The role of satellite altimetry in gravity field modelling in coastal areas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Knudsen, Per

2000-01-01

global uniform gravity information with very high resolution, and these global marine gravity fields are registered on a two by two minute grid corresponding to 4 by 4 kilometres at the equator. In this presentation several coastal complications in deriving the marine gravity field from satellite...... altimetry will be investigated using the KMS98 gravity field. Comparison with other sources of gravity field information like airborne and marine gravity observations will be carried out and two fundamentally different test areas (Azores and Skagerak) will be studied to investigated the different role...

The Near Side : Regional Lunar Gravity Field Determination

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goossens, S.

2005-01-01

In the past ten years the Moon has come fully back into focus, resulting in missions such as Clementine and Lunar Prospector. Data from these missions resulted in a boost in lunar gravity field modelling. Until this date, the lunar gravity field has mainly been expressed in a global representation,

Recent developments in high-resolution global altimetric gravity field modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Knudsen, Per; Berry, P. A .M.

2010-01-01

older gravity fields show accuracy improvement of the order of 20-40% due to a combination of retracking, enhanced processing, and the use of the new EGM2008 geoid model. In coastal and polar regions, accuracy improved in many places by 40-50% (or more) compared with older global marine gravity fields.......In recent years, dedicated effort has been made to improve high-resolution global marine gravity fields. One new global field is the Danish National Space Center (DNSC) 1-minute grid called DNSC08GRA, released in 2008. DNSC08GRA was derived from double-retracked satellite altimetry, mainly from...... the ERS-1 geodetic mission data, augmented with new retracked GEOSAT data which have significantly enhanced the range and hence the gravity field accuracy. DNSC08GRA is the first high-resolution global gravity field to cover the entire Arctic Ocean all the way to the North Pole. Comparisons with other...

Covariant w∞ gravity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bergshoeff, E.; Pope, C.N.; Stelle, K.S.

1990-01-01

We discuss the notion of higher-spin covariance in w∞ gravity. We show how a recently proposed covariant w∞ gravity action can be obtained from non-chiral w∞ gravity by making field redefinitions that introduce new gauge-field components with corresponding new gauge transformations.

Evaluation of gravity field model EIGEN-6C4 by means of various functions of gravity potential, and by GNSS/levelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan Kostelecký

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The combined gravity field model EIGEN-6C4 (Förste et al., 2014 is the latest combined global gravity field model of GFZ Potsdam and GRGS Toulouse. EIGEN-6C4 has been generated including the satellite gravity gradiometry data of the entire GOCE mission (November 2009 till October 2013 and is of maximum spherical degree and order 2190. In this study EIGEN-6C4 has been compared with EGM2008 to its maximum degree and order via gravity disturbances and Tzz part of the Marussi tensor of the second derivatives of the disturbing potential. The emphasis is put on such areas where GOCE data (complete set of gradiometry measurements after reductions in EIGEN-6C4 obviously contributes to an improvement of the gravity field description. GNSS/levelling geoid heights are independent data source for the evaluation of gravity field models. Therefore, we use the GNSS/levelling data sets over the territories of Europe, Czech Republic and Slovakia for the evaluation of EIGEN-6C4 w.r.t. EGM2008.

Accounting for time- and space-varying changes in the gravity field to improve the network adjustment of relative-gravity data

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy, Jeffrey R.; Ferre, Ty P.A.

2015-01-01

The relative gravimeter is the primary terrestrial instrument for measuring spatially and temporally varying gravitational fields. The background noise of the instrument—that is, non-linear drift and random tares—typically requires some form of least-squares network adjustment to integrate data collected during a campaign that may take several days to weeks. Here, we present an approach to remove the change in the observed relative-gravity differences caused by hydrologic or other transient processes during a single campaign, so that the adjusted gravity values can be referenced to a single epoch. The conceptual approach is an example of coupled hydrogeophysical inversion, by which a hydrologic model is used to inform and constrain the geophysical forward model. The hydrologic model simulates the spatial variation of the rate of change of gravity as either a linear function of distance from an infiltration source, or using a 3-D numerical groundwater model. The linear function can be included in and solved for as part of the network adjustment. Alternatively, the groundwater model is used to predict the change of gravity at each station through time, from which the accumulated gravity change is calculated and removed from the data prior to the network adjustment. Data from a field experiment conducted at an artificial-recharge facility are used to verify our approach. Maximum gravity change due to hydrology (observed using a superconducting gravimeter) during the relative-gravity field campaigns was up to 2.6 μGal d−1, each campaign was between 4 and 6 d and one month elapsed between campaigns. The maximum absolute difference in the estimated gravity change between two campaigns, two months apart, using the standard network adjustment method and the new approach, was 5.5 μGal. The maximum gravity change between the same two campaigns was 148 μGal, and spatial variation in gravity change revealed zones of preferential infiltration and areas of relatively

Scalar fields and higher-derivative gravity in brane worlds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pichler, S.

2004-01-01

We consider the brane world picture in the context of higher-derivative theories of gravity and tackle the problematic issues fine-tuning and brane-embedding. First, we give an overview of extra-dimensional physics, from the Kaluza-Klein picture up to modern brane worlds with large extra dimensions. We describe the different models and their physical impact on future experiments. We work within the framework of Randall-Sundrum models in which the brane is a gravitating object, which warps the background metric. We add scalar fields to the original model and find new and self-consistent solutions for quadratic potentials of the fields. This gives us the tools to investigate higher-derivative gravity theories in brane world models. Specifically, we take gravitational Lagrangians that depend on an arbitrary function of the Ricci scalar only, so-called f(R)-gravity. We make use of the conformal equivalence between f(R)-gravity and Einstein-Hilbert gravity with an auxiliary scalar field. We find that the solutions in the higher-derivative gravity framework behave very differently from the original Randall-Sundrum model: the metric functions do not have the typical kink across the brane. Furthermore, we present solutions that do not rely on a cosmological constant in the bulk and so avoid the fine-tuning problem. We address the issue of brane-embedding, which is important in perturbative analyses. We consider the embedding of codimension one hypersurfaces in general and derive a new equation of motion with which the choice for the embedding has to comply. In particular, this allows for a consistent consideration of brane world perturbations in the case of higher-derivative gravity. We use the newly found background solutions for quadratic potentials and find that gravity is still effectively localized on the brane, i.e that the Newtonian limit holds

Chiral gravity, log gravity, and extremal CFT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maloney, Alexander; Song Wei; Strominger, Andrew

2010-01-01

We show that the linearization of all exact solutions of classical chiral gravity around the AdS 3 vacuum have positive energy. Nonchiral and negative-energy solutions of the linearized equations are infrared divergent at second order, and so are removed from the spectrum. In other words, chirality is confined and the equations of motion have linearization instabilities. We prove that the only stationary, axially symmetric solutions of chiral gravity are BTZ black holes, which have positive energy. It is further shown that classical log gravity--the theory with logarithmically relaxed boundary conditions--has finite asymptotic symmetry generators but is not chiral and hence may be dual at the quantum level to a logarithmic conformal field theories (CFT). Moreover we show that log gravity contains chiral gravity within it as a decoupled charge superselection sector. We formally evaluate the Euclidean sum over geometries of chiral gravity and show that it gives precisely the holomorphic extremal CFT partition function. The modular invariance and integrality of the expansion coefficients of this partition function are consistent with the existence of an exact quantum theory of chiral gravity. We argue that the problem of quantizing chiral gravity is the holographic dual of the problem of constructing an extremal CFT, while quantizing log gravity is dual to the problem of constructing a logarithmic extremal CFT.

Field Equations for Lovelock Gravity: An Alternative Route

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sumanta Chakraborty

2018-01-01

Full Text Available We present an alternative derivation of the gravitational field equations for Lovelock gravity starting from Newton’s law, which is closer in spirit to the thermodynamic description of gravity. As a warm up exercise, we have explicitly demonstrated that, projecting the Riemann curvature tensor appropriately and taking a cue from Poisson’s equation, Einstein’s equations immediately follow. The above derivation naturally generalizes to Lovelock gravity theories where an appropriate curvature tensor satisfying the symmetries as well as the Bianchi derivative properties of the Riemann tensor has to be used. Interestingly, in the above derivation, the thermodynamic route to gravitational field equations, suited for null hypersurfaces, emerges quiet naturally.

Gravity field modeling at the sea areas using satellite altimetry observations Case study: Gravity field modeling at the Coastal Fars

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jomegi, A.

2007-01-01

Nowadays, satellite altimetry observations had made it possible to determine sea surface variations, in the global scale, to high degree of precision. Using satellite altimetry observations, Mean Sea Level (MSL) can be determined, which by Kowing Sea Surface Topography (SST), can be converted into high-resolution marine geoid. In this paper we are proposing a method for computation of the Earth's gravity field at the sea areas, which is different from usual methods. Indeed, our method is based on conversion of geoidal heights into gravity potential values at the reference ellipsoid 2 Ea,b , by using ellipsoidal Brun's formula, and forward application of solution of Fixed-Free Two Boundary Value Problem (FFTBVP), previously proposed by the authors for the geoid computations without application of Stokes formula. Numerical results of application of the proposed method at the test area of CoastalFars (at southern part of Iran) show the success of the method. Considering the low cost and high precision of satellite altimetry observations, the proposed method suggests an efficient substitution to shipborne gravity observations for gravity field molding at the sea areas

Terrestrial gravity data analysis for interim gravity model improvement

Science.gov (United States)

1987-01-01

This is the first status report for the Interim Gravity Model research effort that was started on June 30, 1986. The basic theme of this study is to develop appropriate models and adjustment procedures for estimating potential coefficients from terrestrial gravity data. The plan is to use the latest gravity data sets to produce coefficient estimates as well as to provide normal equations to NASA for use in the TOPEX/POSEIDON gravity field modeling program.

Some aspects of reconstruction using a scalar field in f(T) gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chakrabarti, Soumya [Indian Institute of Technology, Centre for Theoretical Studies, Kharagpur (India); Said, Jackson Levi [University of Malta, Institute of Space Sciences and Astronomy, Msida, MSD (Malta); Farrugia, Gabriel [University of Malta, Department of Physics, Msida, MSD (Malta)

2017-12-15

General relativity characterizes gravity as a geometric property exhibited on spacetime by massive objects, while teleparallel gravity achieves the same results at the level of equations, by taking a torsional perspective of gravity. Similar to the f(R) theory teleparallel gravity can also be generalized to f(T), with the resulting field equations being inherently distinct from f(R) gravity in that they are second order, while in the former case they turn out to be fourth order. In the present case, a minimally coupled scalar field is investigated in the f(T) gravity context for several forms of the scalar field potential. A number of new f(T) solutions are found for these potentials. Their respective state parameters are also being examined. (orig.)

