arXiv subjects

Georgios Kofinas

Publications and source records attributed to Georgios Kofinas.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

5-dimensional braneworld with gravitating Nambu-Goto matching conditions

We continue the investigation of a recent proposal on alternative matching conditions for self-gravitating defects which generalize the standard matching conditions. The reasoning for this study is the need for consistency of the various codimension defects and the existence of a meaningful equation of motion at the probe limit, things that seem to lack from the standard approach. These matching conditions arise by varying the brane-bulk action with respect to the brane embedding fields (and not with respect to the bulk metric at the brane position) in a way that takes into account the gravitational back-reaction of the brane to the bulk. They always possess a Nambu-Goto probe limit and any codimension defect is seemingly consistent for any second order bulk gravity theory. Here, we consider in detail the case of a codimension-1 brane in five-dimensional Einstein gravity, derive the generic alternative junction conditions and find the Z_{2}-symmetric braneworld cosmology, as well as its bulk extension. Compared to the standard braneworld cosmology, the new one has an extra integration constant which accounts for the today matter and dark energy contents, therefore, there is more freedom for accommodating the observed cosmic features. One branch of the solution possesses the asymptotic linearized LFRW regime. We have constrained the parameters so that to have a recent passage from a long deceleration era to a small today acceleration epoch and we have computed the age of the universe, consistent with current data, and the time-varying dark energy equation of state. For a range of the parameters it is possible for the presented cosmology to provide a large acceleration in the high energy regime.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Teleparallel equivalent of Gauss-Bonnet gravity and its modifications

Inspired by the teleparallel formulation of General Relativity, whose Lagrangian is the torsion invariant T, we have constructed the teleparallel equivalent of Gauss-Bonnet gravity in arbitrary dimensions. Without imposing the Weitzenbock connection, we have extracted the torsion invariant T_G, equivalent (up to boundary terms) to the Gauss-Bonnet term G. T_G is constructed by the vielbein and the connection, it contains quartic powers of the torsion tensor, it is diffeomorphism and Lorentz invariant, and in four dimensions it reduces to a topological invariant as expected. Imposing the Weitzenbock connection, T_G depends only on the vielbein, and this allows us to consider a novel class of modified gravity theories based on F(T,T_G), which is not spanned by the class of F(T) theories, nor by the F(R,G) class of curvature modified gravity. Finally, varying the action we extract the equations of motion for F(T,T_G) gravity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Dynamical behavior in $f(T,T_G)$ cosmology

The $f(T,T_G)$ class of gravitational modification, based on the quadratic torsion scalar $T$, as well as on the new quartic torsion scalar $T_G$ which is the teleparallel equivalent of the Gauss-Bonnet term, is a novel theory, different from both $f(T)$ and $f(R,G)$ ones. We perform a detailed dynamical analysis of a spatially flat universe governed by the simplest non-trivial model of $f(T,T_G)$ gravity which does not introduce a new mass scale. We find that the universe can result in dark-energy dominated, quintessence-like, cosmological-constant-like or phantom-like solutions, according to the parameter choices. Additionally, it may result to a dark energy - dark matter scaling solution, and thus it can alleviate the coincidence problem. Finally, the analysis "at infinity" reveals that the universe may exhibit future, past, or intermediate singularities depending on the parameters.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Conformal Mass in AdS gravity

We show that the Ashtekar-Magnon-Das (AMD) mass and other conserved quantities are equivalent to the Kounterterm charges in the asymptotically AdS spacetimes that satisfy the Einstein equations, if we assume the same asymptotic fall-off behavior of the Weyl tensor as considered by AMD. This therefore implies that, in all dimensions, the conformal mass can be directly derived from the bulk action and the boundary terms, which are written in terms of the extrinsic curvature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Self-gravitating branes again

We raise on theoretical grounds the question of the physical relevance of Israel matching conditions and their generalizations to higher codimensions, the standard cornerstone of the braneworld and other membrane scenarios. Our reasoning is twofold: First, the incapability of the conventional matching conditions to accept the Nambu-Goto probe limit (even the geodesic limit of the Israel matching conditions is not acceptable since being the geodesic equation a kinematical fact it should be preserved for all gravitational theories or defects, which is not the case for these conditions). Second, in our D-dimensional spacetime (maybe D=4), classical defects of any possible codimension should be compatible. These matching conditions fail to accept codimension-2 and 3 defects for D=4 (which represents effectively the spacetime at certain length and energy scales) and most probably fail to accept high enough codimensional defects for any D since there is no high enough Lovelock density to support them. Here, we propose alternative matching conditions which seem to satisfy the previous criteria. Instead of varying the brane-bulk action with respect to the bulk metric at the brane position, we vary with respect to the brane embedding fields so that the gravitational back-reaction is included. For a codimension-2 brane in 6-dim EGB gravity we prove its consistency for an axially symmetric cosmological configuration. The cosmologies found have the LFRW behaviour and extra correction terms. For a radiation brane one solution avoids a cosmological singularity and undergoes accelerated expansion near the minimum scale factor. In the presence of an induced gravity term, there naturally appears in the theory the effective cosmological constant scale lambda/(M_6^4 r_c^2), which for a brane tension lambda\sim M_6^4 (e.g. TeV^4) and r_c \sim H_0^{-1} gives the observed value of the cosmological constant.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

