Gravitation

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

Cosmological perturbations in massive gravity and the Higuchi bound

Abstract: In de Sitter spacetime there exists an absolute minimum for the mass of a spin-2 field set by the Higuchi bound m2 ? 2H2. We generalize this bound to arbitrary spatially flat FRW geometries in the context of the recently proposed ghost-free models of Massive Gravity with an FRW reference metric, by performing a Hamiltonian analysis for cosmological perturbations. We find that the bound generically indicates that spatially flat FRW solutions in FRW massive gravity, which exhibit a Vainshtein mechanism in the background as required by consistency with observations, imply that the helicity zero mode is a ghost. In contradistinction to previous works, the tension between the Higuchi bound and the Vainshtein mechanism is equally strong regardless of the equation of state for matter.

A rigorous derivation of gravitational self-force

Abstract: There is general agreement that the MiSaTaQuWa equations should describe the motion of a 'small body' in general relativity, taking into account the leading order self-force effects. However, previous derivations of these equations have made a number of ad hoc assumptions and/or contain a number of unsatisfactory features. For example, all previous derivations have invoked, without proper justification, the step of 'Lorenz gauge relaxation', wherein the linearized Einstein equation is written in the form appropriate to the Lorenz gauge, but the Lorenz gauge condition is then not imposed—thereby making the resulting equations for the metric perturbation inequivalent to the linearized Einstein equations. (Such a 'relaxation' of the linearized Einstein equations is essential in order to avoid the conclusion that 'point particles' move on geodesics.) In this paper, we analyze the issue of 'particle motion' in general relativity in a systematic and rigorous way by considering a one-parameter family of metrics, gab(λ), corresponding to having a body (or black hole) that is 'scaled down' to zero size and mass in an appropriate manner. We prove that the limiting worldline of such a one-parameter family must be a geodesic of the background metric, gab(λ = 0). Gravitational self-force—as well as the force due to coupling of the spin of the body to curvature—then arises as a first-order perturbative correction in λ to this worldline. No assumptions are made in our analysis apart from the smoothness and limit properties of the one-parameter family of metrics, gab(λ). Our approach should provide a framework for systematically calculating higher order corrections to gravitational self-force, including higher multipole effects, although we do not attempt to go beyond first-order calculations here. The status of the MiSaTaQuWa equations is explained.

Surface Density of Spacetime Degrees of Freedom from Equipartition Law in theories of Gravity

Abstract: I show that the principle of equipartition, applied to area elements of a surface ∂V which are in equilibrium at the local Davies-Unruh temperature, allows one to determine the surface number density of the microscopic spacetime degrees of freedom in any diffeomorphism invariant theory of gravity. The entropy associated with these degrees of freedom matches with the Wald entropy for the theory. This result also allows one to attribute an entropy density to the spacetime in a natural manner. The field equations of the theory can then be obtained by extremizing this entropy. Moreover, when the microscopic degrees of freedom are in local thermal equilibrium, the spacetime entropy of a bulk region resides on its boundary.

Actions for Gravity, with Generalizations: A Review

Abstract: Related to the classical Ashtekar Hamiltonian, there have been discoveries regarding new classical actions for gravity in (2+1)- and (3+1)-dimensions, and also generalizations of Einstein's theory of gravity. In this review, I will try to clarify the relations between the new and old actions for gravity, and also give a short introduction to the new generalizations. The new results/treatments in this review are: 1. A more detailed constraint analysis of the Hamiltonian formulation of the Hilbert- Palatini Lagrangian in (3+1)-dimensions. 2. The canonical transformation relating the Ashtekar- and the ADM-Hamiltonian in (2+1)-dimensions is given. 3. There is a discussion regarding the possibility of finding a higher dimensional Ashtekar formulation. There are also two clarifying figures (in the beginning of chapter 2 and 3, respectively) showing the relations between different action-formulations for Einstein gravity in (2+1)- and (3+1)-dimensions.