Improvements in GRACE Gravity Fields Using Regularization

Science.gov (United States)

Save, H.; Bettadpur, S.; Tapley, B. D.

2008-12-01

The unconstrained global gravity field models derived from GRACE are susceptible to systematic errors that show up as broad "stripes" aligned in a North-South direction on the global maps of mass flux. These errors are believed to be a consequence of both systematic and random errors in the data that are amplified by the nature of the gravity field inverse problem. These errors impede scientific exploitation of the GRACE data products, and limit the realizable spatial resolution of the GRACE global gravity fields in certain regions. We use regularization techniques to reduce these "stripe" errors in the gravity field products. The regularization criteria are designed such that there is no attenuation of the signal and that the solutions fit the observations as well as an unconstrained solution. We have used a computationally inexpensive method, normally referred to as "L-ribbon", to find the regularization parameter. This paper discusses the characteristics and statistics of a 5-year time-series of regularized gravity field solutions. The solutions show markedly reduced stripes, are of uniformly good quality over time, and leave little or no systematic observation residuals, which is a frequent consequence of signal suppression from regularization. Up to degree 14, the signal in regularized solution shows correlation greater than 0.8 with the un-regularized CSR Release-04 solutions. Signals from large-amplitude and small-spatial extent events - such as the Great Sumatra Andaman Earthquake of 2004 - are visible in the global solutions without using special post-facto error reduction techniques employed previously in the literature. Hydrological signals as small as 5 cm water-layer equivalent in the small river basins, like Indus and Nile for example, are clearly evident, in contrast to noisy estimates from RL04. The residual variability over the oceans relative to a seasonal fit is small except at higher latitudes, and is evident without the need for de-striping or

GRACE gravity field modeling with an investigation on correlation between nuisance parameters and gravity field coefficients

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Qile; Guo, Jing; Hu, Zhigang; Shi, Chuang; Liu, Jingnan; Cai, Hua; Liu, Xianglin

2011-05-01

The GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) monthly gravity models have been independently produced and published by several research institutions, such as Center for Space Research (CSR), GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and Delft Institute of Earth Observation and Space Systems (DEOS). According to their processing standards, above institutions use the traditional variational approach except that the DEOS exploits the acceleration approach. The background force models employed are rather similar. The produced gravity field models generally agree with one another in the spatial pattern. However, there are some discrepancies in the gravity signal amplitude between solutions produced by different institutions. In particular, 10%-30% signal amplitude differences in some river basins can be observed. In this paper, we implemented a variant of the traditional variational approach and computed two sets of monthly gravity field solutions using the data from January 2005 to December 2006. The input data are K-band range-rates (KBRR) and kinematic orbits of GRACE satellites. The main difference in the production of our two types of models is how to deal with nuisance parameters. This type of parameters is necessary to absorb low-frequency errors in the data, which are mainly the aliasing and instrument errors. One way is to remove the nuisance parameters before estimating the geopotential coefficients, called NPARB approach in the paper. The other way is to estimate the nuisance parameters and geopotential coefficients simultaneously, called NPESS approach. These two types of solutions mainly differ in geopotential coefficients from degree 2 to 5. This can be explained by the fact that the nuisance parameters and the gravity field coefficients are highly correlated, particularly at low degrees. We compare these solutions with the official and published ones by means of spectral analysis. It is

Evaluation of using digital gravity field models for zoning map creation

Science.gov (United States)

Loginov, Dmitry

2018-05-01

At the present time the digital cartographic models of geophysical fields are taking a special significance into geo-physical mapping. One of the important directions to their application is the creation of zoning maps, which allow taking into account the morphology of geophysical field in the implementation automated choice of contour intervals. The purpose of this work is the comparative evaluation of various digital models in the creation of integrated gravity field zoning map. For comparison were chosen the digital model of gravity field of Russia, created by the analog map with scale of 1 : 2 500 000, and the open global model of gravity field of the Earth - WGM2012. As a result of experimental works the four integrated gravity field zoning maps were obtained with using raw and processed data on each gravity field model. The study demonstrates the possibility of open data use to create integrated zoning maps with the condition to eliminate noise component of model by processing in specialized software systems. In this case, for solving problem of contour intervals automated choice the open digital models aren't inferior to regional models of gravity field, created for individual countries. This fact allows asserting about universality and independence of integrated zoning maps creation regardless of detail of a digital cartographic model of geo-physical fields.

Gravity Field Parameter Estimation Using QR Factorization

Science.gov (United States)

Klokocnik, J.; Wagner, C. A.; McAdoo, D.; Kostelecky, J.; Bezdek, A.; Novak, P.; Gruber, C.; Marty, J.; Bruinsma, S. L.; Gratton, S.; Balmino, G.; Baboulin, M.

2007-12-01

This study compares the accuracy of the estimated geopotential coefficients when QR factorization is used instead of the classical method applied at our institute, namely the generation of normal equations that are solved by means of Cholesky decomposition. The objective is to evaluate the gain in numerical precision, which is obtained at considerable extra cost in terms of computer resources. Therefore, a significant increase in precision must be realized in order to justify the additional cost. Numerical simulations were done in order to examine the performance of both solution methods. Reference gravity gradients were simulated, using the EIGEN-GL04C gravity field model to degree and order 300, every 3 seconds along a near-circular, polar orbit at 250 km altitude. The simulation spanned a total of 60 days. A polar orbit was selected in this simulation in order to avoid the 'polar gap' problem, which causes inaccurate estimation of the low-order spherical harmonic coefficients. Regularization is required in that case (e.g., the GOCE mission), which is not the subject of the present study. The simulated gravity gradients, to which white noise was added, were then processed with the GINS software package, applying EIGEN-CG03 as the background gravity field model, followed either by the usual normal equation computation or using the QR approach for incremental linear least squares. The accuracy assessment of the gravity field recovery consists in computing the median error degree-variance spectra, accumulated geoid errors, geoid errors due to individual coefficients, and geoid errors calculated on a global grid. The performance, in terms of memory usage, required disk space, and CPU time, of the QR versus the normal equation approach is also evaluated.

Matter coupled to quantum gravity in group field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ryan, James

2006-01-01

We present an account of a new model incorporating 3d Riemannian quantum gravity and matter at the group field theory level. We outline how the Feynman diagram amplitudes of this model are spin foam amplitudes for gravity coupled to matter fields and discuss some features of the model. To conclude, we describe some related future work

Geometric Liouville gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

La, H.

1992-01-01

A new geometric formulation of Liouville gravity based on the area preserving diffeo-morphism is given and a possible alternative to reinterpret Liouville gravity is suggested, namely, a scalar field coupled to two-dimensional gravity with a curvature constraint

Observing coseismic gravity change from the Japan Tohoku-Oki 2011 earthquake with GOCE gravity gradiometry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fuchs, M.J.; Bouman, J.; Broerse, D.B.T.; Visser, P.N.A.M.; Vermeersen, L.L.A.

2013-01-01

The Japan Tohoku-Oki earthquake (9.0 Mw) of 11 March 2011 has left signatures in the Earth's gravity field that are detectable by data of the Gravity field Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. Because the European Space Agency's (ESA) satellite gravity mission Gravity field and

The gravity field and crustal structure of the northwestern Arabian Platform in Jordan

Science.gov (United States)

Batayneh, A. T.; Al-Zoubi, A. S.

2001-01-01

The Bouguer gravity field over the northwestern Arabian Platform in Jordan is dominated by large variations, ranging from -132 to +4 mGal. A study of the Bouguer anomaly map shows that the gravity field maintains a general north-northeasterly trend in the Wadi Araba-Dead Sea-Jordan Riff, Northern Highlands and Northeast Jordanian Limestone Area, while the remainder of the area shows north-northwesterly-trending gravity anomalies. Results of 2-D gravity modeling of the Bouguer gravity field indicate that the crustal thickness in Jordan is ˜ 38 km, which is similar to crustal thicknesses obtained from refraction data in northern Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and from gravity data in Syria.

Characteristics of gravity fields in the Jinggu M6.6 earthquake

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sun Shaoan

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Based on the study of high-precision gravity data obtained from recent studies and the regional gravity network for Yunnan province, a variation in the regional gravity field was identified before the occurrence of the Yunnan Jinggu M6. 6 earthquake.

Gravity Field Constraints on the Upper Mantle of Northwestern Europe

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Root, B.C.

2017-01-01

In the last decade, the gravity field of the Earth has been observed with increased coverage due to dedicated satellite missions, which resulted in higher resolution and more accurate global gravity field models than were previously available. These models make it possible to study large scale

Gravity-matter entanglement in Regge quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paunković, Nikola; Vojinović, Marko

2016-01-01

We argue that Hartle-Hawking states in the Regge quantum gravity model generically contain non-trivial entanglement between gravity and matter fields. Generic impossibility to talk about “matter in a point of space” is in line with the idea of an emergent spacetime, and as such could be taken as a possible candidate for a criterion for a plausible theory of quantum gravity. Finally, this new entanglement could be seen as an additional “effective interaction”, which could possibly bring corrections to the weak equivalence principle. (paper)

Combination of GRACE monthly gravity field solutions from different processing strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Jean, Yoomin; Meyer, Ulrich; Jäggi, Adrian

2018-02-01

We combine the publicly available GRACE monthly gravity field time series to produce gravity fields with reduced systematic errors. We first compare the monthly gravity fields in the spatial domain in terms of signal and noise. Then, we combine the individual gravity fields with comparable signal content, but diverse noise characteristics. We test five different weighting schemes: equal weights, non-iterative coefficient-wise, order-wise, or field-wise weights, and iterative field-wise weights applying variance component estimation (VCE). The combined solutions are evaluated in terms of signal and noise in the spectral and spatial domains. Compared to the individual contributions, they in general show lower noise. In case the noise characteristics of the individual solutions differ significantly, the weighted means are less noisy, compared to the arithmetic mean: The non-seasonal variability over the oceans is reduced by up to 7.7% and the root mean square (RMS) of the residuals of mass change estimates within Antarctic drainage basins is reduced by 18.1% on average. The field-wise weighting schemes in general show better performance, compared to the order- or coefficient-wise weighting schemes. The combination of the full set of considered time series results in lower noise levels, compared to the combination of a subset consisting of the official GRACE Science Data System gravity fields only: The RMS of coefficient-wise anomalies is smaller by up to 22.4% and the non-seasonal variability over the oceans by 25.4%. This study was performed in the frame of the European Gravity Service for Improved Emergency Management (EGSIEM; http://www.egsiem.eu) project. The gravity fields provided by the EGSIEM scientific combination service (ftp://ftp.aiub.unibe.ch/EGSIEM/) are combined, based on the weights derived by VCE as described in this article.

