Analytic self-gravitating Skyrmions, cosmological bounces and AdS wormholes

We present a self-gravitating, analytic and globally regular Skyrmion solution of the Einstein-Skyrme system with winding number w = 1, in presence of a cosmological constant. The static spacetime metric is the direct product RxS3 and the Skyrmion is the self-gravitating generalization of the static hedgehog solution of Manton and Ruback with unit topological charge. This solution can be promoted to a dynamical one in which the spacetime is a cosmology of the Bianchi type-IX with time-dependent scale and squashing coefficients. Remarkably, the Skyrme equations are still identically satisfied for all values of these parameters. Thus, the complete set of field equations for the Einstein-Skyrme-Lambda system in the topological sector reduces to a pair of coupled, autonomous, nonlinear differential equations for the scale factor and a squashing coefficient. These equations admit analytic bouncing cosmological solutions in which the universe contracts to a minimum non-vanishing size, and then expands. A non-trivial byproduct of this solution is that a minor modification of the construction gives rise to a family of stationary, regular configurations in General Relativity with negative cosmological constant supported by an SU(2) nonlinear sigma model. These solutions represent traversable AdS wormholes with NUT parameter in which the only "exotic matter" required for their construction is a negative cosmological constant.Comment: 8 pages, no figures. References added. Title slightly changed. Clarifying comments about both the dynamical squashing and the wormhole have been included. Version accepted for publication on PHYSICS LETTERS

Tensor to scalar ratio of perturbation amplitudes and inflaton dynamics

For the inflaton perturbations it is shown that the evolution of the difference between the spectral indices can be translated into information on the scale dependence of the tensor to scalar amplitudes ratio, $r$, and how the scalar field potential can be derived from that information. Examples are given where $r$ converges to a constant value during inflation but dynamics are rather different from the power--law model. Cases are presented where a constant $r$ is not characteristic of the inflationary dynamics though the resulting perturbation spectra are consistent with the CMB and LSS data. The inflaton potential corresponding to $r$ given by a n--th order polynomial of the e--folds number is derived in quadratures expressions. Since the observable difference between the spectral indices evaluated at a pivot scale yields information about the linear term of that polynomial, the first order case is explicitly written down. The solutions show features beyond the exponential form corresponding to power--law inflation and can be matched with current observational data.Comment: 5 two-columns pages, two figures, RevTex4. Minor modifications. Two references adde

Non-Gravitating Scalar Field in the FRW Background

We study interacting scalar field theory non-minimally coupled to gravity in the FRW background. We show that for a specific choice of interaction terms, the energy-momentum tensor of the scalar field vanishes, and as a result the scalar field does not gravitate. The naive space dependent solution to equations of motion gives rise to singular field profile. We carefully analyze the energy-momentum tensor for such a solution and show that the singularity of the solution gives a subtle contribution to the energy-momentum tensor. The space dependent solution therefore is not non-gravitating. Our conclusion is applicable to other space-time dependent non-gravitating solutions as well. We study hybrid inflation scenario in this model when purely time dependent non-gravitating field is coupled to another scalar field.Comment: 7 Pages, 2 figures, RevTeX4, v2:added a section on regularized energy-momentum tensor, references and conclusions modifie

Tricritical gravity waves in the four-dimensional generalized massive gravity

We construct a generalized massive gravity by combining quadratic curvature gravity with the Chern-Simons term in four dimensions. This may be a candidate for the parity-odd tricritical gravity theory. Considering the AdS$_4$ vacuum solution, we derive the linearized Einstein equation, which is not similar to that of the three dimensional (3D) generalized massive gravity. When a perturbed metric tensor is chosen to be the Kerr-Schild form, the linearized equation reduces to a single massive scalar equation. At the tricritical points where two masses are equal to -1 and 2, we obtain a log-square wave solution to the massive scalar equation. This is compared to the 3D tricritical generalized massive gravity whose dual is a rank-3 logarithmic conformal field theory.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure, version to appear in EPJ

The geometry of Schr\"odinger symmetry in non-relativistic CFT

The non-relativistic conformal "Schroedinger" symmetry of some gravity backgrounds proposed recently in the AdS/CFT context, is explained in the "Bargmann framework". The formalism incorporates the Equivalence Principle. Newton-Hooke conformal symmetries, which are analogs of those of Schroedinger in the presence of a negative cosmological constant, are discussed in a similar way. Further examples include topologically massive gravity with negative cosmological constant and the Madelung hydrodynamical description.Comment: RevTex, 7 pages, no figures. Presentation rearranged, minor corrections, some more references adde

Regular black holes in UV self-complete quantum gravity

In this letter we investigate the role of regular (curvature singularity-free) black holes in the framework of UV self-complete quantum gravity. The existence of a minimal length, shielding the trans-Planckian regime to any physical probe, is self-consistently included into the black hole probe itself. In this way we obtain to slightly shift the barrier below the Planck Length, with the UV self-complete scenario self-consistently confirmed.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, new comments and references, final version accepted for publication in PL

Lovelock-Lifshitz Black Holes

In this paper, we investigate the existence of Lifshitz solutions in Lovelock gravity, both in vacuum and in the presence of a massive vector field. We show that the Lovelock terms can support the Lifshitz solution provided the constants of the theory are suitably chosen. We obtain an exact black hole solution with Lifshitz asymptotics of any scaling parameter $z$ in both Gauss-Bonnet and in pure 3rd order Lovelock gravity. If matter is added in the form of a massive vector field, we also show that Lifshitz solutions in Lovelock gravity exist; these can be regarded as corrections to Einstein gravity coupled to this form of matter. For this form of matter we numerically obtain a broad range of charged black hole solutions with Lifshitz asymptotics, for either sign of the cosmological constant. We find that these asymptotic Lifshitz solutions are more sensitive to corrections induced by Lovelock gravity than are their asymptotic AdS counterparts. We also consider the thermodynamics of the black hole solutions and show that the temperature of large black holes with curved horizons is proportional to $r_0^z$ where $z$ is the critical exponent; this relationship holds for black branes of any size. As is the case for asymptotic AdS black holes, we find that an extreme black hole exists only for the case of horizons with negative curvature. We also find that these Lovelock-Lifshitz black holes have no unstable phase, in contrast to the Lovelock-AdS case. We also present a class of rotating Lovelock-Lifshitz black holes with Ricci-flat horizons.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, a few references added, typo fixed and some comments have been adde

Renormalizability of Massive Gravity in Three Dimensions

We discuss renormalizability of a recently established, massive gravity theory with particular higher derivative terms in three space-time dimensions. It is shown that this massive gravity is certainly renormalizable as well as unitary, so it gives us a physically interesting toy model of perturbative quantum gravity in three dimensions.Comment: 13 pages, no figure