pictures of the entire solution spaces in both the Jordan and the Einstein frames. This shows, e.g., that due to the domain of the conformal transformation between the Jordan and Einstein frames, not all the solutions in the Jordan frame are completely contained in the Einstein frame. We also make comparisons with previous dynamical systems approaches to f ( R ) cosmology and discuss their advantages and disadvantages.« less

Teaching Einsteinian Physics at Schools: Part 1, Models and Analogies for Relativity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaur, Tejinder; Blair, David; Moschilla, John; Stannard, Warren; Zadnik, Marjan

2017-01-01

The Einstein-First project aims to change the paradigm of school science teaching through the introduction of modern Einsteinian concepts of space and time, gravity and quanta at an early age. These concepts are rarely taught to school students despite their central importance to modern science and technology. The key to implementing the…

Optical design for the Laser Astrometric Test of Relativity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turyshev, Slava G.; Shao, Michael; Nordtvedt, Kenneth L., Jr.

2004-01-01

This paper discusses the Laser Astrometric Test of Relativity (LATOR) mission. LATOR is a Michelson-Morley-type experiment designed to test the pure tensor metric nature of gravitation the fundamental postulate of Einstein's theory of general relativity. With its focus on gravity's action on light propagation it complements other tests which rely on the gravitational dynamics of bodies.

Numerical Relativity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baker, John G.

2009-01-01

Recent advances in numerical relativity have fueled an explosion of progress in understanding the predictions of Einstein's theory of gravity, General Relativity, for the strong field dynamics, the gravitational radiation wave forms, and consequently the state of the remnant produced from the merger of compact binary objects. I will review recent results from the field, focusing on mergers of two black holes.

Extensions of the Einstein-Schrodinger non-symmetric theory of gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shifflett, James A.

We modify the Einstein-Schrödinger theory to include a cosmological constant L z which multiplies the symmetric metric. The cosmological constant L z is assumed to be nearly cancelled by Schrödinger's cosmological constant L b which multiplies the nonsymmetric fundamental tensor, such that the total L = L z + L b matches measurement. The resulting theory becomes exactly Einstein-Maxwell theory in the limit as |L z | [arrow right] oo. For |L z | ~ 1/(Planck length) 2 the field equations match the ordinary Einstein and Maxwell equations except for extra terms which are < 10 -16 of the usual terms for worst-case field strengths and rates-of-change accessible to measurement. Additional fields can be included in the Lagrangian, and these fields may couple to the symmetric metric and the electromagnetic vector potential, just as in Einstein-Maxwell theory. The ordinary Lorentz force equation is obtained by taking the divergence of the Einstein equations when sources are included. The Einstein- Infeld-Hoffmann (EIH) equations of motion match the equations of motion for Einstein-Maxwell theory to Newtonian/Coulombian order, which proves the existence of a Lorentz force without requiring sources. An exact charged solution matches the Reissner-Nordström solution except for additional terms which are ~ 10 -66 of the usual terms for worst-case radii accessible to measurement. An exact electromagnetic plane-wave solution is identical to its counterpart in Einstein-Maxwell theory. Peri-center advance, deflection of light and time delay of light have a fractional difference of < 10 -56 compared to Einstein-Maxwell theory for worst-case parameters. When a spin-1/2 field is included in the Lagrangian, the theory gives the ordinary Dirac equation, and the charged solution results in fractional shifts of < 10 -50 in Hydrogen atom energy levels. Newman-Penrose methods are used to derive an exact solution of the connection equations, and to show that the charged solution is Petrov type- D like the Reissner-Nordström solution. The Newman-Penrose asymptotically flat [Special characters omitted.] (1/ r 2 ) expansion of the field equations is shown to match Einstein-Maxwell theory. Finally we generalize the theory to non-Abelian fields, and show that a special case of the resulting theory closely approximates Einstein-Weinberg-Salam theory.

Boundary term in metric f ( R) gravity: field equations in the metric formalism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guarnizo, Alejandro; Castañeda, Leonardo; Tejeiro, Juan M.

2010-11-01

The main goal of this paper is to get in a straightforward form the field equations in metric f ( R) gravity, using elementary variational principles and adding a boundary term in the action, instead of the usual treatment in an equivalent scalar-tensor approach. We start with a brief review of the Einstein-Hilbert action, together with the Gibbons-York-Hawking boundary term, which is mentioned in some literature, but is generally missing. Next we present in detail the field equations in metric f ( R) gravity, including the discussion about boundaries, and we compare with the Gibbons-York-Hawking term in General Relativity. We notice that this boundary term is necessary in order to have a well defined extremal action principle under metric variation.

Primordial fluctuations from inflation in dRGT bimetric theory of gravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sakakihara, Yuki; Research Center for the Early Universe; Tanaka, Takahiro

2016-09-19

We investigate primordial gravitational waves and curvature perturbations in de Rham-Gabadadze-Tolley (dRGT) bimetric gravity. We evaluate the power-spectra in the leading order in slow roll. Taking into account the decay of massive graviton, we find that the action up to the second order reduces to the Einstein theory with a non-minimally coupled scalar field, which is simplified to a minimally coupled model by conformal transformation. We also find that the tensor to scalar ratio for large field inflation with power law potential is larger than the general relativity counterpart for any choice of parameters in dRGT bimetric gravity. In addition,more » we confirm that the usual consistency relation holds and we have a steeper spectrum for gravitational waves.« less

Gravity as Elasticity of Spacetime:

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Padmanabhan, T.

It is very likely that the quantum description of spacetime is quite different from what we perceive at large scales, l≫(Gℏ/c3)1/2. The long wavelength description of spacetime, based on Einstein's equations, is similar to the description of a continuum solid made of a large number of microscopic degrees of freedom. This paradigm provides a novel interpretation of coordinate transformations as deformations of "spacetime solid" and allows one to obtain Einstein's equations as a consistency condition in the long wavelength limit. The entropy contributed by the microscopic degrees of freedom reduces to a pure surface contribution when Einstein's equations are satisfied. The horizons arises as "defects" in the "spacetime solid" (in the sense of well-defined singular points) and contributes an entropy which is one quarter of the horizon area. Finally, the response of the microstructure to vacuum energy leads to a near cancellation of the cosmological constant, leaving behind a tiny fluctuation which matches with the observed value.

Fast scrambling in holographic Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pair

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murata, Keiju

2017-11-01

We demonstrate that a holographic model of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pair exhibits fast scrambling. Strongly entangled quark and antiquark in N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory are considered. Their gravity dual is a fundamental string whose endpoints are uniformly accelerated in opposite direction. We slightly increase the acceleration of the endpoint and show that it quickly destroys the correlation between the quark and antiquark. The proper time scale of the destruction is τ ∗ ˜ β ln S where β is the inverse Unruh temperature and S is the entropy of the accelerating quark. We also evaluate the Lyapunov exponent from correlation function as λ L = 2 π/ β, which saturates the Lyapunov bound. Our results suggest that the fast scrambling or saturation of the Lyapunov bound do not directly imply the existence of an Einstein dual. When we slightly decrease the acceleration, the quark and antiquark are causally connected and an "one-way traversable wormhole" is created on the worldsheet. It causes the divergence of the correlation function between the quark and antiquark.

Studies into the nature of cosmic acceleration: Dark energy or a modification to gravity on cosmological scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dossett, Jason Nicholas

Since its discovery more than a decade ago, the problem of cosmic acceleration has become one of the largest in cosmology and physics as a whole. An unknown dark energy component of the universe is often invoked to explain this observation. Mathematically, this works because inserting a cosmic fluid with a negative equation of state into Einstein's equations provides an accelerated expansion. There are, however, alternative explanations for the observed cosmic acceleration. Perhaps the most promising of the alternatives is that, on the very largest cosmological scales, general relativity needs to be extended or a new, modified gravity theory must be used. Indeed, many modified gravity models are not only able to replicate the observed accelerated expansion without dark energy, but are also more compatible with a unified theory of physics. Thus it is the goal of this dissertation to develop and study robust tests that will be able to distinguish between these alternative theories of gravity and the need for a dark energy component of the universe. We will study multiple approaches using the growth history of large-scale structure in the universe as a way to accomplish this task. These approaches include studying what is known as the growth index parameter, a parameter that describes the logarithmic growth rate of structure in the universe, which describes the rate of formation of clusters and superclusters of galaxies over the entire age of the universe. We will explore the effectiveness of this parameter to distinguish between general relativity and modifications to gravity physics given realistic expectations of results from future experiments. Next, we will explore the modified growth formalism wherein deviations from the growth expected in general relativity are parameterized via changes to the growth equations, i.e. the perturbed Einstein's equations. We will also explore the impact of spatial curvature on these tests. Finally, we will study how dark energy with some unusual properties will affect the conclusiveness of these tests.

Analytical expression for a class of spherically symmetric solutions in Lorentz-breaking massive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Ping; Li, Xin-zhou; Xi, Ping

2016-06-01

We present a detailed study of the spherically symmetric solutions in Lorentz-breaking massive gravity. There is an undetermined function { F }(X,{w}1,{w}2,{w}3) in the action of Stückelberg fields {S}φ ={{{Λ }}}4\\int {{{d}}}4x\\sqrt{-g}{ F }, which should be resolved through physical means. In general relativity, the spherically symmetric solution to the Einstein equation is a benchmark and its massive deformation also plays a crucial role in Lorentz-breaking massive gravity. { F } will satisfy the constraint equation {T}01=0 from the spherically symmetric Einstein tensor {G}01=0, if we maintain that any reasonable physical theory should possess the spherically symmetric solutions. The Stückelberg field {φ }i is taken as a ‘hedgehog’ configuration {φ }i=φ (r){x}i/r, whose stability is guaranteed by the topological one. Under this ansätz, {T}01=0 is reduced to d{ F }=0. The functions { F } for d{ F }=0 form a commutative ring {R}{ F }. We obtain an expression of the solution to the functional differential equation with spherical symmetry if { F }\\in {R}{ F }. If { F }\\in {R}{ F } and \\partial { F }/\\partial X=0, the functions { F } form a subring {S}{ F }\\subset {R}{ F }. We show that the metric is Schwarzschild, Schwarzschild-AdS or Schwarzschild-dS if { F }\\in {S}{ F }. When { F }\\in {R}{ F } but { F }\

Black hole perturbation under a 2 +2 decomposition in the action

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ripley, Justin L.; Yagi, Kent

2018-01-01

Black hole perturbation theory is useful for studying the stability of black holes and calculating ringdown gravitational waves after the collision of two black holes. Most previous calculations were carried out at the level of the field equations instead of the action. In this work, we compute the Einstein-Hilbert action to quadratic order in linear metric perturbations about a spherically symmetric vacuum background in Regge-Wheeler gauge. Using a 2 +2 splitting of spacetime, we expand the metric perturbations into a sum over scalar, vector, and tensor spherical harmonics, and dimensionally reduce the action to two dimensions by integrating over the two sphere. We find that the axial perturbation degree of freedom is described by a two-dimensional massive vector action, and that the polar perturbation degree of freedom is described by a two-dimensional dilaton massive gravity action. Varying the dimensionally reduced actions, we rederive covariant and gauge-invariant master equations for the axial and polar degrees of freedom. Thus, the two-dimensional massive vector and massive gravity actions we derive by dimensionally reducing the perturbed Einstein-Hilbert action describe the dynamics of a well-studied physical system: the metric perturbations of a static black hole. The 2 +2 formalism we present can be generalized to m +n -dimensional spacetime splittings, which may be useful in more generic situations, such as expanding metric perturbations in higher dimensional gravity. We provide a self-contained presentation of m +n formalism for vacuum spacetime splittings.

Equivalent off-diagonal cosmological models and ekpyrotic scenarios in -modified, massive, and einstein gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vacaru, Sergiu I.

2015-04-01

We reinvestigate how generic off-diagonal cosmological solutions depending, in general, on all spacetime coordinates can be constructed in massive and -modified gravity using the anholonomic frame deformation method. New classes of locally anisotropic and (in-) homogeneous cosmological metrics are constructed with open and closed spatial geometries. By resorting to such solutions, we show that they describe the late time acceleration due to effective cosmological terms induced by nonlinear off-diagonal interactions, possible modifications of the gravitational action and graviton mass. The cosmological metrics and related Stückelberg fields are constructed in explicit form up to nonholonomic frame transforms of the Friedmann-Lamaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) coordinates. The solutions include matter, graviton mass, and other effective sources modeling nonlinear gravitational and matter field interactions with polarization of physical constants and deformations of metrics, which may explain dark energy and dark matter effects. However, we argue that it is not always necessary to modify gravity if we consider the effective generalized Einstein equations with nontrivial vacuum and/or non-minimal coupling with matter. Indeed, we state certain conditions when such configurations mimic interesting solutions in general relativity and modifications, for instance, when we can extract the general Painlevé-Gullstrand and FLRW metrics. In a more general context, we elaborate on a reconstruction procedure for off-diagonal cosmological solutions which describe cyclic and ekpyrotic universes. Finally, open issues and further perspectives are discussed.

Type IIB Colliding Plane Waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gutperle, M.; Pioline, B.

2003-09-01

Four-dimensional colliding plane wave (CPW) solutions have played an important role in understanding the classical non-linearities of Einstein's equations. In this note, we investigate CPW solutions in 2n+2-dimensional Einstein gravity with a n+1-form flux. By using an isomorphism with the four-dimensional problem, we construct exact solutions analogous to the Szekeres vacuum solution in four dimensions. The higher-dimensional versions of the Khan-Penrose and Bell-Szekeres CPW solutions are studied perturbatively in the vicinity of the light-cone. We find that under small perturbations, a curvature singularity is generically produced, leading to both space-like and time-like singularities. For n = 4, our results pertain to the collision of two ten-dimensional type-IIB Blau-Figueroa o'Farrill-Hull-Papadopoulos plane waves.

Dynamic wormhole solutions in Einstein-Cartan gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mehdizadeh, Mohammad Reza; Ziaie, Amir Hadi

2017-12-01

In the present work, we investigate evolving wormhole configurations described by a constant redshift function in Einstein-Cartan theory. The matter content consists of a Weyssenhoff fluid along with an anisotropic matter which together generalize the anisotropic energy momentum tensor in general relativity in order to include the effects of intrinsic angular momentum (spin) of particles. Using a generalized Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime, we derive analytical evolving wormhole geometries by assuming a particular equation of state for energy density and pressure profiles. We introduce exact asymptotically flat and anti-de Sitter spacetimes that admit traversable wormholes and respect energy conditions throughout the spacetime. The rate of expansion of these evolving wormholes is determined only by the Friedmann equation in the presence of spin effects.