Recovery of the Earth's Gravity Field Based on Spaceborne Atom-interferometry and Its Accuracy Estimation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZHU Zhu

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The electrostatic gravity gradiometer has been successfully applied as a core sensor in satellite gravity gradiometric mission GOCE, and its observations are used to recover the Earth's static gravity field with a degree and order above 200. The lifetime of GOCE has been over, and the next generation satellite gravity gradiometry with higher resolution is urgently required in order to recover the global steady-state gravity field with a degree and order of 200~360. High potential precision can be obtained in space by atom-interferometry gravity gradiometer due to its long interference time, and thus the atom-interferometry-based satellite gravity gradiometry has been proposed as one of the candidate techniques for the next satellite gravity gradiometric mission. In order to achieve the science goal for high resolution gravity field measurement in the future, a feasible scheme of atom-interferometry gravity gradiometry in micro-gravity environment is given in this paper, and the gravity gradient measurement can be achieved with a noise of 0.85mE/Hz1/2. Comparison and estimation of the Earth's gravity field recovery precision for different types of satellite gravity gradiometry is discussed, and the results show that the satellite gravity gradiometry based on atom-interferometry is expected to provide the global gravity field model with an improved accuracy of 7~8cm in terms of geoid height and 3×10-5 m/s2 in terms of gravity anomaly respectively at a degree and order of 252~290.

Field equations for gravity quadratic in the curvature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rose, B.

1992-01-01

Vacuum field equations for gravity are studied having their origin in a Lagrangian quadratic in the curvature. The motivation for this choice of the Lagrangian-namely the treating of gravity in a strict analogy to gauge theories of Yang-Mills type-is criticized, especially the implied view of connections as gauge potentials with no dynamical relation to the metric. The correct field equations with respect to variation of the connections and the metric independently are given. We deduce field equations which differs from previous ones by variation of the metric, the torsion, and the nonmetricity from which the connections are built. 6 refs

Group field theory formulation of 3D quantum gravity coupled to matter fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oriti, Daniele; Ryan, James

2006-01-01

We present a new group field theory describing 3D Riemannian quantum gravity coupled to matter fields for any choice of spin and mass. The perturbative expansion of the partition function produces fat graphs coloured with SU(2) algebraic data, from which one can reconstruct at once a three-dimensional simplicial complex representing spacetime and its geometry, like in the Ponzano-Regge formulation of pure 3D quantum gravity, and the Feynman graphs for the matter fields. The model then assigns quantum amplitudes to these fat graphs given by spin foam models for gravity coupled to interacting massive spinning point particles, whose properties we discuss

Super-Planckian spatial field variations and quantum gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Klaewer, Daniel; Palti, Eran [Institut für Theoretische Physik, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität,Philosophenweg 19, 69120 Heidelberg (Germany)

2017-01-20

We study scenarios where a scalar field has a spatially varying vacuum expectation value such that the total field variation is super-Planckian. We focus on the case where the scalar field controls the coupling of a U(1) gauge field, which allows us to apply the Weak Gravity Conjecture to such configurations. We show that this leads to evidence for a conjectured property of quantum gravity that as a scalar field variation in field space asymptotes to infinity there must exist an infinite tower of states whose mass decreases as an exponential function of the scalar field variation. We determine the rate at which the mass of the states reaches this exponential behaviour showing that it occurs quickly after the field variation passes the Planck scale.

Contravariant gravity on Poisson manifolds and Einstein gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaneko, Yukio; Watamura, Satoshi; Muraki, Hisayoshi

2017-01-01

A relation between gravity on Poisson manifolds proposed in Asakawa et al (2015 Fortschr. Phys . 63 683–704) and Einstein gravity is investigated. The compatibility of the Poisson and Riemann structures defines a unique connection, the contravariant Levi-Civita connection, and leads to the idea of the contravariant gravity. The Einstein–Hilbert-type action yields an equation of motion which is written in terms of the analog of the Einstein tensor, and it includes couplings between the metric and the Poisson tensor. The study of the Weyl transformation reveals properties of those interactions. It is argued that this theory can have an equivalent description as a system of Einstein gravity coupled to matter. As an example, it is shown that the contravariant gravity on a two-dimensional Poisson manifold can be described by a real scalar field coupled to the metric in a specific manner. (paper)

Scales of gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dvali, Gia; Kolanovic, Marko; Nitti, Francesco; Gabadadze, Gregory

2002-01-01

We propose a framework in which the quantum gravity scale can be as low as 10 -3 eV. The key assumption is that the standard model ultraviolet cutoff is much higher than the quantum gravity scale. This ensures that we observe conventional weak gravity. We construct an explicit brane-world model in which the brane-localized standard model is coupled to strong 5D gravity of infinite-volume flat extra space. Because of the high ultraviolet scale, the standard model fields generate a large graviton kinetic term on the brane. This kinetic term 'shields' the standard model from the strong bulk gravity. As a result, an observer on the brane sees weak 4D gravity up to astronomically large distances beyond which gravity becomes five dimensional. Modeling quantum gravity above its scale by the closed string spectrum we show that the shielding phenomenon protects the standard model from an apparent phenomenological catastrophe due to the exponentially large number of light string states. The collider experiments, astrophysics, cosmology and gravity measurements independently point to the same lower bound on the quantum gravity scale, 10 -3 eV. For this value the model has experimental signatures both for colliders and for submillimeter gravity measurements. Black holes reveal certain interesting properties in this framework

GOCE gravity field simulation based on actual mission scenario

Science.gov (United States)

Pail, R.; Goiginger, H.; Mayrhofer, R.; Höck, E.; Schuh, W.-D.; Brockmann, J. M.; Krasbutter, I.; Fecher, T.; Gruber, T.

2009-04-01

In the framework of the ESA-funded project "GOCE High-level Processing Facility", an operational hardware and software system for the scientific processing (Level 1B to Level 2) of GOCE data has been set up by the European GOCE Gravity Consortium EGG-C. One key component of this software system is the processing of a spherical harmonic Earth's gravity field model and the corresponding full variance-covariance matrix from the precise GOCE orbit and calibrated and corrected satellite gravity gradiometry (SGG) data. In the framework of the time-wise approach a combination of several processing strategies for the optimum exploitation of the information content of the GOCE data has been set up: The Quick-Look Gravity Field Analysis is applied to derive a fast diagnosis of the GOCE system performance and to monitor the quality of the input data. In the Core Solver processing a rigorous high-precision solution of the very large normal equation systems is derived by applying parallel processing techniques on a PC cluster. Before the availability of real GOCE data, by means of a realistic numerical case study, which is based on the actual GOCE orbit and mission scenario and simulation data stemming from the most recent ESA end-to-end simulation, the expected GOCE gravity field performance is evaluated. Results from this simulation as well as recently developed features of the software system are presented. Additionally some aspects on data combination with complementary data sources are addressed.

Massive gravity from bimetric gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baccetti, Valentina; Martín-Moruno, Prado; Visser, Matt

2013-01-01

We discuss the subtle relationship between massive gravity and bimetric gravity, focusing particularly on the manner in which massive gravity may be viewed as a suitable limit of bimetric gravity. The limiting procedure is more delicate than currently appreciated. Specifically, this limiting procedure should not unnecessarily constrain the background metric, which must be externally specified by the theory of massive gravity itself. The fact that in bimetric theories one always has two sets of metric equations of motion continues to have an effect even in the massive gravity limit, leading to additional constraints besides the one set of equations of motion naively expected. Thus, since solutions of bimetric gravity in the limit of vanishing kinetic term are also solutions of massive gravity, but the contrary statement is not necessarily true, there is no complete continuity in the parameter space of the theory. In particular, we study the massive cosmological solutions which are continuous in the parameter space, showing that many interesting cosmologies belong to this class. (paper)

Lower dimensional gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, J.D.

1988-01-01

This book addresses the subject of gravity theories in two and three spacetime dimensions. The prevailing philosophy is that lower dimensional models of gravity provide a useful arena for developing new ideas and insights, which are applicable to four dimensional gravity. The first chapter consists of a comprehensive introduction to both two and three dimensional gravity, including a discussion of their basic structures. In the second chapter, the asymptotic structure of three dimensional Einstein gravity with a negative cosmological constant is analyzed. The third chapter contains a treatment of the effects of matter sources in classical two dimensional gravity. The fourth chapter gives a complete analysis of particle pair creation by electric and gravitational fields in two dimensions, and the resulting effect on the cosmological constant

Geophysical investigation using gravity data in Kinigi geothermal field, northwest Rwanda

Science.gov (United States)

Uwiduhaye, Jean d.'Amour; Mizunaga, Hideki; Saibi, Hakim

2018-03-01

A land gravity survey was carried out in the Kinigi geothermal field, Northwest Rwanda using 184 gravity stations during August and September, 2015. The aim of the gravity survey was to understand the subsurface structure and its relation to the observed surface manifestations in the study area. The complete Bouguer Gravity anomaly was produced with a reduction density of 2.4 g/cm3. Bouguer anomalies ranging from -52 to -35 mGals were observed in the study area with relatively high anomalies in the east and northwest zones while low anomalies are observed in the southwest side of the studied area. A decrease of 17 mGals is observed in the southwestern part of the study area and caused by the low-density of the Tertiary rocks. Horizontal gradient, tilt angle and analytical signal methods were applied to the observed gravity data and showed that Mubona, Mpenge and Cyabararika surface springs are structurally controlled while Rubindi spring is not. The integrated results of gravity gradient interpretation methods delineated a dominant geological structure trending in the NW-SE, which is in agreement with the regional geological trend. The results of this gravity study will help aid future geothermal exploration and development in the Kinigi geothermal field.

Gravity Field of the Orientale Basin from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Zuber, Maria T.; Smith, David E.; Neumann, Gregory A.; Goossens, Sander; Andrews-Hanna, Jeffrey C.; Head, James W.; Kiefer, Walter S.; Asmar, Sami W.; Konopliv, Alexander S.; Lemoine, Frank G.;

Gravity gradient preprocessing at the GOCE HPF

Science.gov (United States)

Bouman, J.; Rispens, S.; Gruber, T.; Schrama, E.; Visser, P.; Tscherning, C. C.; Veicherts, M.

