Gravitation

About: Gravitation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 29306 publications have been published within this topic receiving 821510 citations.

Conformal transformations in classical gravitational theories and in cosmology

Abstract: In recent years, the use of conformal transformation techniques has become widespread in the literature on gravitational theories alternative to general relativity, on cosmology, and on nonminimally coupled scalar fields. Typically, the transformation to the Einstein frame is generated by a fundamental scalar field already present in the theory. In this context, the problem of which conformal frame is the physical one has to be dealt with and, in the general case, it has been clarified only recently; the formulation of a theory in the ``new'' conformal frame leads to departures from canonical Einstein gravity. In this article, we review the literature on conformal transformations in classical gravitational theories and in cosmology, seen both as purely mathematical tools and as maps with physically relevant aspects. It appears particularly urgent to refer the analysis of experimental tests of Brans-Dicke and scalar-tensor theories of gravity, as well as the predictions of cosmological inflationary scenarios, to the physical conformal frame, in order to have a meaningful comparison with the observations.

Large N phases, gravitational instantons, and the nuts and bolts of AdS holography

Abstract: Recent results in the literature concerning holography indicate that the thermodynamics of quantum gravity ~at least with a negative cosmological constant! can be modeled by the large N thermodynamics of quantum field theory. We emphasize that this suggests a completely unitary evolution of processes in quantum gravity, including black hole formation and decay, and even more extreme examples involving topology change. As concrete examples which show that this correspondence holds even when the space-time is only locally asymptotically AdS, we compute the thermodynamical phase structure of the AdS-Taub-NUT and AdS-Taubbolt spacetimes, and compare them to a ~211!-dimensional conformal field theory~at large N! compactified on a squashed three-sphere and on the twisted plane. @S0556-2821~99!06302-X#

Distinguishing Modified Gravity from Dark Energy

Abstract: The acceleration of the Universe can be explained either through dark energy or through the modification of gravity on large scales. In this paper we investigate modified gravity models and compare their observable predictions with dark energy models. Modifications of general relativity are expected to be scale independent on superhorizon scales and scale dependent on subhorizon scales. For scale-independent modifications, utilizing the conservation of the curvature scalar and a parametrized post-Newtonian formulation of cosmological perturbations, we derive results for large-scale structure growth, weak gravitational lensing, and cosmic microwave background anisotropy. For scale-dependent modifications, inspired by recent f(R) theories we introduce a parametrization for the gravitational coupling G and the post-Newtonian parameter {gamma}. These parametrizations provide a convenient formalism for testing general relativity. However, we find that if dark energy is generalized to include both entropy and shear stress perturbations, and the dynamics of dark energy is unknown a priori, then modified gravity cannot in general be distinguished from dark energy using cosmological linear perturbations.

Cosmic acceleration from Abelian symmetry breaking

Abstract: We discuss a consistent theory for a self-interacting vector field, breaking an Abelian symmetry in such a way to obtain an interesting behavior for its longitudinal polarization. In an appropriate decoupling limit, the dynamics of the longitudinal mode is controlled by Galileon interactions. The full theory away from the decoupling limit does not propagate ghost modes, and can be investigated in regimes where non-linearities become important. When coupled to gravity, this theory provides a candidate for dark energy, since it admits de Sitter cosmological solutions characterized by a technically natural value for the Hubble parameter. We also consider the homogeneous evolution when, besides the vector, additional matter in the form of perfect fluids is included. We find that the vector can have an important role in characterizing the universe expansion.