Quantum gravity from noncommutative spacetime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Jungjai; Yang, Hyun Seok

2014-12-01

We review a novel and authentic way to quantize gravity. This novel approach is based on the fact that Einstein gravity can be formulated in terms of a symplectic geometry rather than a Riemannian geometry in the context of emergent gravity. An essential step for emergent gravity is to realize the equivalence principle, the most important property in the theory of gravity (general relativity), from U(1) gauge theory on a symplectic or Poisson manifold. Through the realization of the equivalence principle, which is an intrinsic property in symplectic geometry known as the Darboux theorem or the Moser lemma, one can understand how diffeomorphism symmetry arises from noncommutative U(1) gauge theory; thus, gravity can emerge from the noncommutative electromagnetism, which is also an interacting theory. As a consequence, a background-independent quantum gravity in which the prior existence of any spacetime structure is not a priori assumed but is defined by using the fundamental ingredients in quantum gravity theory can be formulated. This scheme for quantum gravity can be used to resolve many notorious problems in theoretical physics, such as the cosmological constant problem, to understand the nature of dark energy, and to explain why gravity is so weak compared to other forces. In particular, it leads to a remarkable picture of what matter is. A matter field, such as leptons and quarks, simply arises as a stable localized geometry, which is a topological object in the defining algebra (noncommutative ★-algebra) of quantum gravity.

Dark Energy, or Worse

ScienceCinema

Carroll, Sean

2018-01-09

General relativity is inconsistent with cosmological observations unless we invoke components of dark matter and dark energy that dominate the universe. While it seems likely that these exotic substances really do exist, the alternative is worth considering: that Einstein's general relativity breaks down on cosmological scales. I will discuss models of modified gravity, tests in the solar system and elsewhere, and consequences for cosmology.

Space Time Theories Confirmed

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-04

Francis Everitt, Principal Investigator for the Gravity Probe B Mission at Stanford University, second from left, makes a point during a press conference, Wednesday, May 4, 2011, to discuss NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission which has confirmed two key predictions derived from Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which the spacecraft was designed to test at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The experiment, launched in 2004, used four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure the hypothesized geodetic effect, the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates. Photo Credit: (NASA/Paul E. Alers)

Space Time Theories Confirmed

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-04

Francis Everitt, Principal Investigator for the Gravity Probe B Mission at Stanford University, makes a point during a press conference, Wednesday, May 4, 2011, to discuss NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission which has confirmed two key predictions derived from Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which the spacecraft was designed to test at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The experiment, launched in 2004, used four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure the hypothesized geodetic effect, the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates. Photo Credit: (NASA/Paul E. Alers)

Nonexotic matter wormholes in a trace of the energy-momentum tensor squared gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moraes, P. H. R. S.; Sahoo, P. K.

2018-01-01

Wormholes are tunnels connecting two different points in space-time. In Einstein's general relativity theory, wormholes are expected to be filled by exotic matter, i.e., matter that does not satisfy the energy conditions and may have negative density. We propose, in this paper, the achievement of wormhole solutions with no need for exotic matter. In order to achieve so, we consider a gravity theory that starts from linear and quadratic terms on the trace of the energy-momentum tensor in the gravitational action. We show that by following this formalism, it is possible, indeed, to obtain nonexotic matter wormhole solutions.

Renormalizable, asymptotically free gravity without ghosts or tachyons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Einhorn, Martin B.; Jones, D. R. Timothy

2017-12-01

We analyze scale invariant quadratic quantum gravity incorporating nonminimal coupling to a multiplet of scalar fields in a gauge theory, with particular emphasis on the consequences for its interpretation resulting from a transformation from the Jordan frame to the Einstein frame. The result is the natural emergence of a de Sitter space solution which, depending the gauge theory and region of parameter space chosen, can be free of ghosts and tachyons, and completely asymptotically free. In the case of an SO(10) model, we present a detailed account of the spontaneous symmetry breaking, and we calculate the leading (two-loop) contribution to the dilaton mass.

KSC-03PD-2746

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. The Gravity Probe B experiment enters the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base. Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

KSC-03PD-2744

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. At Vandenberg AFB, the canister enclosing the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) spacecraft is removed from the transporter. Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

The Partition Function in the Four-Dimensional Schwarz-Type Topological Half-Flat Two-Form Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abe, Mitsuko

We derive the partition functions of the Schwarz-type four-dimensional topological half-flat two-form gravity model on K3-surface or T4 up to on-shell one-loop corrections. In this model the bosonic moduli spaces describe an equivalent class of a trio of the Einstein-Kähler forms (the hyper-Kähler forms). The integrand of the partition function is represented by the product of some bar ∂ -torsions. bar ∂ -torsion is the extension of R-torsion for the de Rham complex to that for the bar ∂ -complex of a complex analytic manifold.

3rd Karl Schwarzschild Meeting - Gravity and the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicolini, Piero; Kaminski, Matthias; Mureika, Jonas; Bleicher, Marcus

2018-01-01

The Karl Schwarzschild Meeting 2017 (KSM2017) has been the third instalment of the conference dedicated to the great Frankfurter scientist, who derived the first black hole solution of Einstein's equations about 100 years ago. The event has been a 5 day meeting in the field of black holes, AdS/CFT correspondence and gravitational physics. Like the two previous instalments, the conference continued to attract a stellar ensemble of participants from the world's most renowned institutions. The core of the meeting has been a series of invited talks from eminent experts (keynote speakers) as well as the presence of plenary research talks by students and junior speakers.

Noether and Abbott-Deser-Tekin conserved quantities in scalar-tensor theory of gravity both in Jordan and Einstein frames

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhattacharya, Krishnakanta; Das, Ashmita; Majhi, Bibhas Ranjan

2018-06-01

We revisit the thermodynamic aspects of the scalar-tensor theory of gravity in the Jordan and in the Einstein frame. Examining the missing links of this theory carefully, we establish the thermodynamic descriptions from the conserved currents and potentials by following both the Noether and the Abbott-Deser-Tekin (ADT) formalism. With the help of conserved Noether current and potential, we define the thermodynamic quantities, which we show to be conformally invariant. Moreover, the defined quantities are shown to fit nicely in the laws of (the first and the second) black hole thermodynamics formulated by the Wald's method. We stretch the study of the conformal equivalence of the physical quantities in these two frames by following the ADT formalism. Our further study reveals that there is a connection between the ADT and the Noether conserved quantities, which signifies that the ADT approach provide the equivalent thermodynamic description in the two frames as obtained in Noether prescription. Our whole analysis is very general as the conserved Noether and ADT currents and potentials are formulated off-shell and the analysis is exempted from any prior assumption or boundary condition.

Dark stars in Starobinsky's model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panotopoulos, Grigoris; Lopes, Ilídio

2018-01-01

In the present work we study non-rotating dark stars in f (R ) modified theory of gravity. In particular, we have considered bosonic self-interacting dark matter modeled inside the star as a Bose-Einstein condensate, while as far as the modified theory of gravity is concerned we have assumed Starobinsky's model R +a R2. We solve the generalized structure equations numerically, and we obtain the mass-to-ratio relation for several different values of the parameter a , and for two different dark matter equation-of-states. Our results show that the dark matter stars become more compact in the R-squared gravity compared to general relativity, while at the same time the highest star mass is slightly increased in the modified gravitational theory. The numerical value of the highest star mass for each case has been reported.

Cosmological models in energy-momentum-squared gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Board, Charles V. R.; Barrow, John D.

2017-12-01

We study the cosmological effects of adding terms of higher order in the usual energy-momentum tensor to the matter Lagrangian of general relativity. This is in contrast to most studies of higher-order gravity which focus on generalizing the Einstein-Hilbert curvature contribution to the Lagrangian. The resulting cosmological theories give rise to field equations of similar form to several particular theories with different fundamental bases, including bulk viscous cosmology, loop quantum gravity, k -essence, and brane-world cosmologies. We find a range of exact solutions for isotropic universes, discuss their behaviors with reference to the early- and late-time evolution, accelerated expansion, and the occurrence or avoidance of singularities. We briefly discuss extensions to anisotropic cosmologies and delineate the situations where the higher-order matter terms will dominate over anisotropies on approach to cosmological singularities.

AdS charged black holes in Einstein-Yang-Mills gravity's rainbow: Thermal stability and P - V criticality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hendi, Seyed Hossein; Momennia, Mehrab

2018-02-01

Motivated by the interesting non-abelian gauge field, in this paper, we look for the analytical solutions of Yang-Mills theory in the context of gravity's rainbow. Regarding the trace of quantum gravity in black hole thermodynamics, we examine the first law of thermodynamics and also thermal stability in the canonical ensemble. We show that although the rainbow functions and Yang-Mills charge modify the solutions, the first law of thermodynamics is still valid. Based on the phenomenological similarities between the adS black holes and van der Waals liquid/gas systems, we study the critical behavior of the Yang-Mills black holes in the extended phase space thermodynamics. We also investigate the effects of various parameters on thermal instability as well as critical properties by using appropriate figures.

KSC-03PD-3277

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, a worker checks the installation of a solar array panel onto the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3280

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, the Gravity Probe B spacecraft is seen with two solar array panels installed. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3270

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. Workers in the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base attach a solar array panel on the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3281

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, the Gravity Probe B spacecraft is seen with all four solar array panels installed. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3267

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. Workers in the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base work on a solar array panel to be installed on the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3271

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. Workers in the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base attach a solar array panel on the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3266

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. Workers in the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base prepare for the installation of solar array panel 3 on the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

Can f(R) gravity contribute to (dark) radiation?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morais, João; Bouhmadi-López, Mariam; Capozziello, Salvatore, E-mail: jviegas001@ikasle.ehu.eus, E-mail: mbl@ubi.pt, E-mail: capozziello@na.infn.it

2015-09-01

We discuss the possibility that suitable modifications of gravity could account for some amount of the radiation we observe today, in addition to the possibility of explaining the present speed up of the universe. We start introducing and reviewing cosmological reconstruction methods for metric f(R) theories of gravity that can be considered as one of the straightforward modifications of Einstein's gravity as soon as f(R)≠ R. We then take into account two possible f(R) models which could give rise to (dark) radiation. Constraints on the models are found by using the Planck Collaboration 2015 data within a cosmographic approach and bymore » obtaining the matter power spectrum of those models. The conclusion is that f(R) gravity can only contribute minimally to the (dark) radiation to avoid departures from the observed matter power spectrum at the smallest scales (of the order of 0.01Mpc{sup −1}), i.e., precisely those scales that exited the horizon at the radiation dominated epoch. This result could strongly contribute to select reliable f(R) models.« less

On Resolutions of Cosmological Singularities in Higher-Spin Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burrington, Benjamin; Pando Zayas, Leopoldo; Rombes, Nicholas

2014-03-01

Gravity in three dimensions is simpler than in four, due to the lack of gravitational waves, and can be recast as a Chern-Simons theory. In this context, it is straightforward to generalize Einstein's gravity, with or without cosmological constant, by changing the gauge group. Using this, we study the resolution of certain cosmological singularities, and extend the singularity resolution scheme proposed by Krishnan and Roy. We discuss the resolution of a big-bang singularity in the case of gravity coupled to a spin-4 field realized as Chern-Simons theory with gauge group SL (4 , C) . We show the existence of gauge transformations that do not change the holonomy of the Chern-Simons gauge potential and lead to metrics without the initial singularity. We argue that such transformations always exist in the context of gravity coupled to a spin-N field when described by Chern-Simons with gauge group SL (N , C) . This work was supported by the DOE under grant DE-FG02-95ER40899, a research grant from Troy University, and the Honors Summer Fellowship at the University of Michigan.

Stealth configurations in vector-tensor theories of gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chagoya, Javier; Tasinato, Gianmassimo

2018-01-01

Studying the physics of compact objects in modified theories of gravity is important for understanding how future observations can test alternatives to General Relativity. We consider a subset of vector-tensor Galileon theories of gravity characterized by new symmetries, which can prevent the propagation of the vector longitudinal polarization, even in absence of Abelian gauge invariance. We investigate new spherically symmetric and slowly rotating solutions for these systems, including an arbitrary matter Lagrangian. We show that, under certain conditions, there always exist stealth configurations whose geometry coincides with solutions of Einstein gravity coupled with the additional matter. Such solutions have a non-trivial profile for the vector field, characterized by independent integration constants, which extends to asymptotic infinity. We interpret our findings in terms of the symmetries and features of the original vector-tensor action, and on the number of degrees of freedom that it propagates. These results are important to eventually describe gravitationally bound configurations in modified theories of gravity, such as black holes and neutron stars, including realistic matter fields forming or surrounding the object.

Weakly dynamic dark energy via metric-scalar couplings with torsion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sur, Sourav; Bhatia, Arshdeep Singh, E-mail: sourav.sur@gmail.com, E-mail: arshdeepsb@gmail.com

We study the dynamical aspects of dark energy in the context of a non-minimally coupled scalar field with curvature and torsion. Whereas the scalar field acts as the source of the trace mode of torsion, a suitable constraint on the torsion pseudo-trace provides a mass term for the scalar field in the effective action. In the equivalent scalar-tensor framework, we find explicit cosmological solutions representing dark energy in both Einstein and Jordan frames. We demand the dynamical evolution of the dark energy to be weak enough, so that the present-day values of the cosmological parameters could be estimated keeping themmore » within the confidence limits set for the standard LCDM model from recent observations. For such estimates, we examine the variations of the effective matter density and the dark energy equation of state parameters over different redshift ranges. In spite of being weakly dynamic, the dark energy component differs significantly from the cosmological constant, both in characteristics and features, for e.g. it interacts with the cosmological (dust) fluid in the Einstein frame, and crosses the phantom barrier in the Jordan frame. We also obtain the upper bounds on the torsion mode parameters and the lower bound on the effective Brans-Dicke parameter. The latter turns out to be fairly large, and in agreement with the local gravity constraints, which therefore come in support of our analysis.« less

Weakly dynamic dark energy via metric-scalar couplings with torsion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sur, Sourav; Singh Bhatia, Arshdeep

2017-07-01

We study the dynamical aspects of dark energy in the context of a non-minimally coupled scalar field with curvature and torsion. Whereas the scalar field acts as the source of the trace mode of torsion, a suitable constraint on the torsion pseudo-trace provides a mass term for the scalar field in the effective action. In the equivalent scalar-tensor framework, we find explicit cosmological solutions representing dark energy in both Einstein and Jordan frames. We demand the dynamical evolution of the dark energy to be weak enough, so that the present-day values of the cosmological parameters could be estimated keeping them within the confidence limits set for the standard LCDM model from recent observations. For such estimates, we examine the variations of the effective matter density and the dark energy equation of state parameters over different redshift ranges. In spite of being weakly dynamic, the dark energy component differs significantly from the cosmological constant, both in characteristics and features, for e.g. it interacts with the cosmological (dust) fluid in the Einstein frame, and crosses the phantom barrier in the Jordan frame. We also obtain the upper bounds on the torsion mode parameters and the lower bound on the effective Brans-Dicke parameter. The latter turns out to be fairly large, and in agreement with the local gravity constraints, which therefore come in support of our analysis.

