arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Andrea Giusti.
The concept of turnaround surface in an accelerating universe is generalized to arbitrarily large deviations from spherical symmetry, to close the gap between the idealized theoretical literature and the real world observed by astronomers. As an analytical application, the characterization of turnaround surface is applied to small deviations from spherical symmetry, recovering a previous result while extending it to scalar-tensor gravity.
Bootstrapped Newtonian gravity was developed with the purpose of estimating the impact of quantum physics in the nonlinear regime of the gravitational interaction, akin to corpuscular models of black holes and inflation. In this work, we set the ground for extending the bootstrapped Newtonian picture to cosmological spaces. We further discuss how such models of quantum cosmology can lead to a natural solution of the cosmological constant problem.
We determine the complete space-time metric from the bootstrapped Newtonian potential generated by a static spherically symmetric source in the surrounding vacuum. This metric contains post-Newtonian parameters which can be further used to constrain the complete underlying dynamical theory. For values of the post-Newtonian parameters within experimental bounds, the reconstructed metric appears very close to the Schwarzschild solution of General Relativity in the whole region outside the event horizon. The latter is however larger in size for the same value of the mass compared to the Schwarzschild case.
We point out an association between anomalies in the Hawking quasilocal mass (or, in spherical symmetry, in its better known version, the Misner-Sharp-Hernandez mass) and unphysical properties of the spacetime geometry. While anomalous behaviors show up in certain quantum-corrected black holes, they are not unique to this context and signal serious physical pathologies of isolated gravitating systems in general.
Emmy, a child prodigy, writes a letter to Santa Claus asking for a Vaidya solution sourced by a massless scalar field with null gradient for Christmas. Santa writes back explaining why such a toy cannot be built and offers an exact plane wave sourced by a scalar field with lightlike gradient as a replacement.
Fractional Newtonian gravity, based on the fractional generalization of Poisson's equation for Newtonian gravity, is a novel approach to Galactic dynamics aimed at providing an alternative to the dark matter paradigm through a non-local modification of Newton's theory. We provide an in-depth discussion of the gravitational potential for the Kuzmin disk within this new approach. Specifically, we derive an integral and a series representation for the potential, we verify its asymptotic behavior at large scales, and we provide illuminating plots of the resulting equipotential surfaces.
Following an existing procedure in general relativity, the turnaround radius of a spherical structure is studied in scalar-tensor gravity using a new prescription for the analog of the Hawking-Hayward quasilocal mass in this class of theories.
A recent generalization of the Hawking-Hayward quasilocal energy to scalar-tensor gravity is adapted to general spherically symmetric geometries. It is then applied to several black hole and other spherical solutions of scalar-tensor and $f({\cal R}) $ gravity. The relations of this quasilocal energy with the Abreu-Nielsen-Visser gauge and the Kodama vector are discussed.
We study a quantum-corrected Schwarzschild black hole proposed recently in Loop Quantum Gravity. Prompted by the fact that corrections to the innermost stable circular orbit of Schwarzschild diverge, we investigate timelike and null radial geodesics. Massive particles moving radially outwards are confined, while photons make it to infinity with infinite redshift. This unsettling physics, which deviates radically from both Schwarzschild (near the horizon) and Minkowski (at infinity) is due to repulsion by the negative quantum energy density that makes the quasilocal mass vanish as one approaches spatial infinity.
In recent years, many papers discuss the theory and applications of new fractional-order derivatives that are constructed by replacing the singular kernel of the Caputo or Riemann-Liouville derivative by a non-singular (i.e., bounded) kernel. It will be shown here, through rigorous mathematical reasoning, that these non-singular kernel derivatives suffer from several drawbacks which should forbid their use. They fail to satisfy the fundamental theorem of fractional calculus since they do not admit the existence of a corresponding convolution integral of which the derivative is the left-inverse; and the value of the derivative at the initial time $t=0$ is always zero, which imposes an unnatural restriction on the differential equations and models where these derivatives can be used. For the particular cases of the so-called Caputo-Fabrizio and Atangana-Baleanu derivatives, it is shown that when this restriction holds the derivative can be simply expressed in terms of integer derivatives and standard Caputo fractional derivatives, thus demonstrating that these derivatives contain nothing new.
