One loop renormalization of the four-dimensional theory for quantum dilaton gravity.

We study the one loop renormalization in the most general metric-dilaton theory with the second derivative terms only. The general theory can be divided into two classes, models of one are equivalent to conformally coupled with gravity scalar field and also to general relativity with cosmological term. The models of second class have one extra degree of freedom which corresponds to dilaton. We calculate the one loop divergences for the models of second class and find that the arbitrary functions of dilaton in the starting action can be fine-tuned in such a manner that all the higher derivative counterterms disappear on shell. The only structures in both classical action and counterterms, which survive on shell, are the potential (cosmological) ones. They can be removed by renormalization of the dilaton field which acquire the nontrivial anomalous dimension, that leads to the effective running of the cosmological constant. For some of the renormalizable solutions of the theory the observable low energy value of the cosmological constant is small as compared with the Newtonian constant. We also discuss another application of our result.Comment: 21 pages, latex, no figures

That's a wrap!

Calibration technology provides us with a fast and elegant way to find the supergravity solutions for BPS wrapped M-branes. Its true potential had however remained untapped due to the absence of a classification of calibrations in spacetimes with non-trivial flux. The applications of this method were thus limited in practise to M-branes wrapping Kahler calibrated cycles. In this paper, we catagorize a type of generalised calibrations which exist in supergravity backgrounds and contain Kahler calibrations as a sub-class. This broadens the arena of brane configurations whose supergravity solutions are accessible through the calibration 'short-cut' method.Comment: 19 pages, typos correcte

Dynamics of intersecting brane systems -- Classification and their applications --

We present dynamical intersecting brane solutions in higher-dimensional gravitational theory coupled to dilaton and several forms. Assuming the forms of metric, form fields, and dilaton field, we give a complete classification of dynamical intersecting brane solutions with/without M-waves and Kaluza-Klein monopoles in eleven-dimensional supergravity. We apply these solutions to cosmology and black holes. It is shown that these give FRW cosmological solutions and in some cases Lorentz invariance is broken in our world. If we regard the bulk space as our universe, we may interpret them as black holes in the expanding universe. We also discuss lower-dimensional effective theories and point out naive effective theories may give us some solutions which are inconsistent with the higher-dimensional Einstein equations.Comment: 44 pages; v2: minor corrections, references adde

Oscillatory behavior of closed isotropic models in second order gravity theory

Homogeneous and isotropic models are studied in the Jordan frame of the second order gravity theory. The late time evolution of the models is analysed with the methods of the dynamical systems. The normal form of the dynamical system has periodic solutions for a large set of initial conditions. This implies that an initially expanding closed isotropic universe may exhibit oscillatory behaviour.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures. With some minor improvements. To appear in General Relativity and Gravitatio

Avoiding degenerate coframes in an affine gauge approach to quantum gravity

In quantum models of gravity, it is surmized that configurations with degenerate coframes could occur during topology change of the underlying spacetime structure. However, the coframe is not the true Yang--Mills type gauge field of the translations, since it lacks the inhomogeneous gradient term in the gauge transformations. By explicitly restoring this ``hidden" piece within the framework of the affine gauge approach to gravity, one can avoid the metric or coframe degeneracy which would otherwise interfere with the integrations within the path integral. This is an important advantage for quantization.Comment: 14 pages, Preprint Cologne-thp-1993-H

Some remarks on the dynamical systems approach to fourth order gravity

Building on earlier work, we discuss a general framework for exploring the cosmological dynamics of Higher Order Theories of Gravity. We show that once the theory of gravity has been specified, the cosmological equations can be written as a first-order autonomous system and we give several examples which illustrate the utility of our method. We also discuss a number of results which have appeared recently in the literature.Comment: 19 pages, LaTe

On Higher Order Gravities, Their Analogy to GR, and Dimensional Dependent Version of Duff's Trace Anomaly Relation

An almost brief, though lengthy, review introduction about the long history of higher order gravities and their applications, as employed in the literature, is provided. We review the analogous procedure between higher order gravities and GR, as described in our previous works, in order to highlight its important achievements. Amongst which are presentation of an easy classification of higher order Lagrangians and its employment as a \emph{criteria} in order to distinguish correct metric theories of gravity. For example, it does not permit the inclusion of only one of the second order Lagrangians in \emph{isolation}. But, it does allow the inclusion of the cosmological term. We also discuss on the compatibility of our procedure and the Mach idea. We derive a dimensional dependent version of Duff's trace anomaly relation, which in \emph{four}-dimension is the same as the usual Duff relation. The Lanczos Lagrangian satisfies this new constraint in \emph{any} dimension. The square of the Weyl tensor identically satisfies it independent of dimension, however, this Lagrangian satisfies the previous relation only in three and four dimensions.Comment: 30 pages, added reference

On Physical Equivalence between Nonlinear Gravity Theories

We argue that in a nonlinear gravity theory, which according to well-known results is dynamically equivalent to a self-gravitating scalar field in General Relativity, the true physical variables are exactly those which describe the equivalent general-relativistic model (these variables are known as Einstein frame). Whenever such variables cannot be defined, there are strong indications that the original theory is unphysical. We explicitly show how to map, in the presence of matter, the Jordan frame to the Einstein one and backwards. We study energetics for asymptotically flat solutions. This is based on the second-order dynamics obtained, without changing the metric, by the use of a Helmholtz Lagrangian. We prove for a large class of these Lagrangians that the ADM energy is positive for solutions close to flat space. The proof of this Positive Energy Theorem relies on the existence of the Einstein frame, since in the (Helmholtz--)Jordan frame the Dominant Energy Condition does not hold and the field variables are unrelated to the total energy of the system.Comment: 37 pp., TO-JLL-P 3/93 Dec 199

Conformal aspects of Palatini approach in Extended Theories of Gravity

The debate on the physical relevance of conformal transformations can be faced by taking the Palatini approach into account to gravitational theories. We show that conformal transformations are not only a mathematical tool to disentangle gravitational and matter degrees of freedom (passing from the Jordan frame to the Einstein frame) but they acquire a physical meaning considering the bi-metric structure of Palatini approach which allows to distinguish between spacetime structure and geodesic structure. Examples of higher-order and non-minimally coupled theories are worked out and relevant cosmological solutions in Einstein frame and Jordan frames are discussed showing that also the interpretation of cosmological observations can drastically change depending on the adopted frame

Astrophysical structures from primordial quantum black holes

The characteristic sizes of astrophysical structures, up to the whole observed Universe, can be recovered, in principle, assuming that gravity is the overall interaction assembling systems starting from microscopic scales, whose order of magnitude is ruled by the Planck length and the related Compton wavelength. This result agrees with the absence of screening mechanisms for the gravitational interaction and could be connected to the presence of Yukawa corrections in the Newtonian potential which introduce typical interaction lengths. This result directly comes out from quantization of primordial black holes and then characteristic interaction lengths directly emerge from quantum field theory.Comment: 11 page