Nonlocal Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mashhoon, Bahram

2017-05-01

Relativity theory is based on a postulate of locality, which means that the past history of the observer is not directly taken into account. This book argues that the past history should be taken into account. In this way, nonlocality 1R 2i1nr-in the sense of history dependence-is introduced into relativity theory. The deep connection between inertia and gravitation suggests that gravity could be nonlocal, and in nonlocal gravity the fading gravitational memory of past events must then be taken into account. Along this line of thought, a classical nonlocal generalization of Einstein's theory of gravitation has recently been developed. A significant consequence of this theory is that the nonlocal aspect of gravity appears to simulate dark matter. According to nonlocal gravity theory, what astronomers attribute to dark matter should instead be due to the nonlocality of gravitation. Nonlocality dominates on the scale of galaxies and beyond. Memory fades with time; therefore, the nonlocal aspect of gravity becomes weaker as the universe expands. The implications of nonlocal gravity are explored in this book for gravitational lensing, gravitational radiation, the gravitational physics of the Solar System and the internal dynamics of nearby galaxies, as well as clusters of galaxies. This approach is extended to nonlocal Newtonian cosmology, where the attraction of gravity fades with the expansion of the universe. Thus far, scientists have only compared some of the consequences of nonlocal gravity with astronomical observations.

Comparing fully general relativistic and Newtonian calculations of structure formation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

East, William E.; Wojtak, Radosław; Abel, Tom

In the standard approach to studying cosmological structure formation, the overall expansion of the Universe is assumed to be homogeneous, with the gravitational effect of inhomogeneities encoded entirely in a Newtonian potential. A topic of ongoing debate is to what degree this fully captures the dynamics dictated by general relativity, especially in the era of precision cosmology. To quantitatively assess this, in this paper we directly compare standard N-body Newtonian calculations to full numerical solutions of the Einstein equations, for cold matter with various magnitude initial inhomogeneities on scales comparable to the Hubble horizon. We analyze the differences in themore » evolution of density, luminosity distance, and other quantities defined with respect to fiducial observers. This is carried out by reconstructing the effective spacetime and matter fields dictated by the Newtonian quantities, and by taking care to distinguish effects of numerical resolution. We find that the fully general relativistic and Newtonian calculations show excellent agreement, even well into the nonlinear regime. Finally, they only notably differ in regions where the weak gravity assumption breaks down, which arise when considering extreme cases with perturbations exceeding standard values.« less

Atomic clocks for geodesy.

PubMed

Mehlstäubler, Tanja E; Grosche, Gesine; Lisdat, Christian; Schmidt, Piet O; Denker, Heiner

2018-06-01

We review experimental progress on optical atomic clocks and frequency transfer, and consider the prospects of using these technologies for geodetic measurements. Today, optical atomic frequency standards have reached relative frequency inaccuracies below 10 -17 , opening new fields of fundamental and applied research. The dependence of atomic frequencies on the gravitational potential makes atomic clocks ideal candidates for the search for deviations in the predictions of Einstein's general relativity, tests of modern unifying theories and the development of new gravity field sensors. In this review, we introduce the concepts of optical atomic clocks and present the status of international clock development and comparison. Besides further improvement in stability and accuracy of today's best clocks, a large effort is put into increasing the reliability and technological readiness for applications outside of specialized laboratories with compact, portable devices. With relative frequency uncertainties of 10 -18 , comparisons of optical frequency standards are foreseen to contribute together with satellite and terrestrial data to the precise determination of fundamental height reference systems in geodesy with a resolution at the cm-level. The long-term stability of atomic standards will deliver excellent long-term height references for geodetic measurements and for the modelling and understanding of our Earth.

Comparing fully general relativistic and Newtonian calculations of structure formation

DOE PAGES

East, William E.; Wojtak, Radosław; Abel, Tom

2018-02-13

In the standard approach to studying cosmological structure formation, the overall expansion of the Universe is assumed to be homogeneous, with the gravitational effect of inhomogeneities encoded entirely in a Newtonian potential. A topic of ongoing debate is to what degree this fully captures the dynamics dictated by general relativity, especially in the era of precision cosmology. To quantitatively assess this, in this paper we directly compare standard N-body Newtonian calculations to full numerical solutions of the Einstein equations, for cold matter with various magnitude initial inhomogeneities on scales comparable to the Hubble horizon. We analyze the differences in themore » evolution of density, luminosity distance, and other quantities defined with respect to fiducial observers. This is carried out by reconstructing the effective spacetime and matter fields dictated by the Newtonian quantities, and by taking care to distinguish effects of numerical resolution. We find that the fully general relativistic and Newtonian calculations show excellent agreement, even well into the nonlinear regime. Finally, they only notably differ in regions where the weak gravity assumption breaks down, which arise when considering extreme cases with perturbations exceeding standard values.« less

Gravity and decoherence: the double slit experiment revisited

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samuel, Joseph

2018-02-01

The double slit experiment is iconic and widely used in classrooms to demonstrate the fundamental mystery of quantum physics. The puzzling feature is that the probability of an electron arriving at the detector when both slits are open is not the sum of the probabilities when the slits are open separately. The superposition principle of quantum mechanics tells us to add amplitudes rather than probabilities and this results in interference. This experiment defies our classical intuition that the probabilities of exclusive events add. In understanding the emergence of the classical world from the quantum one, there have been suggestions by Feynman, Diosi and Penrose that gravity is responsible for suppressing interference. This idea has been pursued in many different forms ever since, predominantly within Newtonian approaches to gravity. In this paper, we propose and theoretically analyse two ‘gedanken’ or thought experiments which lend strong support to the idea that gravity is responsible for decoherence. The first makes the point that thermal radiation can suppress interference. The second shows that in an accelerating frame, Unruh radiation does the same. Invoking the Einstein equivalence principle to relate acceleration to gravity, we support the view that gravity is responsible for decoherence.

Enhanced asymptotic BMS3 algebra of the flat spacetime solutions of generalized minimal massive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Setare, M. R.; Adami, H.

2018-01-01

We apply the new fall of conditions presented in the paper [1] on asymptotically flat spacetime solutions of Chern-Simons-like theories of gravity. We show that the considered fall of conditions asymptotically solve equations of motion of generalized minimal massive gravity. We demonstrate that there exist two type of solutions, one of those is trivial and the others are non-trivial. By looking at non-trivial solutions, for asymptotically flat spacetimes in the generalized minimal massive gravity, in contrast to Einstein gravity, cosmological parameter can be non-zero. We obtain the conserved charges of the asymptotically flat spacetimes in generalized minimal massive gravity, and by introducing Fourier modes we show that the asymptotic symmetry algebra is a semidirect product of a BMS3 algebra and two U (1) current algebras. Also we verify that the BMS3 algebra can be obtained by a contraction of the AdS3 asymptotic symmetry algebra when the AdS3 radius tends to infinity in the flat-space limit. Finally we find energy, angular momentum and entropy for a particular case and deduce that these quantities satisfy the first law of flat space cosmologies.

The Happiest thought of Einstein's Life

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heller, Michael

Finally, let us have a closer look at the place of the equivalence principle in the logical scheme of Einstein's general relativity theory. First, Einstein new well, from Minkowski's geometric formulation of his own special relativity, that accelerated motions should be represented as curved lines in a flat space-time. Second, the Galileo principle asserts that all bodies are accelerated in the same way in a given gravitational field, and consequently their motions are represented in the flat space-time by curved lines, all exactly in the same way. Third, since all lines representing free motions are curved exactly in the same way in the flat space-time, one can say that the lines remain straight (as far as possible) but the space-time itself becomes curved. Fourth, and last, since acceleration is (locally) equivalent to a gravitational field (here we have the equivalence principle), one is entitled to assert that it is the gravitational field (and not acceleration) that is represented as the curvature of space-time. This looks almost like an Aristotelian syllogism. However, to put all the pieces of evidence into the logical chain took Einstein a few years of hard thinking. The result has been incorporated into the field equations which quantitatively show how the curvature of space-time and gravity are linked together.

Is the cosmological constant screened in Liouville gravity with matter?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Inami, Takeo; Koyama, Yoji; Nakayama, Yu

In this study, there has been a proposal that infrared quantum effects of massless interacting field theories in de Sitter space may provide time-dependent screening of the cosmological constant. As a concrete model of the proposal, we study the three loop corrections to the energy–momentum tensor of massless λΦ 4 theory in the background of classical Liouville gravity in D = 2 dimensional de Sitter space. We find that the cosmological constant is screened, in sharp contrast to the massless λΦ 4 theory in D = 4 dimensions due to the sign difference between the cosmological constant of the Liouvillemore » gravity and that of the Einstein gravity. To argue for the robustness of our prediction, we introduce the concept of time-dependent infrared counter-terms and examine if they recover the de Sitter invariance in the λΦ 4 theory in comparison with the Sine–Gordon model, where it was possible.« less

Post-Newtonian parameter γ in generalized non-local gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xue; Wu, YaBo; Yang, WeiQiang; Zhang, ChengYuan; Chen, BoHai; Zhang, Nan

2017-10-01

We investigate the post-Newtonian parameter γ and derive its formalism in generalized non-local (GNL) gravity, which is the modified theory of general relativity (GR) obtained by adding a term m 2 n-2 R☐-n R to the Einstein-Hilbert action. Concretely, based on parametrizing the generalized non-local action in which gravity is described by a series of dynamical scalar fields ϕ i in addition to the metric tensor g μν, the post-Newtonian limit is computed, and the effective gravitational constant as well as the post-Newtonian parameters are directly obtained from the generalized non-local gravity. Moreover, by discussing the values of the parametrized post-Newtonian parameters γ, we can compare our expressions and results with those in Hohmann and Järv et al. (2016), as well as current observational constraints on the values of γ in Will (2006). Hence, we draw restrictions on the nonminimal coupling terms F̅ around their background values.

Testing quantum gravity through dumb holes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pourhassan, Behnam, E-mail: b.pourhassan@du.ac.ir; Faizal, Mir, E-mail: f2mir@uwaterloo.ca; Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, University of British Columbia - Okanagan, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7

We propose a method to test the effects of quantum fluctuations on black holes by analyzing the effects of thermal fluctuations on dumb holes, the analogs for black holes. The proposal is based on the Jacobson formalism, where the Einstein field equations are viewed as thermodynamical relations, and so the quantum fluctuations are generated from the thermal fluctuations. It is well known that all approaches to quantum gravity generate logarithmic corrections to the entropy of a black hole and the coefficient of this term varies according to the different approaches to the quantum gravity. It is possible to demonstrate thatmore » such logarithmic terms are also generated from thermal fluctuations in dumb holes. In this paper, we claim that it is possible to experimentally test such corrections for dumb holes, and also obtain the correct coefficient for them. This fact can then be used to predict the effects of quantum fluctuations on realistic black holes, and so it can also be used, in principle, to experimentally test the different approaches to quantum gravity.« less

Momentum and charge transport in non-relativistic holographic fluids from Hořava gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davison, Richard A.; Grozdanov, Sašo; Janiszewski, Stefan; Kaminski, Matthias

2016-11-01

We study the linearized transport of transverse momentum and charge in a conjectured field theory dual to a black brane solution of Hořava gravity with Lifshitz exponent z = 1. As expected from general hydrodynamic reasoning, we find that both of these quantities are diffusive over distance and time scales larger than the inverse temperature. We compute the diffusion constants and conductivities of transverse momentum and charge, as well the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density, and find that they differ from their relativistic counterparts. To derive these results, we propose how the holographic dictionary should be modified to deal with the multiple horizons and differing propagation speeds of bulk excitations in Hořava gravity. When possible, as a check on our methods and results, we use the covariant Einstein-Aether formulation of Hořava gravity, along with field redefinitions, to re-derive our results from a relativistic bulk theory.

Is the cosmological constant screened in Liouville gravity with matter?

DOE PAGES

Inami, Takeo; Koyama, Yoji; Nakayama, Yu; ...

2015-05-19

In this study, there has been a proposal that infrared quantum effects of massless interacting field theories in de Sitter space may provide time-dependent screening of the cosmological constant. As a concrete model of the proposal, we study the three loop corrections to the energy–momentum tensor of massless λΦ 4 theory in the background of classical Liouville gravity in D = 2 dimensional de Sitter space. We find that the cosmological constant is screened, in sharp contrast to the massless λΦ 4 theory in D = 4 dimensions due to the sign difference between the cosmological constant of the Liouvillemore » gravity and that of the Einstein gravity. To argue for the robustness of our prediction, we introduce the concept of time-dependent infrared counter-terms and examine if they recover the de Sitter invariance in the λΦ 4 theory in comparison with the Sine–Gordon model, where it was possible.« less

Constraint-Free Theories of Gravitation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Estabrook, Frank B.; Robinson, R. Steve; Wahlquist, Hugo D.

1998-01-01

Lovelock actions (more precisely, extended Gauss-Bonnet forms) when varied as Cartan forms on subspaces of higher dimensional flat Riemannian manifolds, generate well set, causal exterior differential systems. In particular, the Einstein- Hilbert action 4-form, varied on a 4 dimensional subspace of E(sub 10) yields a well set generalized theory of gravity having no constraints. Rcci-flat solutions are selected by initial conditions on a bounding 3-space.