2009-04-01

One of the products derived from the GOCE observations are the gravity gradients. These gravity gradients are provided in the Gradiometer Reference Frame (GRF) and are calibrated in-flight using satellite shaking and star sensor data. In order to use these gravity gradients for application in Earth sciences and gravity field analysis, additional pre-processing needs to be done, including corrections for temporal gravity field signals to isolate the static gravity field part, screening for outliers, calibration by comparison with existing external gravity field information and error assessment. The temporal gravity gradient corrections consist of tidal and non-tidal corrections. These are all generally below the gravity gradient error level, which is predicted to show a 1/f behaviour for low frequencies. In the outlier detection the 1/f error is compensated for by subtracting a local median from the data, while the data error is assessed using the median absolute deviation. The local median acts as a high-pass filter and it is robust as is the median absolute deviation. Three different methods have been implemented for the calibration of the gravity gradients. All three methods use a high-pass filter to compensate for the 1/f gravity gradient error. The baseline method uses state-of-the-art global gravity field models and the most accurate results are obtained if star sensor misalignments are estimated along with the calibration parameters. A second calibration method uses GOCE GPS data to estimate a low degree gravity field model as well as gravity gradient scale factors. Both methods allow to estimate gravity gradient scale factors down to the 10-3 level. The third calibration method uses high accurate terrestrial gravity data in selected regions to validate the gravity gradient scale factors, focussing on the measurement band. Gravity gradient scale factors may be estimated down to the 10-2 level with this method.

Phase diagram of the mean field model of simplicial gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bialas, P.; Burda, Z.; Johnston, D.

1999-01-01

We discuss the phase diagram of the balls in boxes model, with a varying number of boxes. The model can be regarded as a mean-field model of simplicial gravity. We analyse in detail the case of weights of the form p(q) = q -β , which correspond to the measure term introduced in the simplicial quantum gravity simulations. The system has two phases: elongated (fluid) and crumpled. For β ε (2, ∞) the transition between these two phases is first-order, while for β ε (1, 2) it is continuous. The transition becomes softer when β approaches unity and eventually disappears at β = 1. We then generalise the discussion to an arbitrary set of weights. Finally, we show that if one introduces an additional kinematic bound on the average density of balls per box then a new condensed phase appears in the phase diagram. It bears some similarity to the crinkled phase of simplicial gravity discussed recently in models of gravity interacting with matter fields

From quantum gravity to quantum field theory via noncommutative geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aastrup, Johannes; Grimstrup, Jesper Møller

2014-01-01

A link between canonical quantum gravity and fermionic quantum field theory is established in this paper. From a spectral triple construction, which encodes the kinematics of quantum gravity, we construct semi-classical states which, in a semi-classical limit, give a system of interacting fermions in an ambient gravitational field. The emergent interaction involves flux tubes of the gravitational field. In the additional limit, where all gravitational degrees of freedom are turned off, a free fermionic quantum field theory emerges. (paper)

Zwei-Dreibein Gravity : A Two-Frame-Field Model of 3D Massive Gravity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bergshoeff, Eric A.; de Haan, Sjoerd; Hohm, Olaf; Merbis, Wout; Townsend, Paul K.

2013-01-01

We present a generally covariant and parity-invariant two-frame field ("zwei-dreibein") action for gravity in three space-time dimensions that propagates two massive spin-2 modes, unitarily, and we use Hamiltonian methods to confirm the absence of unphysical degrees of freedom. We show how

The International Gravity Field Service (IGFS): Present Day Activities And Future Plans

Science.gov (United States)

Barzaghi, R.; Vergos, G. S.

2016-12-01

IGFS is a unified "umbrella" IAG service that coordinates the servicing of the geodetic and geophysical community with gravity field related data, software and information. The combined data of the IGFS entities will include global geopotential models, terrestrial, airborne, satellite and marine gravity observations, Earth tide data, GPS/levelling data, digital models of terrain and bathymetry, as well as ocean gravity field and geoid from satellite altimetry. The IGFS structure is based on the Gravity Services, the "operating arms" of IGFS. These Services related to IGFS are: BGI (Bureau Gravimetrique International), Toulouse, France ISG (International Service for the Geoid), Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy IGETS (International Geodynamics and Earth Tides Service), EOST, Strasbourg, France ICGEM (International Center for Global Earth Models), GFZ, Potsdam, Germany IDEMS (International Digital Elevation Model Service), ESRI, Redlands, CA, USA The Central Bureau, hosted at the Aristotle Thessaloniki University, is in charge for all the interactions among the services and the other IAG bodies, particularly GGOS. In this respect, connections with the GGOS Bureaus of Products and Standards and of Networks and Observations have been recently strengthened in order to align the Gravity services to the GGOS standards. IGFS is also strongly involved in the most relevant projects related to the gravity field such as the establishment of the new Global Absolute Gravity Reference System and of the International Height Reference System. These projects, along with the organization of Geoid Schools devoted to methods for gravity and geoid estimate, will play a central role in the IGFS future actions in the framework of GGOS.

Classical Weyl transverse gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oda, Ichiro [University of the Ryukyus, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Nishihara, Okinawa (Japan)

2017-05-15

We study various classical aspects of the Weyl transverse (WTDiff) gravity in a general space-time dimension. First of all, we clarify a classical equivalence among three kinds of gravitational theories, those are, the conformally invariant scalar tensor gravity, Einstein's general relativity and the WTDiff gravity via the gauge-fixing procedure. Secondly, we show that in the WTDiff gravity the cosmological constant is a mere integration constant as in unimodular gravity, but it does not receive any radiative corrections unlike the unimodular gravity. A key point in this proof is to construct a covariantly conserved energy-momentum tensor, which is achieved on the basis of this equivalence relation. Thirdly, we demonstrate that the Noether current for the Weyl transformation is identically vanishing, thereby implying that the Weyl symmetry existing in both the conformally invariant scalar tensor gravity and the WTDiff gravity is a ''fake'' symmetry. We find it possible to extend this proof to all matter fields, i.e. the Weyl-invariant scalar, vector and spinor fields. Fourthly, it is explicitly shown that in the WTDiff gravity the Schwarzschild black hole metric and a charged black hole one are classical solutions to the equations of motion only when they are expressed in the Cartesian coordinate system. Finally, we consider the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) cosmology and provide some exact solutions. (orig.)

Active Response Gravity Offload and Method

Science.gov (United States)

Dungan, Larry K. (Inventor); Valle, Paul S. (Inventor); Bankieris, Derek R. (Inventor); Lieberman, Asher P. (Inventor); Redden, Lee (Inventor); Shy, Cecil (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A variable gravity field simulator can be utilized to provide three dimensional simulations for simulated gravity fields selectively ranging from Moon, Mars, and micro-gravity environments and/or other selectable gravity fields. The gravity field simulator utilizes a horizontally moveable carriage with a cable extending from a hoist. The cable can be attached to a load which experiences the effects of the simulated gravity environment. The load can be a human being or robot that makes movements that induce swinging of the cable whereby a horizontal control system reduces swinging energy. A vertical control system uses a non-linear feedback filter to remove noise from a load sensor that is in the same frequency range as signals from the load sensor.

Toward a gauge field theory of gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Yilmaz, H.

Joint use of two differential identities (Bianchi and Freud) permits a gauge field theory of gravity in which the gravitational energy is localizable. The theory is compatible with quantum mechanics and is experimentally viable.

A new class of group field theories for 1st order discrete quantum gravity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oriti, D.; Tlas, T.

2008-01-01

Group Field Theories, a generalization of matrix models for 2d gravity, represent a 2nd quantization of both loop quantum gravity and simplicial quantum gravity. In this paper, we construct a new class of Group Field Theory models, for any choice of spacetime dimension and signature, whose Feynman

Artificial gravity - The evolution of variable gravity research

Science.gov (United States)

Fuller, Charles A.; Sulzman, Frank M.; Keefe, J. Richard

1987-01-01

The development of a space life science research program based on the use of rotational facilities is described. In-flight and ground centrifuges can be used as artificial gravity environments to study the following: nongravitational biological factors; the effects of 0, 1, and hyper G on man; counter measures for deconditioning astronauts in weightlessness; and the development of suitable artificial gravity for long-term residence in space. The use of inertial fields as a substitute for gravity, and the relations between the radius of the centrifuge and rotation rate and specimen height and rotation radius are examined. An example of a centrifuge study involving squirrel monkeys is presented.

Higher Curvature Gravity from Entanglement in Conformal Field Theories

Science.gov (United States)

Haehl, Felix M.; Hijano, Eliot; Parrikar, Onkar; Rabideau, Charles

2018-05-01

By generalizing different recent works to the context of higher curvature gravity, we provide a unifying framework for three related results: (i) If an asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime computes the entanglement entropies of ball-shaped regions in a conformal field theory using a generalized Ryu-Takayanagi formula up to second order in state deformations around the vacuum, then the spacetime satisfies the correct gravitational equations of motion up to second order around the AdS background. (ii) The holographic dual of entanglement entropy in higher curvature theories of gravity is given by the Wald entropy plus a particular correction term involving extrinsic curvatures. (iii) Conformal field theory relative entropy is dual to gravitational canonical energy (also in higher curvature theories of gravity). Especially for the second point, our novel derivation of this previously known statement does not involve the Euclidean replica trick.

Modeling of the Earth's gravity field using the New Global Earth Model (NEWGEM)

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Yeong E.; Braswell, W. Danny

1989-01-01

Traditionally, the global gravity field was described by representations based on the spherical harmonics (SH) expansion of the geopotential. The SH expansion coefficients were determined by fitting the Earth's gravity data as measured by many different methods including the use of artificial satellites. As gravity data have accumulated with increasingly better accuracies, more of the higher order SH expansion coefficients were determined. The SH representation is useful for describing the gravity field exterior to the Earth but is theoretically invalid on the Earth's surface and in the Earth's interior. A new global Earth model (NEWGEM) (KIM, 1987 and 1988a) was recently proposed to provide a unified description of the Earth's gravity field inside, on, and outside the Earth's surface using the Earth's mass density profile as deduced from seismic studies, elevation and bathymetric information, and local and global gravity data. Using NEWGEM, it is possible to determine the constraints on the mass distribution of the Earth imposed by gravity, topography, and seismic data. NEWGEM is useful in investigating a variety of geophysical phenomena. It is currently being utilized to develop a geophysical interpretation of Kaula's rule. The zeroth order NEWGEM is being used to numerically integrate spherical harmonic expansion coefficients and simultaneously determine the contribution of each layer in the model to a given coefficient. The numerically determined SH expansion coefficients are also being used to test the validity of SH expansions at the surface of the Earth by comparing the resulting SH expansion gravity model with exact calculations of the gravity at the Earth's surface.

