Modified Gravity and Cosmology

Over the past decade, f(R) theories have been extensively studied as one of the simplest modifications to General Relativity. In this article we review various applications of f(R) theories to cosmology and gravity - such as inflation, dark energy, local gravity constraints, cosmological perturbations, and spherically symmetric solutions in weak and strong gravitational backgrounds. We present a number of ways to distinguish those theories from General Relativity observationally and experimentally. We also discuss the extension to other modified gravity theories such as Brans-Dicke theory and Gauss-Bonnet gravity, and address models that can satisfy both cosmological and local gravity constraints.

f(R) theories

Metric affine gauge theory of gravity: Field equations, Noether identities, world spinors, and breaking of dilation invariance

Inclusion of the four-derivative terms ∫RμνRμν(−g)1/2 and ∫R2(−g)1/2 into the gravitational action gives a class of effectively multimass models of gravity. In addition to the usual massless excitations of the field, there are now, for general amounts of the two new terms, massive spin-two and massive scalar excitations, with a total of eight degrees of freedom. The massive spin-two part of the field has negative energy. Specific ratios of the two new terms give models with either the massive tensor or the massive scalar missing, with correspondingly fewer degrees of freedom. The static, linearized solutions of the field equations are combinations of Newtonian and Yukawa potentials. Owing to the Yukawa form of the corrections, observational evidence sets only very weak restrictions on the new masses. The acceptable static metric solutions in the full nonlinear theory are regular at the origin. The dynamical content of the linearized field is analyzed by reducing the fourth-order field equations to separated second-order equations, related by coupling to external sources in a fixed ratio. This analysis is carried out into the various helicity components using the transverse-traceless decomposition of the metric.

Classical Gravity with Higher Derivatives

Classical physics as geometry

Introduction. If the geometry of nature is Riemannian and the field equations of this geometry are controlled by a scale-invariant action principle, there are four a priori possible and algebraically independent invariants which may enter in the integrand of the action principle. This abundance of invariants hampers the mathematical development and the logical appeal of the theory. The present paper shows that two of these invariants are inactive in the formation of field equations and thus may be omitted. Only the two invariants I, = Ra,6Ra# and 12 =R2

Cornelius Lanczos

Papers

A Remarkable property of the Riemann-Christoffel tensor in four dimensions