6 research outputs found
Non-Metric Gravity I: Field Equations
We describe and study a certain class of modified gravity theories. Our
starting point is Plebanski formulation of gravity in terms of a triple B^i of
2-forms, a connection A^i and a ``Lagrange multiplier'' field Psi^ij. The
generalization we consider stems from presence in the action of an extra term
proportional to a scalar function of Psi^ij. As in the usual Plebanski general
relativity (GR) case, a certain metric can be constructed from B^i. However,
unlike in GR, the connection A^i no longer coincides with the self-dual part of
the metric-compatible spin-connection. Field equations of the theory are shown
to be relations between derivatives of the metric and components of field Psi,
as well as its derivatives, the later being in contrast to the GR case. The
equations are of second order in derivatives. An analog of the Bianchi identity
is still present in the theory, as well as its contracted version tantamount to
energy conservation equation.Comment: 21 pages, no figures (v2) energy conservation equation simplified,
note on reality conditions added (v3) minor change
On the origin of thermal string gas
We investigate decaying D-branes as the origin of the thermal string gas of
string gas cosmology. We consider initial configurations of low-dimensional
branes and argue that they can time evolve to thermal string gas. We find that
there is a range in the weak string coupling and fast brane decay time regimes,
where the initial configuration could drive the evolution of the dilaton to
values, where exactly three spacelike directions grow large.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, v2: references adde
Large Nongaussianity from Nonlocal Inflation
We study the possibility of obtaining large nongaussian signatures in the
Cosmic Microwave Background in a general class of single-field nonlocal
hill-top inflation models. We estimate the nonlinearity parameter f_{NL} which
characterizes nongaussianity in such models and show that large nongaussianity
is possible. For the recently proposed p-adic inflation model we find that
f_{NL} ~ 120 when the string coupling is order unity. We show that large
nongaussianity is also possible in a toy model with an action similar to those
which arise in string field theory.Comment: 27 pages, no figures. Added references and some clarifying remark
Predictions for Nongaussianity from Nonlocal Inflation
In our previous work the nonlinearity parameter f_NL, which characterizes
nongaussianity in the cosmic microwave background, was estimated for a class of
inflationary models based on nonlocal field theory. These models include p-adic
inflation and generically have the remarkable property that slow roll inflation
can proceed even with an extremely steep potential. Previous calculations found
that large nongaussianity is possible; however, the technical complications
associated with studying perturbations in theories with infinitely many
derivatives forced us to provide only an order of magnitude estimate for f_NL.
We reconsider the problem of computing f_NL in nonlocal inflation models,
showing that a particular choice of field basis and recent progress in
cosmological perturbation theory makes an exact computation possible. We
provide the first quantitatively accurate computation of the bispectrum in
nonlocal inflation, confirming our previous claim that it can be observably
large. We show that the shape of the bispectrum in this class of models makes
it observationally distinguishable from Dirac-Born-Infeld inflation models.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures; references added, sign convention for f_NL
clarified, minor correction
Non-perturbative gravity, Hagedorn bounce and the cosmic microwave background.
In Biswas et al (2006 J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. JCAP03(2006)009 [hep-th/0508194]) it was shown how non-perturbative corrections to gravity can resolve the big bang singularity, leading to a bouncing universe. Depending on the scale of the non-perturbative corrections, the temperature at the bounce may be close to or higher than the Hagedorn temperature. If matter is made up of strings, then massive string states will be excited near the bounce, and the bounce will occur inside (or at the onset of) the Hagedorn phase for string matter. As we discuss in this paper, in this case cosmological fluctuations can be generated via the string gas mechanism recently proposed in Nayeri et al (2005 Preprint hep-th/0511140). In fact, the model discussed here demonstrates explicitly that it is possible to realize the assumptions made in Nayeri et al (2005 Preprint hep-th/0511140) in the context of a concrete set of dynamical background equations. We also calculate the spectral tilt of thermodynamic stringy fluctuations generated in the Hagedorn regime in this bouncing universe scenario. Generally we find a scale-invariant spectrum with a red tilt which is very small but does not vanish