BOOK REVIEW: Quantum Gravity: third edition Quantum Gravity: third edition

Science.gov (United States)

Rovelli, Carlo

2012-09-01

The request by Classical and Quantum Gravity to review the third edition of Claus Kiefer's 'Quantum Gravity' puts me in a slightly awkward position. This is a remarkably good book, which every person working in quantum gravity should have on the shelf. But in my opinion quantum gravity has undergone some dramatic advances in the last few years, of which the book makes no mention. Perhaps the omission only attests to the current vitality of the field, where progress is happening fast, but it is strange for me to review a thoughtful, knowledgeable and comprehensive book on my own field of research, which ignores what I myself consider the most interesting results to date. Kiefer's book is unique as a broad introduction and a reliable overview of quantum gravity. There are numerous books in the field which (often notwithstanding titles) focus on a single approach. There are also countless conference proceedings and article collections aiming to be encyclopaedic, but offering disorganized patchworks. Kiefer's book is a careful and thoughtful presentation of all aspects of the immense problem of quantum gravity. Kiefer is very learned, and brings together three rare qualities: he is pedagogical, he is capable of simplifying matter to the bones and capturing the essential, and he offers a serious and balanced evaluation of views and ideas. In a fractured field based on a major problem that does not yet have a solution, these qualities are precious. I recommend Kiefer's book to my students entering the field: to work in quantum gravity one needs a vast amount of technical knowledge as well as a grasp of different ideas, and Kiefer's book offers this with remarkable clarity. This novel third edition simplifies and improves the presentation of several topics, but also adds very valuable new material on quantum gravity phenomenology, loop quantum cosmology, asymptotic safety, Horava-Lifshitz gravity, analogue gravity, the holographic principle, and more. This is a testament

Analogue Gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Barceló

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Analogue gravity is a research programme which investigates analogues of general relativistic gravitational fields within other physical systems, typically but not exclusively condensed matter systems, with the aim of gaining new insights into their corresponding problems. Analogue models of (and for gravity have a long and distinguished history dating back to the earliest years of general relativity. In this review article we will discuss the history, aims, results, and future prospects for the various analogue models. We start the discussion by presenting a particularly simple example of an analogue model, before exploring the rich history and complex tapestry of models discussed in the literature. The last decade in particular has seen a remarkable and sustained development of analogue gravity ideas, leading to some hundreds of published articles, a workshop, two books, and this review article. Future prospects for the analogue gravity programme also look promising, both on the experimental front (where technology is rapidly advancing and on the theoretical front (where variants of analogue models can be used as a springboard for radical attacks on the problem of quantum gravity.

Clear and Measurable Signature of Modified Gravity in the Galaxy Velocity Field

Science.gov (United States)

Hellwing, Wojciech A.; Barreira, Alexandre; Frenk, Carlos S.; Li, Baojiu; Cole, Shaun

2014-06-01

The velocity field of dark matter and galaxies reflects the continued action of gravity throughout cosmic history. We show that the low-order moments of the pairwise velocity distribution v12 are a powerful diagnostic of the laws of gravity on cosmological scales. In particular, the projected line-of-sight galaxy pairwise velocity dispersion σ12(r) is very sensitive to the presence of modified gravity. Using a set of high-resolution N-body simulations, we compute the pairwise velocity distribution and its projected line-of-sight dispersion for a class of modified gravity theories: the chameleon f(R) gravity and Galileon gravity (cubic and quartic). The velocities of dark matter halos with a wide range of masses would exhibit deviations from general relativity at the (5-10)σ level. We examine strategies for detecting these deviations in galaxy redshift and peculiar velocity surveys. If detected, this signature would be a "smoking gun" for modified gravity.

Discrete gravity as a topological field theorywith light-like curvature defects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wieland, Wolfgang [Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics,31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, ON N2L 2Y5 (Canada)

2017-05-29

I present a model of discrete gravity as a topological field theory with defects. The theory has no local degrees of freedom and the gravitational field is trivial everywhere except at a number of intersecting null surfaces. At these null surfaces, the gravitational field can be singular, representing a curvature defect propagating at the speed of light. The underlying action is local and it is studied in both its Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulation. The canonically conjugate variables on the null surfaces are a spinor and a spinor-valued two-surface density, which are coupled to a topological field theory for the Lorentz connection in the bulk. I discuss the relevance of the model for non-perturbative approaches to quantum gravity, such as loop quantum gravity, where similar variables have recently appeared as well.

Horizon thermodynamics in fourth-order gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meng-Sen Ma

2017-03-01

Full Text Available In the framework of horizon thermodynamics, the field equations of Einstein gravity and some other second-order gravities can be rewritten as the thermodynamic identity: dE=TdS−PdV. However, in order to construct the horizon thermodynamics in higher-order gravity, we have to simplify the field equations firstly. In this paper, we study the fourth-order gravity and convert it to second-order gravity via a so-called “Legendre transformation” at the cost of introducing two other fields besides the metric field. With this simplified theory, we implement the conventional procedure in the construction of the horizon thermodynamics in 3 and 4 dimensional spacetime. We find that the field equations in the fourth-order gravity can also be written as the thermodynamic identity. Moreover, we can use this approach to derive the same black hole mass as that by other methods.

The metric on field space, functional renormalization, and metric–torsion quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reuter, Martin; Schollmeyer, Gregor M.

2016-01-01

Searching for new non-perturbatively renormalizable quantum gravity theories, functional renormalization group (RG) flows are studied on a theory space of action functionals depending on the metric and the torsion tensor, the latter parameterized by three irreducible component fields. A detailed comparison with Quantum Einstein–Cartan Gravity (QECG), Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG), and “tetrad-only” gravity, all based on different theory spaces, is performed. It is demonstrated that, over a generic theory space, the construction of a functional RG equation (FRGE) for the effective average action requires the specification of a metric on the infinite-dimensional field manifold as an additional input. A modified FRGE is obtained if this metric is scale-dependent, as it happens in the metric–torsion system considered.

Gravity field and internal structure of Mercury from MESSENGER.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, David E; Zuber, Maria T; Phillips, Roger J; Solomon, Sean C; Hauck, Steven A; Lemoine, Frank G; Mazarico, Erwan; Neumann, Gregory A; Peale, Stanton J; Margot, Jean-Luc; Johnson, Catherine L; Torrence, Mark H; Perry, Mark E; Rowlands, David D; Goossens, Sander; Head, James W; Taylor, Anthony H

2012-04-13

Radio tracking of the MESSENGER spacecraft has provided a model of Mercury's gravity field. In the northern hemisphere, several large gravity anomalies, including candidate mass concentrations (mascons), exceed 100 milli-Galileos (mgal). Mercury's northern hemisphere crust is thicker at low latitudes and thinner in the polar region and shows evidence for thinning beneath some impact basins. The low-degree gravity field, combined with planetary spin parameters, yields the moment of inertia C/MR(2) = 0.353 ± 0.017, where M and R are Mercury's mass and radius, and a ratio of the moment of inertia of Mercury's solid outer shell to that of the planet of C(m)/C = 0.452 ± 0.035. A model for Mercury's radial density distribution consistent with these results includes a solid silicate crust and mantle overlying a solid iron-sulfide layer and an iron-rich liquid outer core and perhaps a solid inner core.

Gravity Field and Internal Structure of Mercury from MESSENGER

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, David E.; Zuber, Maria T.; Phillips, Roger J.; Solomon, Sean C.; Hauck, Steven A., II; Lemoine, Frank G.; Mazarico, Erwan; Neumann, Gregory A.; Peale, Stanton J.; Margot, Jean-Luc;

Gravity Field Atlas of the S. Ocean

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This Gravity Field Atlas of the Southern Ocean from GEOSAT is MGG Report 7. In many areas of the global ocean, the depth of the seafloor is not well known because...

Topological gravity with minimal matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Keke

1991-01-01

Topological minimal matter, obtained by twisting the minimal N = 2 supeconformal field theory, is coupled to two-dimensional topological gravity. The free field formulation of the coupled system allows explicit representations of BRST charge, physical operators and their correlation functions. The contact terms of the physical operators may be evaluated by extending the argument used in a recent solution of topological gravity without matter. The consistency of the contact terms in correlation functions implies recursion relations which coincide with the Virasoro constraints derived from the multi-matrix models. Topological gravity with minimal matter thus provides the field theoretic description for the multi-matrix models of two-dimensional quantum gravity. (orig.)

Quantum gravity with matter and group field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krasnov, Kirill

2007-01-01

A generalization of the matrix model idea to quantum gravity in three and higher dimensions is known as group field theory (GFT). In this paper we study generalized GFT models that can be used to describe 3D quantum gravity coupled to point particles. The generalization considered is that of replacing the group leading to pure quantum gravity by the twisted product of the group with its dual-the so-called Drinfeld double of the group. The Drinfeld double is a quantum group in that it is an algebra that is both non-commutative and non-cocommutative, and special care is needed to define group field theory for it. We show how this is done, and study the resulting GFT models. Of special interest is a new topological model that is the 'Ponzano-Regge' model for the Drinfeld double. However, as we show, this model does not describe point particles. Motivated by the GFT considerations, we consider a more general class of models that are defined not using GFT, but the so-called chain mail techniques. A general model of this class does not produce 3-manifold invariants, but has an interpretation in terms of point particle Feynman diagrams

Monthly gravity field recovery from GRACE orbits and K-band measurements using variational equations approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Changqing Wang

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE mission can significantly improve our knowledge of the temporal variability of the Earth's gravity field. We obtained monthly gravity field solutions based on variational equations approach from GPS-derived positions of GRACE satellites and K-band range-rate measurements. The impact of different fixed data weighting ratios in temporal gravity field recovery while combining the two types of data was investigated for the purpose of deriving the best combined solution. The monthly gravity field solution obtained through above procedures was named as the Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics (IGG temporal gravity field models. IGG temporal gravity field models were compared with GRACE Release05 (RL05 products in following aspects: (i the trend of the mass anomaly in China and its nearby regions within 2005–2010; (ii the root mean squares of the global mass anomaly during 2005–2010; (iii time-series changes in the mean water storage in the region of the Amazon Basin and the Sahara Desert between 2005 and 2010. The results showed that IGG solutions were almost consistent with GRACE RL05 products in above aspects (i–(iii. Changes in the annual amplitude of mean water storage in the Amazon Basin were 14.7 ± 1.2 cm for IGG, 17.1 ± 1.3 cm for the Centre for Space Research (CSR, 16.4 ± 0.9 cm for the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ and 16.9 ± 1.2 cm for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL in terms of equivalent water height (EWH, respectively. The root mean squares of the mean mass anomaly in Sahara were 1.2 cm, 0.9 cm, 0.9 cm and 1.2 cm for temporal gravity field models of IGG, CSR, GFZ and JPL, respectively. Comparison suggested that IGG temporal gravity field solutions were at the same accuracy level with the latest temporal gravity field solutions published by CSR, GFZ and JPL.

High-Resolution Gravity Field Modeling for Mercury to Estimate Crust and Lithospheric Properties

Science.gov (United States)

Goossens, S.; Mazarico, E.; Genova, A.; James, P. B.

