arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M. Francaviglia.
We show how the ad hoc prescriptions appeared in 2001 by Ortin for the Lie derivative of Lorentz tensors are a direct consequence of the Kosmann lift defined earlier in 1996 in a much more general setting encompassing older results of Y. Kosmann in 1971.
The Barbero-Immirzi (BI) connection, as usually introduced out of a spin connection, is a global object though it does not transform properly as a genuine connection with respect to generic spin transformations, unless quite specific and suitable gauges are imposed. We shall here investigate whether and under which global conditions a (properly transforming and hence global) SU(2)-connection can be canonically defined in a gauge covariant way in such a way that SU(2)-connection locally agrees with the usual BI connection and can be defined on pretty general bundles (in particular triviality is not assumed). As a by-product we shall also introduce a global covariant SU(2)-connection over the whole spacetime (while for technical reasons the BI connection in the standard formulation is just introduced on a space slice) which restricts to the usual BI connection on a space slice.
The cosmological background of gravitational waves can be tuned by Extended Theories of Gravity. In particular, it can be shown that assuming a generic function f(R) of the Ricci scalar R gives a parametric approach to control the evolution and the production mechanism of gravitational waves in the early Universe.
We shall prove here that conservation laws from Holst's Lagrangian, often used in LQG, do not agree with the corresponding conservation laws in standard GR. Nevertheless, these differences vanish on-shell, i.e. along solutions, so that they eventually define the same classical conserved quantities. Accordingly, they define in particular the same entropy of solutions, and the standard law S=A/4 is reproduced for systems described by Holst's Lagragian. This provides the classical support to the computation usually done in LQG for the entropy of black holes which is in turn used to fix the Barbero-Immirzi parameter.
It is nowadays clear that General Relativity cannot be the definitive theory of Gravitation due to several shortcomings that come out both from theoretical and experimental viewpoints. At large scales (astrophysical and cosmological) the attempts to match it with the latest observational data lead to invoke Dark Energy and Dark Matter as the bulk components of the cosmic fluid. Since no final evidence, at fundamental level, exists for such ingredients, it is clear that General Relativity presents shortcomings at infrared scales. On the other hand, the attempts to formulate more general theories than Einstein's one give rise to mathematical difficulties that need workarounds that, in turn, generate problems from the interpretative viewpoint. We present here a completely new approach to the mathematical objects in terms of which a theory of Gravitation may be written in a first-order (a' la Palatini) formalism, and introduce the concept of Dark Metric which could completely bypass the introduction of disturbing concepts as Dark Energy and Dark Matter.
In this work we analyze the relation between the multiplicative decomposition $\mathbf F=\mathbf F^{e}\mathbf F^{p}$ of the deformation gradient as a product of the elastic and plastic factors and the theory of uniform materials. We prove that postulating such a decomposition is equivalent to having a uniform material model with two configurations - total $ϕ$ and the inelastic $ϕ_{1}$. We introduce strain tensors characterizing different types of evolutions of the material and discuss the form of the internal energy and that of the dissipative potential. The evolution equations are obtained for the configurations $(ϕ,ϕ_{1})$ and the material metric $\mathbf g$. Finally the dissipative inequality for the materials of this type is presented.It is shown that the conditions of positivity of the internal dissipation terms related to the processes of plastic and metric evolution provide the anisotropic yield criteria.
The cosmological background of gravitational waves can be tuned by the higher-order corrections to the gravitational Lagrangian. In particular, it can be shown that assuming $R^{1+ε}$, where $ε$ indicates a generic (eventually small) correction to the Hilbert-Einstein action in the Ricci scalar $R$, gives a parametric approach to control the evolution and the production mechanism of gravitational waves in the early Universe.
We shall here discuss a new spacetime gauge-covariant Lagrangian formulation of General Relativity by means of the Barbero-Immirzi SU(2)-connection on spacetime. To the best of our knowledge the Lagrangian based on SU(2) spacetime fields seems to appear here for the first time.
The Barbero-Immirzi (BI) connection, as usually introduced out of a spin connection, is a global object though it does not transform properly as a genuine connection with respect to generic spin transformations, unless quite specific and suitable gauges are imposed. We shall here investigate whether and under which global conditions a (properly transforming and hence global) SU(2)-connection can be canonically defined in a gauge covariant way. Such SU(2)-connection locally agrees with the usual BI connection and it can be defined on pretty general bundles; in particular triviality is not assumed. As a by-product we shall also introduce a global covariant SU(2)-connection over the whole spacetime (while for technical reasons the BI connection in the standard formulation is just introduced on a space slice) which restricts to the usual BI connection on a space slice.
