22 research outputs found
Cosmology of the selfaccelerating third order Galileon
In this paper we start from the original formulation of the galileon model
with the original choice for couplings to gravity. Within this framework we
find that there is still a subset of possible Lagrangians that give
selfaccelerating solutions with stable spherically symmetric solutions. This is
a certain constrained subset of the third order galileon which has not been
explored before. We develop and explore the background cosmological evolution
of this model drawing intuition from other even more restricted galileon
models. The numerical results confirm the presence of selfacceleration, but
also reveals a possible instability with respect to galileon perturbations.Comment: 30 pages, 24 figure
Lessons from the decoupling limit of Horava gravity
We consider the so-called "healthy" extension of Horava gravity in the limit
where the Stuckelberg field decouples from the graviton. We verify the alleged
strong coupling problem in this limit, under the assumption that no large
dimensionless parameters are put in by hand. This follows from the fact that
the dispersion relation for the Stuckelberg field does not have the desired z =
3 anisotropic scaling in the UV. To get the desired scaling and avoid strong
coupling one has to introduce a low scale of Lorentz violation and retain some
coupling between the graviton and the Stuckelberg field. We also make use of
the foliation preserving symmetry to show how the Stuckelberg field couples to
some violation of energy conservation. We source the Stuckelberg field using a
point particle with a slowly varying mass and show that two such particles feel
a constant attractive force. In this particular example, we see no Vainshtein
effect, and violations of the Equivalence Principle. The latter is probably
generic to other types of source and could potentially be used to place lower
bounds on the scale of Lorentz violation.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure. Version to appear in JHEP. Conclusions with
respect to strong coupling modified - our strong coupling analysis does not
apply to a low scale of Lorentz violation. Expanded Equivalence Principle
violation discussion, noting it presents a challenge to low scale Lorentz
violation, exactly the scenario designed to cure strong coupling. Other minor
corrections and references adde
In tribute to, in honor of, and with respectful memories of Professor William C. Shoemaker
Supersymmetric Aether
It has been suggested by Groot Nibbelink and Pospelov that Lorentz invariance
can be an emergent symmetry of low-energy physics provided the theory enjoys a
non-relativistic version of supersymmetry. We construct a model that realizes
the latter symmetry dynamically: it breaks Lorentz invariance but leaves the
supersymmetry generators intact. The model is a supersymmetric extension of the
dynamical aether theory of Jacobson and Mattingly. It shows rich dynamics and
possesses a family of inequivalent vacua realizing different symmetry breaking
patterns. In particular, we find stable vacua that break spontaneously spatial
isotropy. Supersymmetry breaking terms give masses to fermionic and bosonic
partners of the aether field. We comment on the coupling of the model to
supergravity and on the implications for Horava gravity.Comment: 21 pages, no figure
f(R) theories
Over the past decade, f(R) theories have been extensively studied as one of
the simplest modifications to General Relativity. In this article we review
various applications of f(R) theories to cosmology and gravity - such as
inflation, dark energy, local gravity constraints, cosmological perturbations,
and spherically symmetric solutions in weak and strong gravitational
backgrounds. We present a number of ways to distinguish those theories from
General Relativity observationally and experimentally. We also discuss the
extension to other modified gravity theories such as Brans-Dicke theory and
Gauss-Bonnet gravity, and address models that can satisfy both cosmological and
local gravity constraints.Comment: 156 pages, 14 figures, Invited review article in Living Reviews in
Relativity, Published version, Comments are welcom
Disformally self-tuning gravity
We extend a previous self-tuning analysis of the most general scalar-tensor theory of gravity in four dimensions with second order field equations by considering a generalized coupling to the matter sector. Through allowing a disformal coupling to matter we are able to extend the Fab Four model and construct a new class of theories that are able to tune away the cosmological constant on Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker backgrounds
Quality-sensitive foraging by a robot swarm through virtual pheromone trails
Large swarms of simple autonomous robots can be employed to find objects clustered at random locations, and transport them to a central depot. This solution offers system parallelisation through concurrent environment exploration and object collection by several robots, but it also introduces the challenge of robot coordination. Inspired by antsâ foraging behaviour, we successfully tackle robot swarm coordination through indirect stigmergic communication in the form of virtual pheromone trails. We design and implement a robot swarm composed of up to 100 Kilobots using the recent technology Augmented Reality for Kilobots (ARK). Using pheromone trails, our memoryless robots rediscover object sources that have been located previously. The emerging collective dynamics show a throughput inversely proportional to the source distance. We assume environments with multiple sources, each providing objects of different qualities, and we investigate how the robot swarm balances the quality-distance trade-off by using quality-sensitive pheromone trails. To our knowledge this work represents the largest robotic experiment in stigmergic foraging, and is the first complete demonstration of ARK, showcasing the set of unique functionalities it provides