2018-05-01

We estimate a gravity field model for Mercury using line-of-sight data to improve the gravity field model at short wavelengths. This can be used to infer crustal density and infer the support mechanism of the lithosphere.

On the Inversion for Mass (Re)Distribution from Global (Time-Variable) Gravity Field

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Benjamin F.

2004-01-01

The well-known non-uniqueness of the gravitational inverse problem states the following: The external gravity field, even if completely and exactly known, cannot Uniquely determine the density distribution of the body that produces the gravity field. This is an intrinsic property of a field that obeys the Laplace equation, as already treated in mathematical as well as geophysical literature. In this paper we provide conceptual insight by examining the problem in terms of spherical harmonic expansion of the global gravity field. By comparing the multipoles and the moments of the density function, we show that in 3-S the degree of knowledge deficiency in trying to inversely recover the density distribution from external gravity field is (n+l)(n+2)/2 - (2n+l) = n(n-1)/2 for each harmonic degree n. On the other hand, on a 2-D spherical shell we show via a simple relationship that the inverse solution of the surface density distribution is unique. The latter applies quite readily in the inversion of time-variable gravity signals (such as those observed by the GRACE space mission) where the sources over a wide range of the scales largely come from the Earth's Surface.

Internal Gravity Waves in the Magnetized Solar Atmosphere. I. Magnetic Field Effects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vigeesh, G.; Steiner, O. [Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik, Schöneckstrasse 6, D-79104 Freiburg (Germany); Jackiewicz, J., E-mail: vigeesh@leibniz-kis.de [New Mexico State University, Department of Astronomy, P.O. Box 30001, MSC 4500, Las Cruces, NM 88003 (United States)

2017-02-01

Observations of the solar atmosphere show that internal gravity waves are generated by overshooting convection, but are suppressed at locations of magnetic flux, which is thought to be the result of mode conversion into magnetoacoustic waves. Here, we present a study of the acoustic-gravity wave spectrum emerging from a realistic, self-consistent simulation of solar (magneto)convection. A magnetic field free, hydrodynamic simulation and a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation with an initial, vertical, homogeneous field of 50 G flux density were carried out and compared with each other to highlight the effect of magnetic fields on the internal gravity wave propagation in the Sun’s atmosphere. We find that the internal gravity waves are absent or partially reflected back into the lower layers in the presence of magnetic fields and argue that the suppression is due to the coupling of internal gravity waves to slow magnetoacoustic waves still within the high- β region of the upper photosphere. The conversion to Alfvén waves is highly unlikely in our model because there is no strongly inclined magnetic field present. We argue that the suppression of internal waves observed within magnetic flux concentrations may also be due to nonlinear breaking of internal waves due to vortex flows that are ubiquitously present in the upper photosphere and the chromosphere.

A Combined Gravity Compensation Method for INS Using the Simplified Gravity Model and Gravity Database.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Xiao; Yang, Gongliu; Wang, Jing; Wen, Zeyang

2018-05-14

In recent decades, gravity compensation has become an important way to reduce the position error of an inertial navigation system (INS), especially for a high-precision INS, because of the extensive application of high precision inertial sensors (accelerometers and gyros). This paper first deducts the INS's solution error considering gravity disturbance and simulates the results. Meanwhile, this paper proposes a combined gravity compensation method using a simplified gravity model and gravity database. This new combined method consists of two steps all together. Step 1 subtracts the normal gravity using a simplified gravity model. Step 2 first obtains the gravity disturbance on the trajectory of the carrier with the help of ELM training based on the measured gravity data (provided by Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics; Chinese Academy of sciences), and then compensates it into the error equations of the INS, considering the gravity disturbance, to further improve the navigation accuracy. The effectiveness and feasibility of this new gravity compensation method for the INS are verified through vehicle tests in two different regions; one is in flat terrain with mild gravity variation and the other is in complex terrain with fierce gravity variation. During 2 h vehicle tests, the positioning accuracy of two tests can improve by 20% and 38% respectively, after the gravity is compensated by the proposed method.

Induced quantum conformal gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Novozhilov, Y.V.; Vassilevich, D.V.

1988-11-01

Quantum gravity is considered as induced by matter degrees of freedom and related to the symmetry breakdown in the low energy region of a non-Abelian gauge theory of fundamental fields. An effective action for quantum conformal gravity is derived where both the gravitational constant and conformal kinetic term are positive. Relation with induced classical gravity is established. (author). 15 refs

Novel symmetries in Weyl-invariant gravity with massive gauge field

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abhinav, K. [S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Salt Lake, Kolkata (India); Shukla, A.; Panigrahi, P.K. [Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur (India)

2016-11-15

The background field method is used to linearize the Weyl-invariant scalar-tensor gravity, coupled with a Stueckelberg field. For a generic background metric, this action is found not to be invariant, under both a diffeomorphism and generalized Weyl symmetry, the latter being a combination of gauge and Weyl transformations. Interestingly, the quadratic Lagrangian, emerging from a background of Minkowski metric, respects both transformations independently. The Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin symmetry of scalar-tensor gravity coupled with a Stueckelberg-like massive gauge particle, possessing a diffeomorphism and generalized Weyl symmetry, reveals that in both cases negative-norm states with unphysical degrees of freedom do exist. We then show that, by combining diffeomorphism and generalized Weyl symmetries, all the ghost states decouple, thereby removing the unphysical redundancies of the theory. During this process, the scalar field does not represent any dynamic mode, yet modifies the usual harmonic gauge condition through non-minimal coupling with gravity. (orig.)

Scale-invariant gravity: geometrodynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, Edward; Barbour, Julian; Foster, Brendan; Murchadha, Niall O

2003-01-01

We present a scale-invariant theory, conformal gravity, which closely resembles the geometrodynamical formulation of general relativity (GR). While previous attempts to create scale-invariant theories of gravity have been based on Weyl's idea of a compensating field, our direct approach dispenses with this and is built by extension of the method of best matching w.r.t. scaling developed in the parallel particle dynamics paper by one of the authors. In spatially compact GR, there is an infinity of degrees of freedom that describe the shape of 3-space which interact with a single volume degree of freedom. In conformal gravity, the shape degrees of freedom remain, but the volume is no longer a dynamical variable. Further theories and formulations related to GR and conformal gravity are presented. Conformal gravity is successfully coupled to scalars and the gauge fields of nature. It should describe the solar system observations as well as GR does, but its cosmology and quantization will be completely different

Study on relationship between evolution of regional gravity field and seismic hazard

Science.gov (United States)

Li, W.; Xu, C.; Shen, C.

2017-12-01

The lack of anomalous signal is a big issue for the study of geophysics using historical geodesy observations, which is a relatively new area of earth gravimetry application in seismology. Hence the use of the gravity anomaly (GA) derived from either a global geopotential model (GGM) or a regional gravity reanalysis (Ground Gravity Survey, GGS) becomes an important alternative solution. In this study, the GGS at 186 points for the period of 2010 2014 in the Sichuan-Yunnan region (SYR) stations are analyzed. To study the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of regional gravity filed (RGF) and its evolution mechanism. Taking the geological and geophysical data as constraints. From the GGM expanded up to degree 360, GA were obtained after gravity reduction, especially removing the reference field. The dynamically evolutional characteristics of gravity field are closely relative to fault activity. The gravity changes with time about 5 years at LongMenShan fault (LMSF) have a slop of -12.83±2.9 μGal/a, indicating that LMSF has an uplift. To test the signal extraction algorithm in some geodynamic processes, GA from the SYR were inverted and it was also imposed as a priori information. Fortunately, some significant gravity variation have been detected at some stations in the thrust fault before and after four earthquakes, in which typical anomalies (earthquake precursor, EP) were positive GA variation near the epicenter and the occurrence of a high-gravity-gradient zone across the epicenter prior to the Lushan earthquake (Ms 7.0). The repeated observation results during about 5 years indicate that no significant gravity changes related to other geodynamical events were observed in most observation epochs. In addition, the mechanism of gravity changes at Lushan was also explored. We calculated the gravity change rates based on the model of Songpan-Ganze block (SGB) to Sichuan basin (SCB). And the changes is in good agreement with observed one, indicating

Shear waves in inhomogeneous, compressible fluids in a gravity field.

Science.gov (United States)

Godin, Oleg A

2014-03-01

While elastic solids support compressional and shear waves, waves in ideal compressible fluids are usually thought of as compressional waves. Here, a class of acoustic-gravity waves is studied in which the dilatation is identically zero, and the pressure and density remain constant in each fluid particle. These shear waves are described by an exact analytic solution of linearized hydrodynamics equations in inhomogeneous, quiescent, inviscid, compressible fluids with piecewise continuous parameters in a uniform gravity field. It is demonstrated that the shear acoustic-gravity waves also can be supported by moving fluids as well as quiescent, viscous fluids with and without thermal conductivity. Excitation of a shear-wave normal mode by a point source and the normal mode distortion in realistic environmental models are considered. The shear acoustic-gravity waves are likely to play a significant role in coupling wave processes in the ocean and atmosphere.

Temporal gravity field modeling based on least square collocation with short-arc approach

Science.gov (United States)

ran, jiangjun; Zhong, Min; Xu, Houze; Liu, Chengshu; Tangdamrongsub, Natthachet

2014-05-01

After the launch of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) in 2002, several research centers have attempted to produce the finest gravity model based on different approaches. In this study, we present an alternative approach to derive the Earth's gravity field, and two main objectives are discussed. Firstly, we seek the optimal method to estimate the accelerometer parameters, and secondly, we intend to recover the monthly gravity model based on least square collocation method. The method has been paid less attention compared to the least square adjustment method because of the massive computational resource's requirement. The positions of twin satellites are treated as pseudo-observations and unknown parameters at the same time. The variance covariance matrices of the pseudo-observations and the unknown parameters are valuable information to improve the accuracy of the estimated gravity solutions. Our analyses showed that introducing a drift parameter as an additional accelerometer parameter, compared to using only a bias parameter, leads to a significant improvement of our estimated monthly gravity field. The gravity errors outside the continents are significantly reduced based on the selected set of the accelerometer parameters. We introduced the improved gravity model namely the second version of Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGG-CAS 02). The accuracy of IGG-CAS 02 model is comparable to the gravity solutions computed from the Geoforschungszentrum (GFZ), the Center for Space Research (CSR) and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). In term of the equivalent water height, the correlation coefficients over the study regions (the Yangtze River valley, the Sahara desert, and the Amazon) among four gravity models are greater than 0.80.