We investigate the covariant formulation of Chern-Simons theories in a general odd dimension which can be obtained by introducing a vacuum connection field as a reference. Field equations, Noether currents and superpotentials are computed so that results are easily compared with the well-known results in dimension 3. Finally we use this covariant formulation of Chern-Simons theories to investigate their relation with topological BF theories.
Our aim in this note is to clarify a relationship between covariant Chern-Simons 3-dimensional theory and Schwartz type topological field theory known also as BF theory.
We consider the second variational derivative of a given gauge-natural invariant Lagrangian taken with respect to (prolongations of) vertical parts of gauge-natural lifts of infinitesimal principal automorphisms. By requiring such a second variational derivative to vanish, {\em via} the Second Noether Theorem we find that a covariant strongly conserved current is canonically associated with the deformed Lagrangian obtained by contracting Euler--Lagrange equations of the original Lagrangian with (prolongations of) vertical parts of gauge-natural lifts of infinitesimal principal automorphisms lying in the kernel of the generalized gauge-natural Jacobi morphism.
In the Lagrangian framework for symmetries and conservation laws of field theories, we investigate globality properties of conserved currents associated with non-global Lagrangians admitting global Euler--Lagrange morphisms. Our approach is based on the recent geometric formulation of the calculus of variations on finite order jets of fibered manifolds in terms of variational sequences.
By resorting to Noether's Second Theorem, we relate the generalized Bianchi identities for Lagrangian field theories on gauge-natural bundles with the kernel of the associated gauge-natural Jacobi morphism. A suitable definition of the curvature of gauge-natural variational principles can be consequently formulated in terms of the Hamiltonian connection canonically associated with a generalized Lagrangian obtained by contracting field equations.
Augmented variational principles are introduced in order to provide a definition of relative conservation laws. As it is physically reasonable, relative conservation laws define in turn relative conserved quantities which measure, for example, how much energy is needed in a field theory to go from one configuration (called the reference or vacuum) to another configuration (the physical state of the system). The general prescription we describe solves in a covariant way the well known observer dependence of conserved quantities. The solution found is deeply related to the divergence ambiguity of the Lagrangian and to various formalisms recently appeared in literature to deal with the variation of conserved quantities (of which this is a formal integration). A number of examples relevant to fundamental Physics are considered in detail, starting from classical Mechanics.
We investigate the viability of f(R) theories in the framework of the Palatini approach as solutions to the problem of the observed accelerated expansion of the universe. Two physically motivated popular choices for f(R) are considered: power law, f(R) = βR^n, and logarithmic, f(R) = α\ln{R}. Under the Palatini approach, both Lagrangians give rise to cosmological models comprising only standard matter and undergoing a present phase of accelerated expansion. We use the Hubble diagram of type Ia Supernovae and the data on the gas mass fraction in relaxed galaxy clusters to see whether these models are able to reproduce what is observed and to constrain their parameters. It turns out that they are indeed able to fit the data with values of the Hubble constant and of the matter density parameter in agreement with some model independent estimates, but the today deceleration parameter is higher than what is measured in the concordance LambdaCDM model.
Alternative gravitational theories described by Lagrangians depending on general functions of the Ricci scalar have been proven to give coherent theoretical models to describe the experimental evidence of the acceleration of universe at present time. In this paper we proceed further in this analysis of cosmological applications of alternative gravitational theories depending on (other) curvature invariants. We introduce Ricci squared Lagrangians in minimal interaction with matter (perfect fluid); we find modified Einstein equations and consequently modified Friedmann equations in the Palatini formalism. It is striking that both Ricci scalar and Ricci squared theories are described in the same mathematical framework and both the generalized Einstein equations and generalized Friedmann equations have the same structure. In the framework of the cosmological principle, without the introduction of exotic forms of dark energy, we thus obtain modified equations providing values of w_{eff}<-1 in accordance with the experimental data. The spacetime bi-metric structure plays a fundamental role in the physical interpretation of results and gives them a clear and very rich geometrical interpretation.
We formulate higher order variations of a Lagrangian in the geometric framework of jet prolongations of fibered manifolds. Our formalism applies to Lagrangians which depend on an arbitrary number of independent and dependent variables, together with higher order derivatives. In particular, we show that the second variation is equal (up to horizontal differentials) to the vertical differential of the Euler--Lagrange morphism which turns out to be self-adjoint along solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equations. These two objects, respectively, generalize in an invariant way the Hessian morphism and the Jacobi morphism (which is then self-adjoint along critical sections) of a given Lagrangian to the case of higher order Lagrangians. Some examples of classical Lagrangians are provided to illustrate our method.