Palatini variation of curvature-squared action and gravitational collapse

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shahid-Saless, Bahman

1991-01-01

It is shown that Palatini variation of a class of gravitational actions based on a quadratic generalization of the Einstein-Hilbert action results in a metric-incompatible theory of gravity but one that satisfies Birkhoff's theorem. The usual fourth-order field equations are replaced by two second-order equations. Application of the field equations to a model of freely falling dust are discussed.

Geometrical relationship for the Einstein and Ricci tensors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sida, D.W.

1976-08-01

Components of the Ricci and Einstein tensors are expressed in terms of the Gaussian curvatures of elementary two-spaces formed by the orthogonal coordinate planes, and the results are applied to some standard metrics.

Theory and experiment in gravitational physics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Will, C. M.

1981-01-01

New technological advances have made it feasible to conduct measurements with precision levels which are suitable for experimental tests of the theory of general relativity. This book has been designed to fill a new need for a complete treatment of techniques for analyzing gravitation theory and experience. The Einstein equivalence principle and the foundations of gravitation theory are considered, taking into account the Dicke framework, basic criteria for the viability of a gravitation theory, experimental tests of the Einstein equivalence principle, Schiff's conjecture, and a model theory devised by Lightman and Lee (1973). Gravitation as a geometric phenomenon is considered along with the parametrized post-Newtonian formalism, the classical tests, tests of the strong equivalence principle, gravitational radiation as a tool for testing relativistic gravity, the binary pulsar, and cosmological tests.

Teaching Einsteinian physics at schools: part 1, models and analogies for relativity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaur, Tejinder; Blair, David; Moschilla, John; Stannard, Warren; Zadnik, Marjan

2017-11-01

The Einstein-First project aims to change the paradigm of school science teaching through the introduction of modern Einsteinian concepts of space and time, gravity and quanta at an early age. These concepts are rarely taught to school students despite their central importance to modern science and technology. The key to implementing the Einstein-First curriculum is the development of appropriate models and analogies. This paper is the first part of a three-paper series. It presents the conceptual foundation of our approach, based on simple physical models and analogies, followed by a detailed description of the models and analogies used to teach concepts of general and special relativity. Two accompanying papers address the teaching of quantum physics (Part 2) and research outcomes (Part 3).

Theory and experiment in gravitational physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Will, C. M.

New technological advances have made it feasible to conduct measurements with precision levels which are suitable for experimental tests of the theory of general relativity. This book has been designed to fill a new need for a complete treatment of techniques for analyzing gravitation theory and experience. The Einstein equivalence principle and the foundations of gravitation theory are considered, taking into account the Dicke framework, basic criteria for the viability of a gravitation theory, experimental tests of the Einstein equivalence principle, Schiff's conjecture, and a model theory devised by Lightman and Lee (1973). Gravitation as a geometric phenomenon is considered along with the parametrized post-Newtonian formalism, the classical tests, tests of the strong equivalence principle, gravitational radiation as a tool for testing relativistic gravity, the binary pulsar, and cosmological tests.

On the origin of Poincaré gauge gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chkareuli, J. L.

2017-06-01

We argue that the origin of Poincaré gauge gravity (PGG) may be related to spontaneous violation of underlying spacetime symmetries involved and appearance of gauge fields as vector Goldstone bosons. In essence, we start with an arbitrary theory of some vector and fermion fields which possesses only global spacetime symmetries, such as Lorentz and translational invariance, in flat Minkowski space. The two vector field multiplets involved are assumed to belong, respectively, to the adjoint (Aμij) and vector (eμi) representations of the starting global Lorentz symmetry. We propose that these prototype vector fields are covariantly constrained, Aμij Aijμ = ±MA2 and eμi eiμ = ±Me2 , that causes a spontaneous violation of the accompanying global symmetries (MA,e are their presumed violation scales). It then follows that the only possible theory compatible with these length-preserving constraints is turned out to be the gauge invariant PGG, while the corresponding massless (pseudo)Goldstone modes are naturally collected in the emergent gauge fields of tetrads and spin-connections. In a minimal theory case being linear in a curvature we unavoidably come to the Einstein-Cartan theory. The extended theories with propagating spin-connection and tetrad modes are also considered and their possible unification with the Standard Model is briefly discussed.

Cauchy problem as a two-surface based ‘geometrodynamics’

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rácz, István

2015-01-01

Four-dimensional spacetimes foliated by a two-parameter family of homologous two-surfaces are considered in Einstein's theory of gravity. By combining a 1 + (1 + 2) decomposition, the canonical form of the spacetime metric and a suitable specification of the conformal structure of the foliating two-surfaces, a gauge fixing is introduced. It is shown that, in terms of the chosen geometrically distinguished variables, the 1 + 3 Hamiltonian and momentum constraints can be recast into the form of a parabolic equation and a first order symmetric hyperbolic system, respectively. Initial data to this system can be given on one of the two-surfaces foliating the three-dimensional initial data surface. The 1 + 3 reduced Einstein's equations are also determined. By combining the 1 + 3 momentum constraint with the reduced system of the secondary 1 + 2 decomposition, a mixed hyperbolic-hyperbolic system is formed. It is shown that solutions to this mixed hyperbolic-hyperbolic system are also solutions to the full set of Einstein's equations provided that the 1 + 3 Hamiltonian constraint is solved on the initial data surface {{Σ }0} and the 1 + 2 Hamiltonian and momentum type expressions vanish on a world-tube yielded by the Lie transport of one of the two-surfaces foliating {{Σ }0} along the time evolution vector field. Whenever the foliating two-surfaces are compact without boundary in the spacetime and a regular origin exists on the time-slices—this is the location where the foliating two-surfaces smoothly reduce to a point—it suffices to guarantee that the 1 + 3 Hamiltonian constraint holds on the initial data surface. A short discussion on the use of the geometrically distinguished variables in identifying the degrees of freedom of gravity are also included. Dedicated to Zoltán Cseke on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Khodam-Mohammadi, A.; Monshizadeh, M.

We give a review of the existence of Taub-NUT/bolt solutions in Einstein Gauss-Bonnet gravity with the parameter {alpha} in six dimensions. Although the spacetime with base space S{sup 2}xS{sup 2} has a curvature singularity at r=N, which does not admit NUT solutions, we may proceed with the same computations as in the CP{sup 2} case. The investigation of thermodynamics of NUT/bolt solutions in six dimensions is carried out. We compute the finite action, mass, entropy, and temperature of the black hole. Then the validity of the first law of thermodynamics is demonstrated. It is shown that in NUT solutions allmore » thermodynamic quantities for both base spaces are related to each other by substituting {alpha}{sup CP{sup k}}=[(k+1)/k]{alpha}{sup S{sup 2}}{sup xS{sup 2}}{sup x...S{sub k}{sup 2}}. So, no further information is given by investigating NUT solutions in the S{sup 2}xS{sup 2} case. This relation is not true for bolt solutions. A generalization of the thermodynamics of black holes to arbitrary even dimensions is made using a new method based on the Gibbs-Duhem relation and Gibbs free energy for NUT solutions. According to this method, the finite action in Einstein Gauss-Bonnet is obtained by considering the generalized finite action in Einstein gravity with an additional term as a function of {alpha}. Stability analysis is done by investigating the heat capacity and entropy in the allowed range of {alpha}, {lambda}, and N. For NUT solutions in d dimensions, there exists a stable phase at a narrow range of {alpha}. In six-dimensional bolt solutions, the metric is completely stable for B=S{sup 2}xS{sup 2} and is completely unstable for the B=CP{sup 2} case.« less

Hamiltonian approach to GR - Part 1: covariant theory of classical gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cremaschini, Claudio; Tessarotto, Massimo

2017-05-01

A challenging issue in General Relativity concerns the determination of the manifestly covariant continuum Hamiltonian structure underlying the Einstein field equations and the related formulation of the corresponding covariant Hamilton-Jacobi theory. The task is achieved by adopting a synchronous variational principle requiring distinction between the prescribed deterministic metric tensor \\widehat{g}(r)≡ { \\widehat{g}_{μ ν }(r)} solution of the Einstein field equations which determines the geometry of the background space-time and suitable variational fields x≡ { g,π } obeying an appropriate set of continuum Hamilton equations, referred to here as GR-Hamilton equations. It is shown that a prerequisite for reaching such a goal is that of casting the same equations in evolutionary form by means of a Lagrangian parametrization for a suitably reduced canonical state. As a result, the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi theory is established in manifestly covariant form. Physical implications of the theory are discussed. These include the investigation of the structural stability of the GR-Hamilton equations with respect to vacuum solutions of the Einstein equations, assuming that wave-like perturbations are governed by the canonical evolution equations.

Towards a second law for Lovelock theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhattacharyya, Sayantani; Haehl, Felix M.; Kundu, Nilay; Loganayagam, R.; Rangamani, Mukund

2017-03-01

In classical general relativity described by Einstein-Hilbert gravity, black holes behave as thermodynamic objects. In particular, the laws of black hole mechanics can be interpreted as laws of thermodynamics. The first law of black hole mechanics extends to higher derivative theories via the Noether charge construction of Wald. One also expects the statement of the second law, which in Einstein-Hilbert theory owes to Hawking's area theorem, to extend to higher derivative theories. To argue for this however one needs a notion of entropy for dynamical black holes, which the Noether charge construction does not provide. We propose such an entropy function for the family of Lovelock theories, treating the higher derivative terms as perturbations to the Einstein-Hilbert theory. Working around a dynamical black hole solution, and making no assumptions about the amplitude of departure from equilibrium, we construct a candidate entropy functional valid to all orders in the low energy effective field theory. This entropy functional satisfies a second law, modulo a certain subtle boundary term, which deserves further investigation in non-spherically symmetric situations.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Conroy, Aindriú; Mazumdar, Anupam; Koshelev, Alexey S., E-mail: a.conroy@lancaster.ac.uk, E-mail: alexey@ubi.pt, E-mail: a.mazumdar@lancaster.ac.uk

Einstein's General theory of relativity permits spacetime singularities, where null geodesic congruences focus in the presence of matter, which satisfies an appropriate energy condition. In this paper, we provide a minimal defocusing condition for null congruences without assuming any ansatz -dependent background solution. The two important criteria are: (1) an additional scalar degree of freedom, besides the massless graviton must be introduced into the spacetime; and (2) an infinite derivative theory of gravity is required in order to avoid tachyons or ghosts in the graviton propagator. In this regard, our analysis strengthens earlier arguments for constructing non-singular bouncing cosmologies withinmore » an infinite derivative theory of gravity, without assuming any ansatz to solve the full equations of motion.« less

Antigravity and the big crunch/big bang transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bars, Itzhak; Chen, Shih-Hung; Steinhardt, Paul J.; Turok, Neil

2012-08-01

We point out a new phenomenon which seems to be generic in 4d effective theories of scalar fields coupled to Einstein gravity, when applied to cosmology. A lift of such theories to a Weyl-invariant extension allows one to define classical evolution through cosmological singularities unambiguously, and hence construct geodesically complete background spacetimes. An attractor mechanism ensures that, at the level of the effective theory, generic solutions undergo a big crunch/big bang transition by contracting to zero size, passing through a brief antigravity phase, shrinking to zero size again, and re-emerging into an expanding normal gravity phase. The result may be useful for the construction of complete bouncing cosmologies like the cyclic model.

KSC-03PD-2745

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. A transporter carrying the Gravity Probe B experiment backs into the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base. Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

KSC-03PD-2748

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. The Gravity Probe B experiment is lowered onto an assembly and test stand in the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base. Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

KSC-03PD-2749

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. The Gravity Probe B experiment rests on an assembly and test stand in the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base. Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

KSC-03PD-2747

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. The Gravity Probe B experiment is lifted from its transporter in the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base. Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

KSC-03PD-2742

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. Enclosed in a canister, the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) spacecraft arrives on Vandenberg Air Force Base, headed for the spacecraft processing facility. Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

KSC-03PD-2743

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. Enclosed in a canister, the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) spacecraft arrives at the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base . Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

Einstein’s gravity from a polynomial affine model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Castillo-Felisola, Oscar; Skirzewski, Aureliano

2018-03-01

We show that the effective field equations for a recently formulated polynomial affine model of gravity, in the sector of a torsion-free connection, accept general Einstein manifolds—with or without cosmological constant—as solutions. Moreover, the effective field equations are partially those obtained from a gravitational Yang–Mills theory known as Stephenson–Kilmister–Yang theory. Additionally, we find a generalization of a minimally coupled massless scalar field in General Relativity within a ‘minimally’ coupled scalar field in this affine model. Finally, we present a brief (perturbative) analysis of the propagators of the gravitational theory, and count the degrees of freedom. For completeness, we prove that a Birkhoff-like theorem is valid for the analyzed sector.

KSC-03PD-2881

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. Logos identify the mission of this Delta II rocket that will launch the Gravity Probe B experiment, developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. The Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The targeted launch date is Dec. 6, 2003.

KSC-03PD-2880

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. Logos identify the mission of this Delta II rocket that will launch the Gravity Probe B experiment, developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. The Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The targeted launch date is Dec. 6, 2003.

Spinor matter fields in SL(2,C) gauge theories of gravity: Lagrangian and Hamiltonian approaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antonowicz, Marek; Szczyrba, Wiktor

1985-06-01

We consider the SL(2,C)-covariant Lagrangian formulation of gravitational theories with the presence of spinor matter fields. The invariance properties of such theories give rise to the conservation laws (the contracted Bianchi identities) having in the presence of matter fields a more complicated form than those known in the literature previously. A general SL(2,C) gauge theory of gravity is cast into an SL(2,C)-covariant Hamiltonian formulation. Breaking the SL(2,C) symmetry of the system to the SU(2) symmetry, by introducing a spacelike slicing of spacetime, we get an SU(2)-covariant Hamiltonian picture. The qualitative analysis of SL(2,C) gauge theories of gravity in the SU(2)-covariant formulation enables us to define the dynamical symplectic variables and the gauge variables of the theory under consideration as well as to divide the set of field equations into the dynamical equations and the constraints. In the SU(2)-covariant Hamiltonian formulation the primary constraints, which are generic for first-order matter Lagrangians (Dirac, Weyl, Fierz-Pauli), can be reduced. The effective matter symplectic variables are given by SU(2)-spinor-valued half-forms on three-dimensional slices of spacetime. The coupled Einstein-Cartan-Dirac (Weyl, Fierz-Pauli) system is analyzed from the (3+1) point of view. This analysis is complete; the field equations of the Einstein-Cartan-Dirac theory split into 18 gravitational dynamical equations, 8 dynamical Dirac equations, and 7 first-class constraints. The system has 4+8=12 independent degrees of freedom in the phase space.

