Non-Trivial Vacua in Higher-Derivative Gravitation

A discussion of an extended class of higher-derivative classical theories of gravity is presented. A procedure is given for exhibiting the new propagating degrees of freedom, at the full non-linear level, by transforming the higher-derivative action to a canonical second-order form. For general fourth-order theories, described by actions which are general functions of the scalar curvature, the Ricci tensor and the full Riemann tensor, it is shown that the higher-derivative theories may have multiple stable vacua. The vacua are shown to be, in general, non-trivial, corresponding to deSitter or anti-deSitter solutions of the original theory. It is also shown that around any vacuum the elementary excitations remain the massless graviton, a massive scalar field and a massive ghost-like spin-two field. The analysis is extended to actions which are arbitrary functions of terms of the form $\nabla^{2k}R$, and it is shown that such theories also have a non-trivial vacuum structure.Comment: 25 pages, LaTeX2e with AMS-LaTeX 1.2, 7 eps figure

Equivalence of black hole thermodynamics between a generalized theory of gravity and the Einstein theory

We analyze black hole thermodynamics in a generalized theory of gravity whose Lagrangian is an arbitrary function of the metric, the Ricci tensor and a scalar field. We can convert the theory into the Einstein frame via a "Legendre" transformation or a conformal transformation. We calculate thermodynamical variables both in the original frame and in the Einstein frame, following the Iyer--Wald definition which satisfies the first law of thermodynamics. We show that all thermodynamical variables defined in the original frame are the same as those in the Einstein frame, if the spacetimes in both frames are asymptotically flat, regular and possess event horizons with non-zero temperatures. This result may be useful to study whether the second law is still valid in the generalized theory of gravity.Comment: 14 pages, no figure

Dark Energy Dominance and Cosmic Acceleration in First Order Formalism

The current accelerated universe could be produced by modified gravitational dynamics as it can be seen in particular in its Palatini formulation. We analyze here a specific non-linear gravity-scalar system in the first order Palatini formalism which leads to a FRW cosmology different from the purely metric one. It is shown that the emerging FRW cosmology may lead either to an effective quintessence phase (cosmic speed-up) or to an effective phantom phase. Moreover, the already known gravity assisted dark energy dominance occurs also in the first order formalism. Finally, it is shown that a dynamical theory able to resolve the cosmological constant problem exists also in this formalism, in close parallel with the standard metric formulation.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX file, no figures. Replaced version to be published on Phys. Rev.

The dynamical equivalence of modified gravity revisited

We revisit the dynamical equivalence between different representations of vacuum modified gravity models in view of Legendre transformations. The equivalence is discussed for both bulk and boundary space, by including in our analysis the relevant Gibbons-Hawking terms. In the f(R) case, the Legendre transformed action coincides with the usual Einstein frame one. We then re-express the R+f(G) action, where G is the Gauss-Bonnet term, as a second order theory with a new set of field variables, four tensor fields and one scalar and study its dynamics. For completeness, we also calculate the conformal transformation of the full Jordan frame R+f(G) action. All the appropriate Gibbons-Hawking terms are calculated explicitly.Comment: 17 pages; v3: Revised version. New comments added in Sections 3 & 5. New results added in Section 6. Version to appear in Class. Quantum Gravit

Evidence for Strong Itinerant Spin Fluctuations in the Normal State of CeFeAsO(0.89)F(0.11) Iron-Oxypnictides

The electronic structure in the normal state of CeFeAsO0.89F0.11 oxypnictide superconductors has been investigated with x-ray absorption and photoemission spectroscopy. All the data exhibit signatures of Fe d-electron itinerancy. Exchange multiplets appearing in the Fe 3s core level indicate the presence of itinerant spin fluctuations. These findings suggest that the underlying physics and the origin of superconductivity in these materials are likely to be quite different from those of the cuprate high-temperature superconductors. These materials provide opportunities for elucidating the role of magnetic fluctuations in high-temperature superconductivity.Comment: Shorter version. Accepted in Phys. Rev. Let

Ostrogradski Formalism for Higher-Derivative Scalar Field Theories

We carry out the extension of the Ostrogradski method to relativistic field theories. Higher-derivative Lagrangians reduce to second differential-order with one explicit independent field for each degree of freedom. We consider a higher-derivative relativistic theory of a scalar field and validate a powerful order-reducing covariant procedure by a rigorous phase-space analysis. The physical and ghost fields appear explicitly. Our results strongly support the formal covariant methods used in higher-derivative gravity.Comment: 22 page

Gauge Fixing in Higher Derivative Gravity

Linearized four-derivative gravity with a general gauge fixing term is considered. By a Legendre transform and a suitable diagonalization procedure it is cast into a second-order equivalent form where the nature of the physical degrees of freedom, the gauge ghosts, the Weyl ghosts, and the intriguing "third ghosts", characteristic to higher-derivative theories, is made explicit. The symmetries of the theory and the structure of the compensating Faddeev-Popov ghost sector exhibit non-trivial peculiarities.Comment: 21 pages, LaTe

Determinant-Gravity: Cosmological implications

We analyze the action $\int d^4x \sqrt{\det||{\cal B} g_{\mu\nu}+ {\cal C} R_{\mu\nu}}||$ as a possible alternative or addition to the Einstein gravity. Choosing a particular form of ${\cal B}(R)= \sqrt {R}$ we can restore the Einstein gravity and, if ${\cal B}=m^2$, we obtain the cosmological constant term. Taking ${\cal B} = m^2 + {\cal B}_1 R$ and expanding the action in $1/m^2$, we obtain as a leading term the Einstein Lagrangian with a cosmological constant proportional to $m^4$ and a series of higher order operators. In general case of non-vanishing ${\cal B}$ and ${\cal C}$ new cosmological solutions for the Robertson-Walker metric are obtained.Comment: revtex format, 5 pages,8 figures,references adde

Electronic Structure of CeFeAsO1-xFx (x=0, 0.11/x=0.12) compounds

We report an extensive study on the intrinsic bulk electronic structure of the high-temperature superconductor CeFeAsO0.89F0.11 and its parent compound CeFeAsO by soft and hard x-ray photoemission, x-ray absorption and soft-x-ray emission spectroscopies. The complementary surface/bulk probing depth, and the elemental and chemical sensitivity of these techniques allows resolving the intrinsic electronic structure of each element and correlating it with the local structure, which has been probed by extended-x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. The measurements indicate a predominant 4f1 (i.e. Ce3+) initial state configuration for Cerium and an effective valence-band-to-4f charge-transfer screening of the core hole. The spectra also reveal the presence of a small Ce f0 initial state configuration, which we assign to the occurrence of an intermediate valence state. The data reveal a reasonably good agreement with the partial density of states as obtained in standard density functional calculations over a large energy range. Implications for the electronic structure of these materials are discussed.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.