Cutoff for extensions of massive gravity and bi-gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matas, Andrew

2016-01-01

Recently there has been interest in extending ghost-free massive gravity, bi-gravity, and multi-gravity by including non-standard kinetic terms and matter couplings. We first review recent proposals for this class of extensions, emphasizing how modifications of the kinetic and potential structure of the graviton and modifications of the coupling to matter are related. We then generalize existing no-go arguments in the metric language to the vielbein language in second-order form. We give an ADM argument to show that the most promising extensions to the kinetic term and matter coupling contain a Boulware–Deser ghost. However, as recently emphasized, we may still be able to view these extensions as effective field theories below some cutoff scale. To address this possibility, we show that there is a decoupling limit where a ghost appears for a wide class of matter couplings and kinetic terms. In particular, we show that there is a decoupling limit where the linear effective vielbein matter coupling contains a ghost. Using the insight we gain from this decoupling limit analysis, we place an upper bound on the cutoff for the linear effective vielbein coupling. This result can be generalized to new kinetic interactions in the vielbein language in second-order form. Combined with recent results, this provides a strong uniqueness argument on the form of ghost-free massive gravity, bi-gravity, and multi-gravity. (paper)

On the embedding of quantum field theory on curved spacetimes into loop quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stottmeister, Alexander

2015-01-01

The main theme of this thesis is an investigation into possible connections between loop quantum gravity and quantum field theory on curved spacetimes: On the one hand, we aim for the formulation of a general framework that allows for a derivation of quantum field theory on curved spacetimes in a semi-classical limit. On the other hand, we discuss representation-theoretical aspects of loop quantum gravity and quantum field theory on curved spacetimes as both of the latter presumably influence each other in the aforesaid semi-classical limit. Regarding the first point, we investigate the possible implementation of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation in the sense of space-adiabatic perturbation theory in models of loop quantum gravity-type. In the course of this, we argue for the need of a Weyl quantisation and an associated symbolic calculus for loop quantum gravity, which we then successfully define, at least to a certain extent. The compactness of the Lie groups, which models a la loop quantum gravity are based on, turns out to be a main obstacle to a fully satisfactory definition of a Weyl quantisation. Finally, we apply our findings to some toy models of linear scalar quantum fields on quantum cosmological spacetimes and discuss the implementation of space-adiabatic perturbation theory therein. In view of the second point, we start with a discussion of the microlocal spectrum condition for quantum fields on curved spacetimes and how it might be translated to a background-independent Hamiltonian quantum theory of gravity, like loop quantum gravity. The relevance of this lies in the fact that the microlocal spectrum condition selects a class of physically relevant states of the quantum matter fields and is, therefore, expected to play an important role in the aforesaid semi-classical limit of gravity-matter systems. Following this, we switch our perspective and analyse the representation theory of loop quantum gravity. We find some intriguing relations between the

Gravity model improvement investigation. [improved gravity model for determination of ocean geoid

Science.gov (United States)

Siry, J. W.; Kahn, W. D.; Bryan, J. W.; Vonbun, F. F.

1973-01-01

This investigation was undertaken to improve the gravity model and hence the ocean geoid. A specific objective is the determination of the gravity field and geoid with a space resolution of approximately 5 deg and a height resolution of the order of five meters. The concept of the investigation is to utilize both GEOS-C altimeter and satellite-to-satellite tracking data to achieve the gravity model improvement. It is also planned to determine the geoid in selected regions with a space resolution of about a degree and a height resolution of the order of a meter or two. The short term objectives include the study of the gravity field in the GEOS-C calibration area outlined by Goddard, Bermuda, Antigua, and Cape Kennedy, and also in the eastern Pacific area which is viewed by ATS-F.

Testing the master constraint programme for loop quantum gravity: V. Interacting field theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dittrich, B; Thiemann, T

2006-01-01

This is the fifth and final paper in our series of five in which we test the master constraint programme for solving the Hamiltonian constraint in loop quantum gravity. Here we consider interacting quantum field theories, specifically we consider the non-Abelian Gauss constraints of Einstein-Yang-Mills theory and 2 + 1 gravity. Interestingly, while Yang-Mills theory in 4D is not yet rigorously defined as an ordinary (Wightman) quantum field theory on Minkowski space, in background-independent quantum field theories such as loop quantum gravity (LQG) this might become possible by working in a new, background-independent representation. While for the Gauss constraint the master constraint can be solved explicitly, for the 2 + 1 theory we are only able to rigorously define the master constraint operator. We show that the, by other methods known, physical Hilbert is contained in the kernel of the master constraint, however, to systematically derive it by only using spectral methods is as complicated as for 3 + 1 gravity and we therefore leave the complete analysis for 3 + 1 gravity

Insights into the Earth System mass variability from CSR-RL05 GRACE gravity fields

Science.gov (United States)

Bettadpur, S.

2012-04-01

The next-generation Release-05 GRACE gravity field data products are the result of extensive effort applied to the improvements to the GRACE Level-1 (tracking) data products, and to improvements in the background gravity models and processing methodology. As a result, the squared-error upper-bound in RL05 fields is half or less than the squared-error upper-bound in RL04 fields. The CSR-RL05 field release consists of unconstrained gravity fields as well as a regularized gravity field time-series that can be used for several applications without any post-processing error reduction. This paper will describe the background and the nature of these improvements in the data products, and provide an error characterization. We will describe the insights these new series offer in measuring the mass flux due to diverse Hydrologic, Oceanographic and Cryospheric processes.

Gravity interpretation via EULDPH

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebrahimzadeh Ardestani, V.

2003-01-01

Euler's homogeneity equation for determining the coordinates of the source body especially to estimate the depth (EULDPH) is discussed at this paper. This method is applied to synthetic and high-resolution real data such as gradiometric or microgravity data. Low-quality gravity data especially in the areas with a complex geology structure has rarely been used. The Bouguer gravity anomalies are computed from absolute gravity data after the required corrections. Bouguer anomaly is transferred to residual gravity anomaly. The gravity gradients are estimated from residual anomaly values. Bouguer anomaly is the gravity gradients, using EULDPH. The coordinates of the perturbing body will be determined. Two field examples one in the east of Tehran (Mard Abad) where we would like to determine the location of the anomaly (hydrocarbon) and another in the south-east of Iran close to the border with Afghanistan (Nosrat Abad) where we are exploring chromite are presented

Newtonian gravity in loop quantum gravity

OpenAIRE

Smolin, Lee

2010-01-01

We apply a recent argument of Verlinde to loop quantum gravity, to conclude that Newton's law of gravity emerges in an appropriate limit and setting. This is possible because the relationship between area and entropy is realized in loop quantum gravity when boundaries are imposed on a quantum spacetime.

Dirac fields in loop quantum gravity and big bang nucleosynthesis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bojowald, Martin; Das, Rupam; Scherrer, Robert J.

2008-01-01

Big bang nucleosynthesis requires a fine balance between equations of state for photons and relativistic fermions. Several corrections to equation of state parameters arise from classical and quantum physics, which are derived here from a canonical perspective. In particular, loop quantum gravity allows one to compute quantum gravity corrections for Maxwell and Dirac fields. Although the classical actions are very different, quantum corrections to the equation of state are remarkably similar. To lowest order, these corrections take the form of an overall expansion-dependent multiplicative factor in the total density. We use these results, along with the predictions of big bang nucleosynthesis, to place bounds on these corrections and especially the patch size of discrete quantum gravity states.

Comparing scalar-tensor gravity and f(R)-gravity in the Newtonian limit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Capozziello, S.; Stabile, A.; Troisi, A.

2010-01-01

Recently, a strong debate has been pursued about the Newtonian limit (i.e. small velocity and weak field) of fourth order gravity models. According to some authors, the Newtonian limit of f(R)-gravity is equivalent to the one of Brans-Dicke gravity with ω BD =0, so that the PPN parameters of these models turn out to be ill-defined. In this Letter, we carefully discuss this point considering that fourth order gravity models are dynamically equivalent to the O'Hanlon Lagrangian. This is a special case of scalar-tensor gravity characterized only by self-interaction potential and that, in the Newtonian limit, this implies a non-standard behavior that cannot be compared with the usual PPN limit of General Relativity. The result turns out to be completely different from the one of Brans-Dicke theory and in particular suggests that it is misleading to consider the PPN parameters of this theory with ω BD =0 in order to characterize the homologous quantities of f(R)-gravity. Finally the solutions at Newtonian level, obtained in the Jordan frame for an f(R)-gravity, reinterpreted as a scalar-tensor theory, are linked to those in the Einstein frame.

Quantum Gravity Effects in Cosmology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gu Je-An

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Within the geometrodynamic approach to quantum cosmology, we studied the quantum gravity effects in cosmology. The Gibbons-Hawking temperature is corrected by quantum gravity due to spacetime fluctuations and the power spectrum as well as any probe field will experience the effective temperature, a quantum gravity effect.

Noncommutative gravity and quantum field theory on noncummutative curved spacetimes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schenkel, Alexander

2011-01-01

The purpose of the first part of this thesis is to understand symmetry reduction in noncommutative gravity, which then allows us to find exact solutions of the noncommutative Einstein equations. We propose an extension of the usual symmetry reduction procedure, which is frequently applied to the construction of exact solutions of Einstein's field equations, to noncommutative gravity and show that this leads to preferred choices of noncommutative deformations of a given symmetric system. We classify in the case of abelian Drinfel'd twists all consistent deformations of spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies and of the Schwarzschild black hole. The deformed symmetry structure allows us to obtain exact solutions of the noncommutative Einstein equations in many of our models, for which the noncommutative metric field coincides with the classical one. In the second part we focus on quantum field theory on noncommutative curved spacetimes. We develop a new formalism by combining methods from the algebraic approach to quantum field theory with noncommutative differential geometry. The result is an algebra of observables for scalar quantum field theories on a large class of noncommutative curved spacetimes. A precise relation to the algebra of observables of the corresponding undeformed quantum field theory is established. We focus on explicit examples of deformed wave operators and find that there can be noncommutative corrections even on the level of free field theories, which is not the case in the simplest example of the Moyal-Weyl deformed Minkowski spacetime. The convergent deformation of simple toy-models is investigated and it is shown that these quantum field theories have many new features compared to formal deformation quantization. In addition to the expected nonlocality, we obtain that the relation between the deformed and the undeformed quantum field theory is affected in a nontrivial way, leading to an improved behavior of the noncommutative

Noncommutative gravity and quantum field theory on noncummutative curved spacetimes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schenkel, Alexander