Dynamics of nonlinear Schrödinger breathers in a potential trap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malomed, B. A.; Rosanov, N. N.; Fedorov, S. V.

2018-05-01

We consider the evolution of the 2-soliton (breather) of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation on a semi-infinite line with the zero boundary condition and a linear potential, which corresponds to the gravity field in the presence of a hard floor. This setting can be implemented in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, and in a nonlinear planar waveguide in optics. In the absence of the gravity, repulsion of the breather from the floor leads to its splitting into constituent fundamental solitons, if the initial distance from the floor is smaller than a critical value; otherwise, the moving breather persists. In the presence of gravity, the breather always splits into a pair of "co-hopping" fundamental solitons, which may be frequency locked in the form of a quasi-breather, or unlocked, forming an incoherent pseudo-breather. Some essential results are obtained in an analytical form, in addition to the systematic numerical investigation.

Binary Inspiral in Quadratic Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yagi, Kent

2015-01-01

Quadratic gravity is a general class of quantum-gravity-inspired theories, where the Einstein-Hilbert action is extended through the addition of all terms quadratic in the curvature tensor coupled to a scalar field. In this article, we focus on the scalar Gauss- Bonnet (sGB) theory and consider the black hole binary inspiral in this theory. By applying the post-Newtonian (PN) formalism, we found that there is a scalar dipole radiation which leads to -1PN correction in the energy flux relative to gravitational radiation in general relativity. From the orbital decay rate of a low-mass X-ray binary A0600-20, we obtain the bound that is six orders of magnitude stronger than the current solar system bound. Furthermore, we show that the excess in the orbital decay rate of XTE J1118+480 can be explained by the scalar radiation in sGB theory.

Magnetic solutions in Einstein-massive gravity with linear and nonlinear fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hendi, Seyed Hossein; Panah, Behzad Eslam; Panahiyan, Shahram; Momennia, Mehrab

2018-06-01

The solutions of U(1) gauge-gravity coupling is one of the interesting models for analyzing the semi-classical nature of spacetime. In this regard, different well-known singular and nonsingular solutions have been taken into account. The paper at hand investigates the geometrical properties of the magnetic solutions by considering Maxwell and power Maxwell invariant (PMI) nonlinear electromagnetic fields in the context of massive gravity. These solutions are free of curvature singularity, but have a conic one which leads to presence of deficit/surplus angle. The emphasize is on modifications that these generalizations impose on deficit angle which determine the total geometrical structure of the solutions, hence, physical/gravitational properties. It will be shown that depending on the background spacetime [being anti de Sitter (AdS) or de Sitter (dS)], these generalizations present different effects and modify the total structure of the solutions differently.

Horizon fluffs: In the context of generalized minimal massive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Setare, Mohammad Reza; Adami, Hamed

2018-02-01

We consider a metric which describes Bañados geometries and show that the considered metric is a solution of the generalized minimal massive gravity (GMMG) model. We consider the Killing vector field which preserves the form of the considered metric. Using the off-shell quasi-local approach we obtain the asymptotic conserved charges of the given solution. Similar to the Einstein gravity in the presence of negative cosmological constant, for the GMMG model, we also show that the algebra among the asymptotic conserved charges is isomorphic to two copies of the Virasoro algebra. Eventually, we find a relation between the algebra of the near-horizon and the asymptotic conserved charges. This relation shows that the main part of the horizon fluffs proposed by Afshar et al., Sheikh-Jabbari and Yavartanoo appear for generic black holes in the class of Bañados geometries in the context of the GMMG model.

Non-linear regime of the Generalized Minimal Massive Gravity in critical points

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Setare, M. R.; Adami, H.

2016-03-01

The Generalized Minimal Massive Gravity (GMMG) theory is realized by adding the CS deformation term, the higher derivative deformation term, and an extra term to pure Einstein gravity with a negative cosmological constant. In the present paper we obtain exact solutions to the GMMG field equations in the non-linear regime of the model. GMMG model about AdS_3 space is conjectured to be dual to a 2-dimensional CFT. We study the theory in critical points corresponding to the central charges c_-=0 or c_+=0, in the non-linear regime. We show that AdS_3 wave solutions are present, and have logarithmic form in critical points. Then we study the AdS_3 non-linear deformation solution. Furthermore we obtain logarithmic deformation of extremal BTZ black hole. After that using Abbott-Deser-Tekin method we calculate the energy and angular momentum of these types of black hole solutions.

Black hole solutions in d = 5 Chern-Simons gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brihaye, Yves; Radu, Eugen

2013-11-01

The five dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with a negative cosmological constant becomes, for a special value of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant, a Chern-Simons (CS) theory of gravity. In this work we discuss the properties of several different types of black object solutions of this model. Special attention is paid to the case of spinning black holes with equal-magnitude angular momenta which posses a regular horizon of spherical topology. Closed form solutions are obtained in the small angular momentum limit. Nonperturbative solutions are constructed by solving numerically the equations of the model. Apart from that, new exact solutions describing static squashed black holes and black strings are also discussed. The action and global charges of all configurations studied in this work are obtained by using the quasilocal formalism with boundary counterterms generalized for the case of a d = 5 CS theory.

KSC-03PD-3279

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, workers stand by as the balloon at right is released to lift the solar array panel into position for installation on the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3275

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, workers prepare to attach the top of a solar array panel onto the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3282

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, Dr. Francis Everitt, principal investigator, and Brad Parkinson, co-principal investigator, both from Stanford University, hold one of the small gyroscopes used in the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. The GP-B towers behind them. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3268

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. Workers in the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base attach supports to a solar array panel to be lifted and installed on the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3276

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, workers prepare to attach the top of a solar array panel onto the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3265

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. Workers in the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base prepare to rotate the framework containing one of four solar panels to be installed on the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3269

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. A worker in the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base adjust the supports on a solar array panel to be lifted and installed on the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

KSC-03PD-3278

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the NASA spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, a balloon gently lifts the solar array panel to be installed on the Gravity Probe B spacecraft. Installing each array is a 3-day process and includes a functional deployment test. The Gravity Probe B mission is a relativity experiment developed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft will test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity that he advanced in 1916: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Gravity Probe B consists of four sophisticated gyroscopes that will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. The mission will look in a precision manner for tiny changes in the direction of spin.

Topics in Higher-Derivative Supergravity and N = 2 Yang-Mills Theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hindawi, Ahmed Abdel-Ati

1997-09-01

In Part I of the thesis we discuss higher-derivative theories of gravity. We start by discussing the field content of quadratic higher-derivative gravity, together with a new example of a massless spin-two field consistently coupled to gravity. The full quadratic gravity theory is shown to be equivalent to a canonical second-order theory of a massive scalar field, a massive spin-two symmetric tensor field and gravity. It is shown that flat-space is the only stable vacuum, and that the spin-two field around it is always ghost-like. We give a procedure for exhibiting the new propagating degrees of freedom in a generic higher-derivative gravity, at the full non-linear level. We show that around any vacuum the elementary excitations remain the massless graviton, a massive scalar field and a massive ghost-like spin-two field. In Part II of the thesis we extend our investigations to the realm of supergravity. We consider the general form of quadratic (1, 1) supergravity in two dimensions. It is demonstrated that the theory possesses stable vacua with vanishing cosmological constant which spontaneously break supersymmetry. We then consider higher-derivative N=1 supergravity in four dimensions. We construct two classes of higher-derivative supergravity theories. They are found to be equivalent to Einstein supergravity coupled to one or two chiral superfields and have a rich vacuum structure. It is demonstrated that theories of the second class can possess a stable vacuum with vanishing cosmological constant that spontaneously breaks supersymmetry. We then proceed to show how spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in the vacuum state of higher-derivative supergravity is transmitted, as explicit soft supersymmetry-breaking terms, to the effective Lagrangian of the standard electroweak model. In Part III we use central charge superspace to give a geometrical construction of the N=2 Abelian vector-tensor multiplet consisting, under N=1 supersymmetry, of one vector and one linear multiplet. We derive the component field supersymmetry and central charge transformations, and show that there is a super-Lagrangian, the higher components of which are all total derivatives, allowing us to construct superfield and component actions.

The moon-Earth system...As a vacuum gravity energy machine? A Hint about the Nature of Universal Gravity that May Have Been Overlooked

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masters, Roy

2011-10-01

We revisit the theories describing the moon raising the tides by virtue of pull gravity combined with the moon's centripetal angular momentum. We show that if gravity is considered as the attractive interaction between individual bodies, then a laboring moon doing work would have fallen to earth eons ago. Isaac Newton's laws of motion cannot work with pull gravity, but they do with Einstein's gravity as a property of the universe, which produces a continuous infusion of energy. In other words, the moon-Earth system becomes the first observable vacuum gravity energy machine. In other words the dynamics of what appears to be a closed system has been producing energy that continues raising the tides into perpetuity along with the force needed for the moon to escape the Earth's gravitational pull 4cm per year. All this is in defiance of Newton's first law which says ``If no force is added to a body it cannot accelerate.'' In this theory, a flowing space-time curves with three dimensions of force. A (flowing) spatial fabric bends around mass and displaces the inverse square field vanishing point property of matter with the appearance of a push-force square of the distance. In other words, the immeasurable universal gravity field appears as measurable local gravitation, concentrating universal gravitational pressure with the square of the distance from the very point was supposed to have disappeared. Needless to say such ``gravity'' necessitates a different beginning.

Teichmuller Space Resolution of the EPR Paradox

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winterberg, Friedwardt

2013-04-01

The mystery of Newton's action-at-a-distance law of gravity was resolved by Einstein with Riemann's non-Euclidean geometry, which permitted the explanation of the departure from Newton's law for the motion of Mercury. It is here proposed that the similarly mysterious non-local EPR-type quantum correlations may be explained by a Teichmuller space geometry below the Planck length, for which an experiment for its verification is proposed.

Explained in 60 Seconds: A collaboration with Symmetry Magazine, a Fermilab/SLAC publication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trodden, M.

2011-07-01

The Big Bang refers to the start of the rapid expansion of our Universe. Edwin Hubble discovered this expansion in the 1920s through observations of faraway galaxies, showing that the distances between them are growing as time passes. This stunning discovery is beautifully explained by general relativity — Einstein's theory of gravity — augmented by two new concepts, dark matter and dark energy.

Functional Renormalization Group Flows on Friedman-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker backgrounds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Platania, Alessia; Saueressig, Frank

2018-06-01

We revisit the construction of the gravitational functional renormalization group equation tailored to the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner formulation emphasizing its connection to the covariant formulation. The results obtained from projecting the renormalization group flow onto the Einstein-Hilbert action are reviewed in detail and we provide a novel example illustrating how the formalism may be connected to the causal dynamical triangulations approach to quantum gravity.

Universe in a Black Hole in Einstein-Cartan Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Popławski, Nikodem

2016-12-01

The conservation law for the angular momentum in curved spacetime, consistent with relativistic quantum mechanics, requires that the antisymmetric part of the affine connection (torsion tensor) is a variable in the principle of least action. The coupling between the spin of elementary particles and torsion in the Einstein-Cartan theory of gravity generates gravitational repulsion at extremely high densities in fermionic matter, approximated as a spin fluid, and thus avoids the formation of singularities in black holes. The collapsing matter in a black hole should therefore bounce at a finite density and then expand into a new region of space on the other side of the event horizon, which may be regarded as a nonsingular, closed universe. We show that quantum particle production caused by an extremely high curvature near a bounce can create enormous amounts of matter, produce entropy, and generate a finite period of exponential expansion (inflation) of this universe. This scenario can thus explain inflation without a scalar field and reheating. We show that, depending on the particle production rate, such a universe may undergo several nonsingular bounces until it has enough matter to reach a size at which the cosmological constant starts cosmic acceleration. The last bounce can be regarded as the big bang of this universe.

Weber's gravitational force as static weak field approximation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tiandho, Yuant

2016-02-01

Weber's gravitational force (WGF) is one of gravitational model that can accommodate a non-static system because it depends not only on the distance but also on the velocity and the acceleration. Unlike Newton's law of gravitation, WGF can predict the anomalous of Mercury and gravitational bending of light near massive object very well. Then, some researchers use WGF as an alternative model of gravitation and propose a new mechanics theory namely the relational mechanics theory. However, currently we have known that the theory of general relativity which proposed by Einstein can explain gravity with very accurate. Through the static weak field approximation for the non-relativistic object, we also have known that the theory of general relativity will reduce to Newton's law of gravity. In this work, we expand the static weak field approximation that compatible with relativistic object and we obtain a force equation which correspond to WGF. Therefore, WGF is more precise than Newton's gravitational law. The static-weak gravitational field that we used is a solution of the Einstein's equation in the vacuum that satisfy the linear field approximation. The expression of WGF with ξ = 1 and satisfy the requirement of energy conservation are obtained after resolving the geodesic equation. By this result, we can conclude that WGF can be derived from the general relativity.

Thermodynamics of new black hole solutions in the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dehghani, M.

In the present work, thermodynamics of the new black hole solutions to the four-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity theory have been studied. The dilaton potential, as the solution to the scalar field equations, has been constructed out by a linear combination of three Liouville-type potentials. Three new classes of charged dilatonic black hole solutions, as the exact solutions to the coupled equations of gravitational, electromagnetic and scalar fields, have been introduced. The conserved charge and mass of the new black holes have been calculated by utilizing Gauss's electric law and Abbott-Deser mass proposal, respectively. Also, the temperature, entropy and the electric potential of these new classes of charged dilatonic black holes have been calculated, making use of the geometrical approaches. Through a Smarr-type mass formula, the intensive parameters of the black holes have been calculated and validity of the first law of black hole thermodynamics has been confirmed. A thermal stability or phase transition analysis has been performed, making use of the canonical ensemble method. The heat capacity of the new black holes has been calculated and the points of type one- and type two-phase transitions as well as the ranges at which the new charged dilatonic black holes are locally stable have been determined, precisely.