A solution of the coincidence problem based on the recent galactic core black hole mass density increase

A mechanism capable to provide a natural solution to two major cosmological problems, i.e. the cosmic acceleration and the coincidence problem, is proposed. A specific brane-bulk energy exchange mechanism produces a total dark pressure, arising when adding all normal to the brane negative pressures in the interior of galactic core black holes. This astrophysically produced negative dark pressure explains cosmic acceleration and why the dark energy today is of the same order to the matter density for a wide range of the involved parameters. An exciting result of the analysis is that the recent rise of the galactic core black hole mass density causes the recent passage from cosmic deceleration to acceleration. Finally, it is worth mentioning that this work corrects a wide spread fallacy among brane cosmologists, i.e. that escaping gravitons result to positive dark pressure.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Transplanckian bremsstrahlung and black hole production

Classical gravitational bremsstrahlung in particle collisions at transplanckian energies is studied in ${\mathcal M}_4\times {\mathcal T}^d$. The radiation efficiency $ε\equiv E_{\rm rad}/E_{\rm initial}$ is computed in terms of the Schwarzschild radius $r_S(\sqrt{s})$, the impact parameter $b$ and the Lorentz factor $γ_{\rm cm}$ and found to be $ε=C_d (r_S/b)^{3d+3} γ_{\rm cm}^{2d+1}$, larger than previous estimates by many powers of $γ_{\rm cm}\gg 1$. The result is reliable for impact parameters in the overlap of $r_S λ_C$, with $b_c$ marking (for $d\neq 0$) the loss of the notion of classical trajectories and $λ_C\equiv \hbar/mc$ the Compton length of the scattered particles. The condition on $s$ and $m$ for extreme radiation damping and (presumably) no black hole production is also derived.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

The consistency of codimension-2 braneworlds and their cosmology

We study axially symmetric codimension-2 cosmology for a distributional braneworld fueled by a localised 4D perfect fluid, in a 6D Lovelock theory. We argue that only the matching conditions (dubbed topological) where the extrinsic curvature on the brane has no jump describe a pure codimension-2 brane. If there is discontinuity in the extrinsic curvature on the brane, this induces inevitably codimension-1 distributional terms. We study these topological matching conditions, together with constraints from the bulk equations evaluated at the brane position, for two cases of regularisation of the codimension-2 defect. First, for an arbitrary smooth regularisation of the defect and second for a ring regularisation which has a cusp in the angular part of the metric. For a cosmological ansatz, we see that in the first case the coupled system is not closed and requires input from the bulk equations away from the brane. The relevant bulk function, which is a time-dependent angular deficit, describes the energy exchange between the brane and the 6D bulk. On the other hand, for the ring regularisation case, the system is closed and there is no leakage of energy in the bulk. We demonstrate that the full set of matching conditions and field equations evaluated at the brane position are consistent, correcting some previous claim in the literature which used rather restrictive assumptions for the form of geometrical quantities close to the codimension-2 brane. We analyse the modified Friedmann equation and we see that there are certain corrections coming from the non-zero extrinsic curvature on the brane. We establish the presence of geometric self-acceleration and a possible curvature domination wedged in between the period of matter and self-acceleration eras as signatures of codimension-2 cosmology.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

On Horava-Lifshitz "Black Holes"

The most general spherically symmetric solution with zero shift is found in the non-projectable Horava-Lifshitz class of theories with general coupling constants. It contains as special cases, spherically symmetric solutions found by other authors earlier. It is found that the generic solution has conventional (AdS, dS or flat) asymptotics with a universal 1/r tail. There are several special cases where the asymptotics differ, including the detailed balance choice of couplings. The conventional thermodynamics of this general class of solutions is established by calculating the energy, temperature and entropy. Although several of the solutions have conventional horizons, for particles with ultra-luminal dispersion relations such solutions appear to be horizonless.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Horava-Lifshitz Cosmology

The cosmological equations suggested by the non-relativistic renormalizable gravitational theory proposed by Hořava are considered. It is pointed out that the early universe cosmology has features that may give an alternative to inflation and the theory may be able to escape singularities.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Classical ultra-relativistic scattering in ADD