I provide a derivation of some characteristic effects of Milgrom's modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) from a fractional version of Newton's theory based on the fractional Poisson equation. I employ the properties of the fractional Laplacian to investigate the features of the fundamental solution of the proposed model. The key difference between MOND and the fractional theory introduced here is that the latter is an inherently linear theory, featuring a characteristic length scale $\ell$, whilst the former is ultimately nonlinear in nature and it is characterized by an acceleration scale $a_0$. Taking advantage of the Tully-Fisher relation, as the fractional order $s$ approaches $3/2$, I then connect the length scale $\ell$, emerging from this modification of Newton's gravity, with the critical acceleration $a_0$ of MOND. Finally, implications for galaxy rotation curves of a variable-order version of the model are discussed.
The Mittag-Leffler function is universally acclaimed as the Queen function of fractional calculus. The aim of this work is to survey the key results and applications emerging from the three-parameter generalization of this function, known as the Prabhakar function. Specifically, after reviewing key historical events that led to the discovery and modern development of this peculiar function, we discuss how the latter allows one to introduce an enhanced scheme for fractional calculus. Then, we summarize the progress in the application of this new general framework to physics and renewal processes. We also provide a collection of results on the numerical evaluation of the Prabhakar function.
It is now established that, contrary to common belief, (electro-)vacuum Brans-Dicke gravity does not reduce to general relativity for large values of the Brans-Dicke coupling $ω$. Since the essence of experimental tests of scalar-tensor gravity consists of providing stringent lower bounds on $ω$, the PPN formalism on which these tests are based could be in jeopardy. We show that, in the linearized approximation used by the PPN formalism, the anomaly in the limit to general relativity disappears. However, it survives to second (and higher) order and in strong gravity. This fact is relevant for experiments aiming to test second order light deflection and Shapiro time delay.
General fractional calculus offers an elegant and self-consistent path toward the generalization of fractional calculus to an enhanced class of kernels. Prabhakar's theory can be thought of, to some extent, as an explicit realization of this scheme achieved by merging the Prabhakar (or, three-parameter Mittag-Leffler) function with the general wisdom of the standard (Riemann-Liouville and Caputo) formulation of fractional calculus. Here I discuss some implications that emerge when attempting to frame Prabhakar's theory within the program of general fractional calculus.
We try to shed some light on the role of matter in the final stages of black hole evaporation from the fundamental frameworks of classicalization and the black-to-white hole bouncing scenario. Despite being based on very different grounds, these two approaches attempt at going beyond the background field method and treat black holes as fully quantum systems rather than considering quantum field theory on the corresponding classical manifolds. They also lead to the common prediction that the semiclassical description of black hole evaporation should break down and the system be disrupted by internal quantum pressure, but they both arrive at this conclusion neglecting the matter that formed the black hole. We instead estimate this pressure from the bootstrapped description of black holes, which allows us to express the total Arnowitt-Deser-Misner mass in terms of the baryonic mass still present inside the black hole. We conclude that, although these two scenarios provide qualitatively similar predictions for the final stages, the corpuscular model does not seem to suggest any sizeable deviation from the semiclassical time scale at which the disruption should occur, unlike the black-to-white hole bouncing scenario. This, in turn, makes the phenomenology of corpuscular black holes more subtle from an astrophysical perspective.
The turnaround radius of a large structure in an accelerating universe has been studied only for spherical structures, while real astronomical systems deviate from spherical symmetry. We show that, for small deviations from spherical symmetry, the gauge-invariant characterization of the turnaround size using the Hawking-Hayward quasi-local mass and spherical symmetry still applies, to first order in the cosmological perturbation potentials and in the deviations from sphericity. This is the first step to include non-spherical systems in the physics of turnaround.
It is shown that the recent corpuscular description of gravity generically excludes de Sitter spacetime in any semiclassical version of f(R) gravity. A phantom phenomenology of the cosmic dynamics is also naturally excluded.
We revisit the invariance of the curved spacetime Maxwell equations under conformal transformations. Contrary to standard literature, we include the discussion of the four-current, the wave equations for the four-potential and the field, and the behaviour of gauge conditions under the conformal transformation.