Cosmic acceleration in a dust only universe via energy-momentum powered gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akarsu, Özgür; Katırcı, Nihan; Kumar, Suresh

2018-01-01

We propose a modified theory of gravitation constructed by the addition of the term f (Tμ νTμ ν) to the Einstein-Hilbert action, and elaborate a particular case f (Tμ νTμ ν)=α (Tμ νTμ ν)η, where α and η are real constants, dubbed energy-momentum powered gravity (EMPG). We search for viable cosmologies arising from EMPG, especially in the context of the late-time accelerated expansion of the Universe. We investigate the ranges of the EMPG parameters (α ,η ) on theoretical as well as observational grounds leading to the late-time acceleration of the Universe with pressureless matter only, while keeping the successes of standard general relativity at early times. We find that η =0 corresponds to the Λ CDM model, whereas η ≠0 leads to a w CDM -type model. However, the underlying physics of the EMPG model is entirely different in the sense that the energy in the EMPG Universe is sourced by pressureless matter only. Moreover, the energy of the pressureless matter is not conserved, namely, in general it does not dilute as ρ ∝a-3 with the expansion of the Universe. Finally, we constrain the parameters of an EMPG-based cosmology with a recent compilation of 28 Hubble parameter measurements, and find that this model describes an evolution of the Universe similar to that in the Λ CDM model. We briefly discuss that EMPG can be unified with Starobinsky gravity to describe the complete history of the Universe including the inflationary era.

The particle problem in classical gravity: a historical note on 1941

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galvagno, Mariano; Giribet, Gastón

2005-11-01

This historical note is mainly based on a relatively unknown paper published by Albert Einstein in Revista de la Universidad Nacional de Tucumán in 1941. Taking the ideas of this work as a leitmotiv, we review the discussions about the particle problem in the theory of gravitation within the historical context by means of the study of seminal works on the subject. The revision shows how the digressions regarding the structure of matter and the concise problem of finding regular solutions of the pure field equations turned out to be intrinsically unified in the beginning of the programme towards a final theory of fields. The paper mentioned (Einstein 1941a Rev. Univ. Nac. Tucumán A 2 11) represents the basis of the one written by Einstein in collaboration with Wolfgang Pauli in 1943, in which, following analogous lines, the proof of the non-existence of regular particle-type solutions was generalized to the case of cylindrical geometries in Kaluza-Klein theory (Einstein and Pauli 1943 Ann. Math. 44 131). Besides, other generalizations were subsequently presented. The (non-)existence of such solutions in classical unified field theory was undoubtedly an important criterion leading Einstein's investigations. This aspect was investigated with expertness by Jeroen van Dongen in a recent work, though restricting the scope to the particular case of Kaluza-Klein theory (van Dongen 2002 Stud. Hist. Phil. Mod. Phys. 33 185). Here, we discuss the particle problem within a more general context, presenting in this way a complement to previous reviews.

Gravity beyond Einstein? Part I: Physics and the Trouble with Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hauser, Jochem; Dröscher, Walter

2017-05-01

This article provides a review of the latest experimental results in quantum physics and astrophysics, discussing their repercussions on the advanced physical theories that go beyond both the SMs (standard models) of particle physics and cosmology. It will be shown that many of the essential concepts of the advanced theoretical models developed over the past 40 years are no longer tenable because they are contradicting the novel data. Most recent results (December 2016) from the Large Hadron Collider revealed no new matter particles up to particle masses of 1.6 TeV/c2, which is in accordance with recent ACME experimental data (2014) that saw no electric dipole moment for the electron as predicted by these theories. Moreover, the LUX experiment (since 2013) did not see any dark matter particles either, thus independently supporting LHC and ACME measurements. Furthermore, experimental particle physics seems to be telling us that dark matter particles (LHC results) do not exist, suggesting that dark matter particles either are more exotic or are more difficult to detect than had been predicted in the past decades (less likely with recent LHC results). Astrophysical observations since 1933, starting with Caltech astronomer Zwicky, however, have provided irrefutable evidence for the existence of dark matter, for instance, based on the phenomenon of gravitational lensing as well as observed rotational velocities of stars orbiting the galactic center that are deviating from Newton's law. Surprisingly, recent astronomical observations by Bidin, ESO (2010, 2012, 2014), seem to indicate the absence of dark matter within galaxies. In addition, cosmology at present has no explanation for about 68 % of the energy in the Universe that comes in the form of dark energy. Recently, measured data from three entirely different types of experiments both on earth and in space (2006-2011) are hinting at completely novel features of gravity that, if confirmed, must be outside Einstein's general relativity. Extreme gravitomagnetic and gravity-like fields may have been observed at cryogenic temperatures generated by a rotating ring or disk. However, these experimental results are not conclusive so far. The strength of these extreme fields has been calculated and, according to the respective equations, should be sufficient to serve as a basis for a gravitational technology that, for example, could establish long sought field propulsion (i.e. propulsion without fuel), actively researched by physicists and rocket engineers in the 1960s and 1990s. This article concludes with an outlook on the novel technology of gravitational engineering that might follow from gravity-like fields and discusses the novel physical concepts resulting from the existence of these extreme gravitomagnetic fields.

String Theory Methods for Condensed Matter Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nastase, Horatiu

2017-09-01

Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part I. Condensed Matter Models and Problems: 1. Lightning review of statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, phases and phase transitions; 2. Magnetism in solids; 3. Electrons in solids: Fermi gas vs. Fermi liquid; 4. Bosonic quasi-particles: phonons and plasmons; 5. Spin-charge separation in 1+1 dimensional solids: spinons and holons; 6. The Ising model and the Heisenberg spin chain; 7. Spin chains and integrable systems; 8. The thermodynamic Bethe ansatz; 9. Conformal field theories and quantum phase transitions; 10. Classical vs. quantum Hall effect; 11. Superconductivity: Landau-Ginzburg, London and BCS; 12. Topology and statistics: Berry and Chern-Simons, anyons and nonabelions; 13. Insulators; 14. The Kondo effect and the Kondo problem; 15. Hydrodynamics and transport properties: from Boltzmann to Navier-Stokes; Part II. Elements of General Relativity and String Theory: 16. The Einstein equation and the Schwarzschild solution; 17. The Reissner-Nordstrom and Kerr-Newman solutions and thermodynamic properties of black holes; 18. Extra dimensions and Kaluza-Klein; 19. Electromagnetism and gravity in various dimensions. Consistent truncations; 20. Gravity plus matter: black holes and p-branes in various dimensions; 21. Weak/strong coupling dualities in 1+1, 2+1, 3+1 and d+1 dimensions; 22. The relativistic point particle and the relativistic string; 23. Lightcone strings and quantization; 24. D-branes and gauge fields; 25. Electromagnetic fields on D-branes. Supersymmetry and N = 4 SYM. T-duality of closed strings; 26. Dualities and M theory; 27. The AdS/CFT correspondence: definition and motivation; Part III. Applying String Theory to Condensed Matter Problems: 28. The pp wave correspondence: string Hamiltonian from N = 4 SYM; 29. Spin chains from N = 4 SYM; 30. The Bethe ansatz: Bethe strings from classical strings in AdS; 31. Integrability and AdS/CFT; 32. AdS/CFT phenomenology: Lifshitz, Galilean and Schrodinger symmetries and their gravity duals; 33. Finite temperature and black holes; 34. Hot plasma equilibrium thermodynamics: entropy, charge density and chemical potential of strongly coupled theories; 35. Spectral functions and transport properties; 36. Dynamic and nonequilibrium properties of plasmas: electric transport, Langevin diffusion and thermalization via black hole quasi-normal modes; 37. The holographic superconductor; 38. The fluid-gravity correspondence: conformal relativistic fluids from black hole horizons; 39. Nonrelativistic fluids: from Einstein to Navier-Stokes and back; Part IV. Advanced Applications: 40. Fermi gas and liquid in AdS/CFT; 41. Quantum Hall effect from string theory; 42. Quantum critical systems and AdS/CFT; 43. Particle-vortex duality and ABJM vs. AdS4 X CP3 duality; 44. Topology and non-standard statistics from AdS/CFT; 45. DBI scalar model for QGP/black hole hydro- and thermo-dynamics; 46. Holographic entanglement entropy in condensed matter; 47. Holographic insulators; 48. Holographic strange metals and the Kondo problem; References; Index.

Generalized Vaidya solutions and Misner-Sharp mass for n -dimensional massive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Ya-Peng; Wu, Xin-Meng; Zhang, Hongsheng

2017-04-01

Dynamical solutions are always of interest to people in gravity theories. We derive a series of generalized Vaidya solutions in the n -dimensional de Rham-Gabadadze-Tolley massive gravity with a singular reference metric. Similar to the case of the Einstein gravity, the generalized Vaidya solution can describe shining/absorbing stars. Moreover, we also find a more general Vaidya-like solution by introducing a more generic matter field than the pure radiation in the original Vaidya spacetime. As a result, the above generalized Vaidya solution is naturally included in this Vaidya-like solution as a special case. We investigate the thermodynamics for this Vaidya-like spacetime by using the unified first law and present the generalized Misner-Sharp mass. Our results show that the generalized Minser-Sharp mass does exist in this spacetime. In addition, the usual Clausius relation δ Q =T d S holds on the apparent horizon, which implicates that the massive gravity is in a thermodynamic equilibrium state. We find that the work density vanishes for the generalized Vaidya solution, while it appears in the more general Vaidya-like solution. Furthermore, the covariant generalized Minser-Sharp mass in the n -dimensional de Rham-Gabadadze-Tolley massive gravity is also derived by taking a general metric ansatz into account.

Moment of inertia of neutron star crust in alternative and modified theories of gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Staykov, Kalin V.; Ekşi, K. Yavuz; Yazadjiev, Stoytcho S.; Türkoǧlu, M. Metehan; Arapoǧlu, A. Savaş

2016-07-01

The glitch activity of young pulsars arises from the exchange of angular momentum between the crust and the interior of the star. Recently, it was inferred that the moment of inertia of the crust of a neutron star is not sufficient to explain the observed glitches. Such estimates are presumed in Einstein's general relativity in describing the hydrostatic equilibrium of neutron stars. The crust of the neutron star has a spacetime curvature of 14 orders of magnitude larger than that probed in solar system tests. This makes gravity the weakest constrained physics input in the crust-related processes. We calculate the ratio of the crustal to the total moment of inertia of neutron stars in the scalar-tensor theory of gravity and the nonperturbative f (R )=R +a R2 gravity. We find for the former that the crust-to-core ratio of the moment of inertia does not change significantly from what is inferred in general relativity. For the latter, we find that the ratio increases significantly from what is inferred in general relativity in the case of high mass objects. Our results suggest that the glitch activity of pulsars may be used to probe gravity models, although the gravity models explored in this work are not appropriate candidates.

Gravity, black holes, and the universe

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nicolson, I.

1981-01-01

The book treats current understandings of the nature and properties of gravity, with particular emphasis on its role in the physics of black holes and the structure and evolution of the universe as a whole. The development of modern ideas on force, motion and gravity is traced from the systems of Aristotle and Ptolemy through the work of Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler to Newton's law of universal gravitation and Einstein's general theory of relativity. Particular attention is then given to the role of gravity in stellar motions and to the phenomena determined by the immense gravitational forces associated with bodiesmore » of such great density, including relativistic effects, tidal forces, space-time effects, event horizons, rotation, mass and electrical charge, the existence of naked singularities and white holes, and black-hole thermodynamics. The existence of actual black holes in the universe is considered, and various black-hole candidates in the Galaxy, quasars and galactic nuclei are indicated. The role of gravity in cosmology is then examined, with attention given to the implications of general relativity, the Hubble law, the age of the universe, the density of the universe and its eventual fate. Possible alternative to general relativity as a theory of gravitation are considered, including theories of variable gravitational constant, grand unified theories, and quantum gravity.« less

Gravity, black holes and the universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicolson, I.

The book treats current understandings of the nature and properties of gravity, with particular emphasis on its role in the physics of black holes and the structure and evolution of the universe as a whole. The development of modern ideas on force, motion and gravity is traced from the systems of Aristotle and Ptolemy through the work of Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler to Newton's law of universal gravitation and Einstein's general theory of relativity. Particular attention is then given to the role of gravity in stellar motions and to the phenomena determined by the immense gravitational forces associated with bodies of such great density, including relativistic effects, tidal forces, space-time effects, event horizons, rotation, mass and electrical charge, the existence of naked singularities and white holes, and black-hole thermodynamics. The existence of actual black holes in the universe is considered, and various black-hole candidates in the Galaxy, quasars and galactic nuclei are indicated. The role of gravity in cosmology is then examined, with attention given to the implications of general relativity, the Hubble law, the age of the universe, the density of the universe and its eventual fate. Possible alternative to general relativity as a theory of gravitation are considered, including theories of variable gravitational constant, grand unified theories, and quantum gravity.

Holographic studies of Einsteinian cubic gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bueno, Pablo; Cano, Pablo A.; Ruipérez, Alejandro

2018-03-01

Einsteinian cubic gravity provides a holographic toy model of a nonsupersymmetric CFT in three dimensions, analogous to the one defined by Quasi-topological gravity in four. The theory admits explicit non-hairy AdS4 black holes and allows for numerous exact calculations, fully nonperturbative in the new coupling. We identify several entries of the AdS/CFT dictionary for this theory, and study its thermodynamic phase space, finding interesting new phenomena. We also analyze the dependence of Rényi entropies for disk regions on universal quantities characterizing the CFT. In addition, we show that η/ s is given by a non-analytic function of the ECG coupling, and that the existence of positive-energy black holes strictly forbids violations of the KSS bound. Along the way, we introduce a new method for evaluating Euclidean on-shell actions for general higher-order gravities possessing second-order linearized equations on AdS( d+1). Our generalized action involves the very same Gibbons-Hawking boundary term and counterterms valid for Einstein gravity, which now appear weighted by the universal charge a * controlling the entanglement entropy across a spherical region in the CFT dual to the corresponding higher-order theory.

Gravitation Theory: Empirical Status from Solar System Experiments: All observations to date are consistent with Einstein's general relativity theory of gravity.

PubMed

Nordtvedt, K L

1972-12-15

I have reviewed the historical and contemporary experiments that guide us in choosing a post-Newtonian, relativistic gravitational theory. The foundation experiments essentially constrain gravitation theory to be a metric theory in which matter couples solely to one gravitational field, the metric field, although other cosmological gravitational fields may exist. The metric field for any metric theory can be specified (for the solar system, for our present purposes) by a series of potential terms with several parameters. A variety of experiments specify (or put limits on) the numerical values of the seven parameters in the post-Newtonian metric field, and other such experiments have been planned. The empirical results, to date, yield values of the parameters that are consistent with the predictions of Einstein's general relativity.