The classical differential cross-section is calculated for high-energy small-angle gravitational scattering in the factorizable model with toroidal extra dimensions. The three main features of the classical computation are: (a) It involves summation over the infinite Kaluza-Klein towers but, contrary to the Born amplitude, it is finite with no need of an ultraviolet cutoff. (b) It is shown to correspond to the non-perturbative saddle-point approximation of the eikonal amplitude, obtained by the summation of an infinite number of ladder graphs of the quantum theory. (c) In the absence of extra dimensions it reproduces all previously known results.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Universal Kounterterms in Lovelock AdS gravity

We show the universal form of the boundary term (Kounterterm series) which regularizes the Euclidean action and background-independent definition of conserved quantities for any Lovelock gravity theory with AdS asymptotics (including Einstein-Hilbert and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet). We discuss on the connection of this procedure to the existence of topological invariants and Chern-Simons forms in the corresponding dimensions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Universal regularization prescription for Lovelock AdS gravity

A definite form for the boundary term that produces the finiteness of both the conserved quantities and Euclidean action for any Lovelock gravity with AdS asymptotics is presented. This prescription merely tells even from odd bulk dimensions, regardless the particular theory considered, what is valid even for Einstein-Hilbert and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet AdS gravity. The boundary term is a given polynomial of the boundary extrinsic and intrinsic curvatures (also referred to as Kounterterms series). Only the coupling constant of the boundary term changes accordingly, such that it always preserves a well-posed variational principle for boundary conditions suitable for asymptotically AdS spaces. The background-independent conserved charges associated to asymptotic symmetries are found. In odd bulk dimensions, this regularization produces a generalized formula for the vacuum energy in Lovelock AdS gravity. The standard entropy for asymptotically AdS black holes is recovered directly from the regularization of the Euclidean action, and not only from the first law of thermodynamics associated to the conserved quantities.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Gravitating defects of codimension-two

Thin gravitating defects with conical singularities in higher codimensions and with generalized Israel matching conditions are known to be inconsistent for generic energy-momentum. A way to remove this inconsistency is proposed and is realized for an axially symmetric gravitating codimension-two defect in six dimensional Einstein gravity. By varying with respect to the brane embedding fields, alternative matching conditions are derived, which are generalizations of the Nambu-Goto equations of motion of the defect, consistent with bulk gravity. For a maximally symmetric defect the standard picture is recovered. The four-dimensional perfect fluid cosmology coincides with conventional FRW in the case of radiation, but for dust it has rho^{4/3} instead of rho. A four-dimensional black hole solution is presented having the Schwarzschild form with a short-distance correction r^{-2}.

hep-th↗

arXiv2006

Vacuum energy in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet AdS gravity

A finite action principle for Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet AdS gravity is presented. The boundary term, which is different for even and odd dimensions, is a functional of the boundary metric, intrinsic curvature and extrinsic curvature. For even dimensions, the boundary term corresponds to the maximal Chern form of the spacetime, and the asymptotic AdS condition for the curvature suffices for the well-posedness of this action. For odd dimensions, the action is stationary under a boundary condition on the variation of the extrinsic curvature. The background-independent Noether charges associated to asymptotic symmetries are found and the Euclidean continuation of the action correctly describes the black hole thermodynamics in the canonical ensemble. In particular, this procedure leads to a covariant formula for the vacuum energy in odd-dimensional asymptotically AdS spacetimes.

hep-th↗

arXiv2005

On braneworld cosmologies from six dimensions, and absence thereof

We consider (thin) braneworlds with conical singularities in six-dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with a bulk cosmological constant. The Gauss-Bonnet term is necessary in six dimensions for including non-trivial brane matter. We show that this model for axially symmetric bulks does not possess isotropic braneworld cosmological solutions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2005

Conservation equation on braneworlds in six dimensions

We study braneworlds in six-dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. The Gauss-Bonnet term is crucial for the equations to be well-posed in six dimensions when non-trivial matter on the brane is included (the also involved induced gravity term is not significant for their structure), and the matching conditions of the braneworld are known. We show that the energy-momentum of the brane is always conserved, independently of any regular bulk energy-momentum tensor, contrary to the situation of the five-dimensional case.

hep-th↗

arXiv2002

General Brane Dynamics with R_{4} term in the Bulk

A general analysis of the induced brane dynamics is performed when the intrinsic curvature term is included in the action. Such a term is known to cause dramatic changes and is generically induced by quantum corrections coming from the bulk gravity and its coupling with matter living on the brane. The induced brane dynamics is shown to be the usual Einstein dynamics coupled to a well defined modified energy-momentum tensor. In cosmology, conventional general relativity revives for an initial era whose duration depends on the value of the five-dimensional Planck mass. Violations of energy conditions may be possible, as well as matter inhomogeneities on the brane in (A)dS_{5} or Minkowski backgrounds. A new anisotropic cosmological solution is given in the above context. This solution, for a fine-tuned five-dimensional cosmological constant, exhibits an intermediate accelerating phase which is followed by an era corresponding to a 4D perfect fluid solution with no future horizons.

hep-th↗