Towards thermodynamics of universal horizons in Einstein-æther theory.

PubMed

Berglund, Per; Bhattacharyya, Jishnu; Mattingly, David

2013-02-15

Holography grew out of black hole thermodynamics, which relies on the causal structure and general covariance of general relativity. In Einstein-æther theory, a generally covariant theory with a dynamical timelike unit vector, every solution breaks local Lorentz invariance, thereby grossly modifying the causal structure of gravity. However, there are still absolute causal boundaries, called "universal horizons," which are not Killing horizons yet obey a first law of black hole mechanics and must have an entropy if they do not violate a generalized second law. We couple a scalar field to the timelike vector and show via the tunneling approach that the universal horizon radiates as a blackbody at a fixed temperature, even if the scalar field equations also violate local Lorentz invariance. This suggests that the class of holographic theories may be much broader than currently assumed.

Bardeen regular black hole with an electric source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodrigues, Manuel E.; Silva, Marcos V. de S.

2018-06-01

If some energy conditions on the stress-energy tensor are violated, is possible construct regular black holes in General Relativity and in alternative theories of gravity. This type of solution has horizons but does not present singularities. The first regular black hole was presented by Bardeen and can be obtained from Einstein equations in the presence of an electromagnetic field. E. Ayon-Beato and A. Garcia reinterpreted the Bardeen metric as a magnetic solution of General Relativity coupled to a nonlinear electrodynamics. In this work, we show that the Bardeen model may also be interpreted as a solution of Einstein equations in the presence of an electric source, whose electric field does not behave as a Coulomb field. We analyzed the asymptotic forms of the Lagrangian for the electric case and also analyzed the energy conditions.

Collapsing spherical star in Scalar-Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with a quadratic coupling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakrabarti, Soumya

2018-04-01

We study the evolution of a self interacting scalar field in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory in four dimension where the scalar field couples non minimally with the Gauss-Bonnet term. Considering a polynomial coupling of the scalar field with the Gauss-Bonnet term, a self-interaction potential and an additional perfect fluid distribution alongwith the scalar field, we investigate different possibilities regarding the outcome of the collapsing scalar field. The strength of the coupling and choice of the self-interaction potential serves as the pivotal initial conditions of the models presented. The high degree of non-linearity in the equation system is taken care off by using a method of invertibe point transformation of anharmonic oscillator equation, which has proven itself very useful in recent past while investigating dynamics of minimally coupled scalar fields.

Cosmology from a gauge induced gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Falciano, F. T.; Sadovski, G.; Sobreiro, R. F.; Tomaz, A. A.

2017-09-01

The main goal of the present work is to analyze the cosmological scenario of the induced gravity theory developed in previous works. Such a theory consists on a Yang-Mills theory in a four-dimensional Euclidian spacetime with { SO}(m,n) such that m+n=5 and m\\in {0,1,2} as its gauge group. This theory undergoes a dynamical gauge symmetry breaking via an Inönü-Wigner contraction in its infrared sector. As a consequence, the { SO}(m,n) algebra is deformed into a Lorentz algebra with the emergency of the local Lorentz symmetries and the gauge fields being identified with a vierbein and a spin connection. As a result, gravity is described as an effective Einstein-Cartan-like theory with ultraviolet correction terms and a propagating torsion field. We show that the cosmological model associated with this effective theory has three different regimes. In particular, the high curvature regime presents a de Sitter phase which tends towards a Λ CDM model. We argue that { SO}(m,n) induced gravities are promising effective theories to describe the early phase of the universe.

Attractor behaviour in multifield inflation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carrilho, Pedro; Mulryne, David; Ronayne, John; Tenkanen, Tommi

2018-06-01

We study multifield inflation in scenarios where the fields are coupled non-minimally to gravity via ξI(phiI)n gμνRμν, where ξI are coupling constants, phiI the fields driving inflation, gμν the space-time metric, Rμν the Ricci tensor, and n>0. We consider the so-called α-attractor models in two formulations of gravity: in the usual metric case where Rμν=Rμν(gμν), and in the Palatini formulation where Rμν is an independent variable. As the main result, we show that, regardless of the underlying theory of gravity, the field-space curvature in the Einstein frame has no influence on the inflationary dynamics at the limit of large ξI, and one effectively retains the single-field case. However, the gravity formulation does play an important role: in the metric case the result means that multifield models approach the single-field α-attractor limit, whereas in the Palatini case the attractor behaviour is lost also in the case of multifield inflation. We discuss what this means for distinguishing between different models of inflation.

On gauge invariant cosmological perturbations in UV-modified Hořava gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shin, Sunyoung; Park, Mu-In

2017-12-01

We consider gauge invariant cosmological perturbations in UV-modified, z = 3 (non-projectable) Hořava gravity with one scalar matter field, which has been proposed as a renormalizable gravity theory without the ghost problem in four dimensions. In order to exhibit its dynamical degrees of freedom, we consider the Hamiltonian reduction method and find that, by solving all the constraint equations, the degrees of freedom are the same as those of Einstein gravity: one scalar and two tensor (graviton) modes when a scalar matter field presents. However, we confirm that there is no extra graviton modes and general relativity is recovered in IR, which achieves the consistency of the model. From the UV-modification terms which break the detailed balance condition in UV, we obtain scale-invariant power spectrums for non-inflationary backgrounds, like the power-law expansions, without knowing the details of early expansion history of Universe. This could provide a new framework for the Big Bang cosmology. Moreover, we find that tensor and scalar fluctuations travel differently in UV, generally. We present also some clarifying remarks about confusing points in the literatures.

Four-dimensional black holes in Einsteinian cubic gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bueno, Pablo; Cano, Pablo A.

2016-12-01

We construct static and spherically symmetric generalizations of the Schwarzschild- and Reissner-Nordström-(anti-)de Sitter [RN-(A)dS] black-hole solutions in four-dimensional Einsteinian cubic gravity (ECG). The solutions are characterized by a single function which satisfies a nonlinear second-order differential equation. Interestingly, we are able to compute independently the Hawking temperature T , the Wald entropy S and the Abbott-Deser mass M of the solutions analytically as functions of the horizon radius and the ECG coupling constant λ . Using these we show that the first law of black-hole mechanics is exactly satisfied. Some of the solutions have positive specific heat, which makes them thermodynamically stable, even in the uncharged and asymptotically flat case. Further, we claim that, up to cubic order in curvature, ECG is the most general four-dimensional theory of gravity which allows for nontrivial generalizations of Schwarzschild- and RN-(A)dS characterized by a single function which reduce to the usual Einstein gravity solutions when the corresponding higher-order couplings are set to zero.

Universal Themes of Bose-Einstein Condensation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Proukakis, Nick P.; Snoke, David W.; Littlewood, Peter B.

2017-04-01

Foreword; List of contributors; Preface; Part I. Introduction: 1. Universality and Bose-Einstein condensation: perspectives on recent work D. W. Snoke, N. P. Proukakis, T. Giamarchi and P. B. Littlewood; 2. A history of Bose-Einstein condensation of atomic hydrogen T. Greytak and D. Kleppner; 3. Twenty years of atomic quantum gases: 1995-2015 W. Ketterle; 4. Introduction to polariton condensation P. B. Littlewood and A. Edelman; Part II. General Topics: Editorial notes; 5. The question of spontaneous symmetry breaking in condensates D. W. Snoke and A. J. Daley; 6. Effects of interactions on Bose-Einstein condensation R. P. Smith; 7. Formation of Bose-Einstein condensates M. J. Davis, T. M. Wright, T. Gasenzer, S. A. Gardiner and N. P. Proukakis; 8. Quenches, relaxation and pre-thermalization in an isolated quantum system T. Langen and J. Schmiedmayer; 9. Ultracold gases with intrinsic scale invariance C. Chin; 10. Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase of a driven-dissipative condensate N. Y. Kim, W. H. Nitsche and Y. Yamamoto; 11. Superfluidity and phase correlations of driven dissipative condensates J. Keeling, L. M. Sieberer, E. Altman, L. Chen, S. Diehl and J. Toner; 12. BEC to BCS crossover from superconductors to polaritons A. Edelman and P. B. Littlewood; Part III. Condensates in Atomic Physics: Editorial notes; 13. Probing and controlling strongly correlated quantum many-body systems using ultracold quantum gases I. Bloch; 14. Preparing and probing chern bands with cold atoms N. Goldman, N. R. Cooper and J. Dalibard; 15. Bose-Einstein condensates in artificial gauge fields L. J. LeBlanc and I. B. Spielman; 16. Second sound in ultracold atomic gases L. Pitaevskii and S. Stringari; 17. Quantum turbulence in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates N. G. Parker, A. J. Allen, C. F. Barenghi and N. P. Proukakis; 18. Spinor-dipolar aspects of Bose-Einstein condensation M. Ueda; Part IV. Condensates in Condensed Matter Physics: Editorial notes; 19. Bose-Einstein condensation of photons and grand-canonical condensate fluctuations J. Klaers and M. Weitz; 20. Laser operation and Bose-Einstein condensation: analogies and differences A. Chiocchetta, A. Gambassi and I. Carusotto; 21. Vortices in resonant polariton condensates in semiconductor microcavities D. N. Krizhanovskii, K. Guda, M. Sich, M. S. Skolnick, L. Dominici and D. Sanvitto; 22. Optical control of polariton condensates G. Christmann, P. G. Savvidis and J. J. Baumberg; 23. Disorder, synchronization and phase-locking in non-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensates P. R. Eastham and B. Rosenow; 24. Collective topological excitations in 1D polariton quantum fluids H. Terças, D. D. Solnyshkov and G. Malpuech; 25. Microscopic theory of Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons at room temperature H. Salman, N. G. Berloff and S. O. Demokritov; 26. Spintronics and magnon Bose-Einstein condensation R. A. Duine, A. Brataas, S. A. Bender and Y. Tserkovnyak; 27. Spin-superfluidity and spin-current mediated non-local transport H. Chen and A. H. MacDonald; 28. Bose-Einstein condensation in quantum magnets C. Kollath, T. Giamarchi and C. Rüegg; Part V. Condensates in Astrophysics and Cosmology: Editorial notes; 29. Bose-Einstein condensates in neutron stars C. J. Pethick, T. Schäfer and A. Schwenk; 30. A simulated cosmological metric: the superfluid 3He condensate G. R. Pickett; 31. Cosmic axion Bose-Einstein condensation N. Banik and P. Sikivie; 32. Graviton BECs: a new approach to quantum gravity G. Dvali and C. Gomez; Universal Bose-Einstein condensation workshop; Index.

Oral rivaroxaban versus standard therapy for the treatment of symptomatic venous thromboembolism: a pooled analysis of the EINSTEIN-DVT and PE randomized studies.

PubMed

Prins, Martin H; Lensing, Anthonie Wa; Bauersachs, Rupert; van Bellen, Bonno; Bounameaux, Henri; Brighton, Timothy A; Cohen, Alexander T; Davidson, Bruce L; Decousus, Hervé; Raskob, Gary E; Berkowitz, Scott D; Wells, Philip S

2013-09-20

Standard treatment for venous thromboembolism (VTE) consists of a heparin combined with vitamin K antagonists. Direct oral anticoagulants have been investigated for acute and extended treatment of symptomatic VTE; their use could avoid parenteral treatment and/or laboratory monitoring of anticoagulant effects. A prespecified pooled analysis of the EINSTEIN-DVT and EINSTEIN-PE studies compared the efficacy and safety of rivaroxaban (15 mg twice-daily for 21 days, followed by 20 mg once-daily) with standard-therapy (enoxaparin 1.0 mg/kg twice-daily and warfarin or acenocoumarol). Patients were treated for 3, 6, or 12 months and followed for suspected recurrent VTE and bleeding. The prespecified noninferiority margin was 1.75. A total of 8282 patients were enrolled; 4151 received rivaroxaban and 4131 received standard-therapy. The primary efficacy outcome occurred in 86 (2.1%) rivaroxaban-treated patients compared with 95 (2.3%) standard-therapy-treated patients (hazard ratio, 0.89; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66-1.19; pnoninferiority < 0.001). Major bleeding was observed in 40 (1.0%) and 72 (1.7%) patients in the rivaroxaban and standard-therapy groups, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.37-0.79; p = 0.002). In key subgroups, including fragile patients, cancer patients, patients presenting with large clots, and those with a history of recurrent VTE, the efficacy and safety of rivaroxaban were similar compared with standard-therapy. The single-drug approach with rivaroxaban resulted in similar efficacy to standard-therapy and was associated with a significantly lower rate of major bleeding. Efficacy and safety results were consistent among key patient subgroups. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00439777; EINSTEIN-DVT: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00440193.

Note on the Noether charge and holographic transports

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Zhong-Ying

2018-03-01

We clarify the relation between the Noether charge associated to an arbitrary vector field and the equations of motion by revisiting Wald formalism. For a timelike Killing vector, aspects of the Noether charge suggest that it is dual to the heat current in the boundary for general holographic theories. For a spacelike Killing vector, we interpret the Noether charge (at the transverse direction) as shear stress of the dual fluid so we can compute the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density by simply using the infrared data on the black hole event horizon. We test the new method for Einstein gravity and Gauss-Bonnet gravity and find that it produces correct results for both cases even in the presence of additional matter fields.

KSC-03PD-2754

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, workers conduct battery charge/discharge cycles as part of the battery conditioning process on Gravity Probe B. The Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

KSC-03PD-2751

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, workers conduct battery charge/discharge cycles as part of the battery conditioning process on Gravity Probe B. The Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

KSC-03PD-2752

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, workers conduct battery charge/discharge cycles as part of the battery conditioning process on Gravity Probe B. The Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

KSC-03PD-2750

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, battery charge/discharge cycles are underway as part of the battery conditioning process on Gravity Probe B. The Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

KSC-03PD-2753

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. In the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base, workers conduct battery charge/discharge cycles as part of the battery conditioning process on Gravity Probe B. The Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

Fluctuations of the flux of energy on the apparent horizon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mimoso, José P.; Pavón, Diego

2018-05-01

Adopting the Landau-Lifshiftz method of classical fluctuations, we determine the statistical average strength of the fluctuations of the energy flux on the apparent horizon of a homogeneous and isotropic universe described by Einstein gravity. We find that the fluctuations increase with the temperature of the horizon and decrease with its area, in accordance with the features of systems where gravity can be neglected. We further find, on the one hand, that the fluctuations vanish in the cosmological constant dominated de Sitter expansion and, on the other hand, that the domination of phantom fields is excluded. The reasonableness of the results we have obtained lend support to the view that the Universe behaves as a normal thermodynamic system.

KSC-03PD-2868

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. A worker in the spacecraft processing facility on North Vandenberg Air Force Base checks the Gravity Probe B experiment during prelaunch testing. The Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. The targeted launch date is Dec. 6, 2003.

Hardware development for Gravity Probe-B

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bardas, D.; Cheung, W. S.; Gill, D.; Hacker, R.; Keiser, G. M.

1986-01-01

Gravity Probe-B (GP-B), also known as the Stanford Relativity Gyroscope Experiment, will test two fundamental predictions of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity by precise measurement of the precessions of nearly perfect gyroscopes in earth orbit. This endeavor embodies state-of-the-art technologies in many fields, including gyroscope fabrication and readout, cryogenics, superconductivity, magnetic shielding, precision optics and alignment methods, and satellite control systems. These technologies are necessary to enable measurement of the predicted precession rates to the milliarcsecond/year level, and to reduce to 'near zero' all non-General Relativistic torques on the gyroscopes. This paper provides a brief overview of the experiment followed by descriptions of several specific hardware items with highlights on progress to date and plans for future development and tests.

A viable logarithmic f(R) model for inflation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Amin, M.; Khalil, S.; Salah, M.

2016-08-18

Inflation in the framework of f(R) modified gravity is revisited. We study the conditions that f(R) should satisfy in order to lead to a viable inflationary model in the original form and in the Einstein frame. Based on these criteria we propose a new logarithmic model as a potential candidate for f(R) theories aiming to describe inflation consistent with observations from Planck satellite (2015). The model predicts scalar spectral index 0.9615

Introduction to some fundamental concepts of general relativity and to their required use in some modern timekeeping systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alley, C. O.

1982-01-01

Einstein's theory of gravity as curved space-time is presented. Emphasis is on the physical concepts, using only elementary mathematics. For the slow motions and weak gravitational fields experienced on Earth, the main curvature is that of time, not space. Experiments demonstrating this property are reviewed. The fundamental effects of motion and gravitational potential on clocks in many practical situations are discussed.

Infrared lessons for ultraviolet gravity: the case of massive gravity and Born-Infeld

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beltrán Jiménez, Jose; Heisenberg, Lavinia; Olmo, Gonzalo J.

2014-11-01

We generalize the ultraviolet sector of gravitation via a Born-Infeld action using lessons from massive gravity. The theory contains all of the elementary symmetric polynomials and is treated in the Palatini formalism. We show how the connection can be solved algebraically to be the Levi-Civita connection of an effective metric. The non-linearity of the algebraic equations yields several branches, one of which always reduces to General Relativity at low curvatures. We explore in detail a minimal version of the theory, for which we study solutions in the presence of a perfect fluid with special attention to the cosmological evolution. In vacuum we recover Ricci-flat solutions, but also an additional physical solution corresponding to an Einstein space. The existence of two physical branches remains for non-vacuum solutions and, in addition, the branch that connects to the Einstein space in vacuum is not very sensitive to the specific value of the energy density. For the branch that connects to the General Relativity limit we generically find three behaviours for the Hubble function depending on the equation of state of the fluid, namely: either there is a maximum value for the energy density that connects continuously with vacuum, or the energy density can be arbitrarily large but the Hubble function saturates and remains constant at high energy densities, or the energy density is unbounded and the Hubble function grows faster than in General Relativity. The second case is particularly interesting because it could offer an interesting inflationary epoch even in the presence of a dust component. Finally, we discuss the possibility of avoiding certain types of singularities within the minimal model.

High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO)

NASA Image and Video Library

1980-01-01

This image of the suspected Black Hole, Cygnus X-1, was the first object seen by the High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO)-2/Einstein Observatory. According to the theories to date, one concept of a black hole is a star, perhaps 10 times more massive than the Sun, that has entered the last stages of stelar evolution. There is an explosion triggered by nuclear reactions after which the star's outer shell of lighter elements and gases is blown away into space and the heavier elements in the stellar core begin to collapse upon themselves. Once this collapse begins, the inexorable force of gravity continues to compact the material until it becomes so dense it is squeezed into a mere point and nothing can escape from its extreme gravitational field, not even light. The HEAO-2, the first imaging and largest x-ray telescope built to date, was capable of producing actual photographs of x-ray objects. Shortly after launch, the HEAO-2 was nicknamed the Einstein Observatory by its scientific experimenters in honor of the centernial of the birth of Albert Einstein, whose concepts of relativity and gravitation have influenced much of modern astrophysics, particularly x-ray astronomy.

Image of the Black Hole, Cygnus X-1, Taken by the High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO)-2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1980-01-01

This image of the suspected Black Hole, Cygnus X-1, was the first object seen by the High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO)-2/Einstein Observatory. According to the theories to date, one concept of a black hole is a star, perhaps 10 times more massive than the Sun, that has entered the last stages of stelar evolution. There is an explosion triggered by nuclear reactions after which the star's outer shell of lighter elements and gases is blown away into space and the heavier elements in the stellar core begin to collapse upon themselves. Once this collapse begins, the inexorable force of gravity continues to compact the material until it becomes so dense it is squeezed into a mere point and nothing can escape from its extreme gravitational field, not even light. The HEAO-2, the first imaging and largest x-ray telescope built to date, was capable of producing actual photographs of x-ray objects. Shortly after launch, the HEAO-2 was nicknamed the Einstein Observatory by its scientific experimenters in honor of the centernial of the birth of Albert Einstein, whose concepts of relativity and gravitation have influenced much of modern astrophysics, particularly x-ray astronomy.

Approaching Bose-Einstein Condensation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferrari, Loris

2011-01-01

Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) is discussed at the level of an advanced course of statistical thermodynamics, clarifying some formal and physical aspects that are usually not covered by the standard pedagogical literature. The non-conventional approach adopted starts by showing that the continuum limit, in certain cases, cancels out the crucial…

Einstein's Biggest Blunder: A Cosmic Mystery Story

ScienceCinema

Krauss, Lawrence

2018-01-11

The standard model of cosmology built up over 20 years is no longer accepted as accurate. New data suggest that most of the energy density of the universe may be contained in empty space. Remarkably, this is exactly what would be expected if Einstein's cosmological constant really exists. If it does, its origin is the biggest mystery in physics and presents huge challenges for the fundamental theories of elementary particles and fields. Krauss explains Einstein's concept and describes its possible implications.

The advances in airglow study and observation by the ground-based airglow observation network over China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Jiyao; Li, Qinzeng; Yuan, Wei; Liu, Xiao; Liu, Weijun; Sun, Longchang

2017-04-01

Ground-based airglow observation networks over China used to study airglow have been established, which contains 15 stations. Some new results were obtained using the networks. For OH airglow observations, firstly, an unusual outbreak of Concentric Gravity Wave (CGW) events were observed by the first no-gap network nearly every night during the first half of August 2013. Combination of the ground imager network with satellites provides multilevel observations of the CGWs from the troposphere to the mesopause region. Secondly, three-year OH airglow images (2012-2014) from Qujing (25.6°N, 103.7°E) were used to study how orographic features of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) affect the geographical distributions of gravity wave (GW) sources. We find the orographic forcings have a significant impact on the gravity wave propagation features. Thirdly, ground-based observations of the OH (9-4, 8-3, 6-2, 5-1, 3-0) band airglow over Xinglong (40°2N, 117°4E) in northern China from 2012 to 2014 are used to calculate rotational temperatures. By comparing the ground-based OH rotational temperature with SABER's observations, five Einstein coefficient datasets are evaluated. We find rotational temperatures determined using any of the available Einstein coefficient datasets have systematic errors. We have obtained a set of optimal Einstein coefficients ratios for rotational temperature derivation using three years data from ground-based OH spectra and SABER temperatures. For the OI 630.0 nm airglow observations, we used three-year (2011-2013) observations of thermospheric winds (at 250 km) by Fabry-Perot interferometers at Xinglong to study the climatology of atmospheric planetary wave-type oscillations (PWTOs) with periods of 4-19 days. We found these PWTOs occur more frequently in the months from May to October. They are consistent with the summertime preference of middle-latitude ionospheric electron density oscillations noted in other studies. By using an all-sky airglow imager at 630.0 nm over Xinglong, we studied the evolution (generation, amplification, and dissipation) of mesoscale field-aligned irregularity structures (FAIs) ( 150 km) associated with a medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbance (MSTID) event. We also investigates the statistical features of equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) using airglow images from 2012 to 2014 from a ground-based network of four imagers in the equatorial region of China.

Beyond Einstein gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grisa, Luca A.

2008-07-01

In this thesis, I studied three different models, that depart from Einstein's General Relativity at either long or short distances. The first third of the thesis will be devoted to bulk modifications of the braneworld model, known as Randall-Sundrum. First, I will show how the effective graviton spectrum on the brane world-volume contains a massive resonance state, when the brane is embedded in an asymmetric warped geometry. Alongside it, a zero-mode, which can be identified with the our-dimensional graviton of GR, is also present. Then I will discuss the effects that the presence of a Domain Wall localized on the brane has on the RS geometry. The DW both generates a deficit angle in the bulk and inflates with rate slightly larger than the known result in four dimensions. I will show how this departure from standard GR arises in the dual CFT within the framework of the AdS/CFT correnspondence. The conformal fields gravitationally coupled to the DW radiatively corrects the DW tension, and hence its Hubble rate. In the second part, I will discuss intersecting D-brane models, that describe at low energies a two dimensional chiral fermion theory localized at the intersection. The fermions are coupled to gauge fields in the bulk and chiral symmetry is dynamically broken. No Nambu-Goldstone boson, associated with spontaneously broken symmetries, appears in two dimensional field theories. I will show how the disappearance of the Nambu-Goldstone boson is obtained from the non-trivial dynamics of the gauge field in these models. The third and final part is about a class of models with a small Lorentz-violating deformation. The motivation to study these models lies in the attempt to theoretically justify the presence of the incredibly tiny cosmological constant, that recent observations have helped to identify. The idea is to introduce new interactions that would weaken the attractive gravitational force at large distance, but without modifying gravity at shorter range where the experiments proved GR to be correct. These requests tightly constraint the possible form of Lorentz-violating deformations. In general, it can be shown that a generic deformation generates a bounce in the cosmological evolution at late times.

A Novel Gravito-Optical Surface Trap for Neutral Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Chun-Xia; Wang, Zhengling; Yin, Jian-Ping

2006-04-01

We propose a novel gravito-optical surface trap (GOST) for neutral atoms based on one-dimensional intensity gradient cooling. The surface optical trap is composed of a blue-detuned reduced semi-Gaussian laser beam (SGB), a far-blue-detuned dark hollow beam and the gravity field. The SGB is produced by the diffraction of a collimated Gaussian laser beam passing through the straight edge of a semi-infinite opaque plate and then is reduced by an imaging lens. We calculate the intensity distribution of the reduced SGB, and study the dynamic process of the SGB intensity-gradient induced Sisyphus cooling for 87Rb atoms by using Monte Carlo simulations. Our study shows that the proposed GOST can be used not only to trap cold atoms loaded from a standard magneto-optical trap, but also to cool the trapped atoms to an equilibrium temperature of 3.47 μK from ~120 μK, even to realize an all-optical two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensation by using optical-potential evaporative cooling.

STEP and fundamental physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Overduin, James; Everitt, Francis; Worden, Paul; Mester, John

2012-09-01

The Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle (STEP) will advance experimental limits on violations of Einstein's equivalence principle from their present sensitivity of two parts in 1013 to one part in 1018 through multiple comparison of the motions of four pairs of test masses of different compositions in a drag-free earth-orbiting satellite. We describe the experiment, its current status and its potential implications for fundamental physics. Equivalence is at the heart of general relativity, our governing theory of gravity and violations are expected in most attempts to unify this theory with the other fundamental interactions of physics, as well as in many theoretical explanations for the phenomenon of dark energy in cosmology. Detection of such a violation would be equivalent to the discovery of a new force of nature. A null result would be almost as profound, pushing upper limits on any coupling between standard-model fields and the new light degrees of freedom generically predicted by these theories down to unnaturally small levels.

Non-minimal Higgs inflation and frame dependence in cosmology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steinwachs, Christian F.; Kamenshchik, Alexander Yu.

2013-02-01

We investigate a very general class of cosmological models with scalar fields non-minimally coupled to gravity. A particular representative in this class is given by the non-minimal Higgs inflation model in which the Standard Model Higgs boson and the inflaton are described by one and the same scalar particle. While the predictions of the non-minimal Higgs inflation scenario come numerically remarkably close to the recently discovered mass of the Higgs boson, there remains a conceptual problem in this model that is associated with the choice of the cosmological frame. While the classical theory is independent of this choice, we find by an explicit calculation that already the first quantum corrections induce a frame dependence. We give a geometrical explanation of this frame dependence by embedding it into a more general field theoretical context. From this analysis, some conceptional points in the long lasting cosmological debate: "Jordan frame vs. Einstein frame" become more transparent and in principle can be resolved in a natural way.

Iron K α line of Kerr black holes with Proca hair

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Menglei; Bambi, Cosimo; Herdeiro, Carlos A. R.; Radu, Eugen

2017-05-01

We continue our study on the capabilities of present and future x-ray missions to test the nature of astrophysical black hole candidates via x-ray reflection spectroscopy and distinguish Kerr black holes from other solutions of 4-dimensional Einstein's gravity in the presence of a matter field. Here we investigate the case of Kerr black holes with Proca hair [1]. The analysis of a sample of these configurations suggests that even extremely hairy black holes can mimic the iron line profile of the standard Kerr black holes, and, at least for the configurations of our study, we find that current x-ray missions cannot distinguish these objects from Kerr black holes. This contrasts with our previous findings for the case of Kerr black holes with scalar (rather than Proca) hair [2], even though such comparison may be biased by the limited sample. Future x-ray missions can detect the presence of Proca hair, but a theoretical knowledge of the expected intensity profile (currently missing) can be crucial to obtain strong constraints.