2011-10-24

The purpose of the first part of this thesis is to understand symmetry reduction in noncommutative gravity, which then allows us to find exact solutions of the noncommutative Einstein equations. We propose an extension of the usual symmetry reduction procedure, which is frequently applied to the construction of exact solutions of Einstein's field equations, to noncommutative gravity and show that this leads to preferred choices of noncommutative deformations of a given symmetric system. We classify in the case of abelian Drinfel'd twists all consistent deformations of spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies and of the Schwarzschild black hole. The deformed symmetry structure allows us to obtain exact solutions of the noncommutative Einstein equations in many of our models, for which the noncommutative metric field coincides with the classical one. In the second part we focus on quantum field theory on noncommutative curved spacetimes. We develop a new formalism by combining methods from the algebraic approach to quantum field theory with noncommutative differential geometry. The result is an algebra of observables for scalar quantum field theories on a large class of noncommutative curved spacetimes. A precise relation to the algebra of observables of the corresponding undeformed quantum field theory is established. We focus on explicit examples of deformed wave operators and find that there can be noncommutative corrections even on the level of free field theories, which is not the case in the simplest example of the Moyal-Weyl deformed Minkowski spacetime. The convergent deformation of simple toy-models is investigated and it is shown that these quantum field theories have many new features compared to formal deformation quantization. In addition to the expected nonlocality, we obtain that the relation between the deformed and the undeformed quantum field theory is affected in a nontrivial way, leading to an improved behavior of the

Interplay between topology, gauge fields and gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Corichi Rodriguez Gil, Alejandro

In this thesis we consider several physical systems that illustrate an interesting interplay between quantum theory, connections and knot theory. It can be divided into two parts. In the first one, we consider the quantization of the free Maxwell field. We show that there is an important role played by knot theory, and in particular the Gauss linking number, in the quantum theory. This manifestation is twofold. The first occurs at the level of the algebra of observables given by fluxes of electric and magnetic field across surfaces. The commutator of the operators, and thus the basic uncertainty relations, are given in terms of the linking number of the loops that bound the surfaces. Next, we consider the quantization of the Maxwell field based on self-dual connections in the loop representation. We show that the measure which determines the quantum inner product can be expressed in terms of the self linking number of thickened loops. Therefore, the linking number manifests itself at two key points of the theory: the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the inner product. In the second part, we bring gravity into play. First we consider quantum test particles on certain stationary space-times. We demonstrate that a geometric phase exists for those space-times and focus on the example of a rotating cosmic string. The geometric phase can be explicitly computed, providing a fully relativistic gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect. Finally, we consider 3-dimensional gravity with non-vanishing cosmological constant in the connection dynamics formulation. We restrict our attention to Lorentzian gravity with positive cosmological constant and Euclidean signature with negative cosmological constant. A complex transformation is performed in phase space that makes the constraints simple. The reduced phase space is characterized as the moduli space of flat complex connections. We construct the quantization of the theory when the initial hyper-surface is a torus. Two important

A Unified Field Theory of Gravity, Electromagnetism, and theA Unified Field Theory of Gravity, Electromagnetism, and the Yang-Mills Gauge Field

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suhendro I.

2008-01-01

Full Text Available In this work, we attempt at constructing a comprehensive four-dimensional unified field theory of gravity, electromagnetism, and the non-Abelian Yang-Mills gauge field in which the gravitational, electromagnetic, and material spin fields are unified as intrinsic geometric objects of the space-time manifold $S_4$ via the connection, with the generalized non-Abelian Yang-Mills gauge field appearing in particular as a sub-field of the geometrized electromagnetic interaction.

Butterfly effect in 3D gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Qaemmaqami, Mohammad M.

2017-11-01

We study the butterfly effect by considering shock wave solutions near the horizon of the anti-de Sitter black hole in some three-dimensional gravity models including 3D Einstein gravity, minimal massive 3D gravity, new massive gravity, generalized massive gravity, Born-Infeld 3D gravity, and new bigravity. We calculate the butterfly velocities of these models and also we consider the critical points and different limits in some of these models. By studying the butterfly effect in the generalized massive gravity, we observe a correspondence between the butterfly velocities and right-left moving degrees of freedom or the central charges of the dual 2D conformal field theories.

And what if gravity is intrinsically quantic?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ziaeepour, Houri

2009-01-01

Since the early days of search for a quantum theory of gravity the attempts have been mostly concentrated on the quantization of an otherwise classical system. The two most contentious candidate theories of gravity, string theory and quantum loop gravity are based on a quantum field theory - the latter is a quantum field theory of connections on a SU(2) group manifold and the former is a quantum field theory in two dimensional spaces. Here we argue that there is a very close relation between quantum mechanics (QM) and gravity. Without gravity, QM becomes ambiguous. We consider this observation as the evidence for an intrinsic relation between these fundamental laws of nature. We suggest a quantum role and definition for gravity in the context of a quantum Universe, and present a preliminary formulation for gravity in a system with a finite number of particles.

Group field theories for all loop quantum gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Oriti, Daniele; Ryan, James P.; Thürigen, Johannes

2015-02-01

Group field theories represent a second quantized reformulation of the loop quantum gravity state space and a completion of the spin foam formalism. States of the canonical theory, in the traditional continuum setting, have support on graphs of arbitrary valence. On the other hand, group field theories have usually been defined in a simplicial context, thus dealing with a restricted set of graphs. In this paper, we generalize the combinatorics of group field theories to cover all the loop quantum gravity state space. As an explicit example, we describe the group field theory formulation of the KKL spin foam model, as well as a particular modified version. We show that the use of tensor model tools allows for the most effective construction. In order to clarify the mathematical basis of our construction and of the formalisms with which we deal, we also give an exhaustive description of the combinatorial structures entering spin foam models and group field theories, both at the level of the boundary states and of the quantum amplitudes.

Venus gravity - Analysis of Beta Regio

Science.gov (United States)

Esposito, P. B.; Sjogren, W. L.; Mottinger, N. A.; Bills, B. G.; Abbott, E.

1982-01-01

Radio tracking data acquired over Beta Regio were analyzed to obtain a surface mass distribution from which a detailed vertical gravity field was derived. In addition, a corresponding vertical gravity field was evaluated solely from the topography of the Beta region. A comparison of these two maps confirms the strong correlation between gravity and topography which was previously seen in line-of-sight gravity maps. It also demonstrates that the observed gravity is a significant fraction of that predicted from the topography alone. The effective depth of complete isostatic compensation for the Beta region is estimated to be 330 km, which is somewhat deeper than that found for other areas of Venus.

Turning on gravity with the Higgs mechanism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alexander, Stephon; Barrow, John D; Magueijo, João

2016-01-01

We investigate how a Higgs mechanism could be responsible for the emergence of gravity in extensions of Einstein theory, with a suitable low energy limit. In this scenario, at high energies, symmetry restoration could ‘turn off’ gravity, with dramatic implications for cosmology and quantum gravity. The sense in which gravity is muted depends on the details of the implementation. In the most extreme case gravity’s dynamical degrees of freedom would only be unleashed after the Higgs field acquires a non-trivial vacuum expectation value, with gravity reduced to a topological field theory in the symmetric phase. We might also identify the Higgs and the Brans–Dicke fields in such a way that in the unbroken phase Newton’s constant vanishes, decoupling matter and gravity. We discuss the broad implications of these scenarios. (letter)

Correspondence of f(R,∇R) Modified Gravity with Scalar Field Models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jawad, Abdul; Debnath, Ujjal

2014-01-01

This paper is devoted to study the scalar field dark energy models by taking its different aspects in the framework of f(R,∇R) gravity. We consider flat FRW universe to construct the equation of state parameter governed by f(R,∇R) gravity. The stability of the model is discussed with the help of squared speed of sound parameter. It is found that models show quintessence behavior of the universe in stable as well as unstable modes. We also develop the correspondence of f(R,∇R) model with some scalar field dark energy models like quintessence, tachyonic field, k-essence, dilaton, hessence, and DBI-essence. The nature of scalar fields and corresponding scalar potentials is being analyzed in f(R,∇R) gravity graphically which show consistency with the present day observations about accelerated phenomenon

Mars gravity field error analysis from simulated radio tracking of Mars Observer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, D.E.; Lerch, F.J.; Chan, J.C.; Chinn, D.S.; Iz, H.B.; Mallama, A.; Patel, G.B.

1990-01-01

The Mars Observer (MO) Mission, in a near-polar orbit at 360-410 km altitude for nearly a 2-year observing period, will greatly improve our understanding of the geophysics of Mars, including its gravity field. To assess the expected improvement of the gravity field, the authors have conducted an error analysis based upon the mission plan for the Mars Observer radio tracking data from the Deep Space Network. Their results indicate that it should be possible to obtain a high-resolution model (spherical harmonics complete to degree and order 50 corresponding to a 200-km horizontal resolution) for the gravitational field of the planet. This model, in combination with topography from MO altimetry, should provide for an improved determination of the broad scale density structure and stress state of the Martian crust and upper mantle. The mathematical model for the error analysis is based on the representation of doppler tracking data as a function of the Martian gravity field in spherical harmonics, solar radiation pressure, atmospheric drag, angular momentum desaturation residual acceleration (AMDRA) effects, tracking station biases, and the MO orbit parameters. Two approaches are employed. In the first case, the error covariance matrix of the gravity model is estimated including the effects from all the nongravitational parameters (noise-only case). In the second case, the gravity recovery error is computed as above but includes unmodelled systematic effects from atmospheric drag, AMDRA, and solar radiation pressure (biased case). The error spectrum of gravity shows an order of magnitude of improvement over current knowledge based on doppler data precision from a single station of 0.3 mm s -1 noise for 1-min integration intervals during three 60-day periods

Estimating Jupiter’s Gravity Field Using Juno Measurements, Trajectory Estimation Analysis, and a Flow Model Optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galanti, Eli; Kaspi, Yohai; Durante, Daniele; Finocchiaro, Stefano; Iess, Luciano

2017-01-01

The upcoming Juno spacecraft measurements have the potential of improving our knowledge of Jupiter’s gravity field. The analysis of the Juno Doppler data will provide a very accurate reconstruction of spatial gravity variations, but these measurements will be very accurate only over a limited latitudinal range. In order to deduce the full gravity field of Jupiter, additional information needs to be incorporated into the analysis, especially regarding the Jovian flow structure and its depth, which can influence the measured gravity field. In this study we propose a new iterative method for the estimation of the Jupiter gravity field, using a simulated Juno trajectory, a trajectory estimation model, and an adjoint-based inverse model for the flow dynamics. We test this method both for zonal harmonics only and with a full gravity field including tesseral harmonics. The results show that this method can fit some of the gravitational harmonics better to the “measured” harmonics, mainly because of the added information from the dynamical model, which includes the flow structure. Thus, it is suggested that the method presented here has the potential of improving the accuracy of the expected gravity harmonics estimated from the Juno and Cassini radio science experiments.

Estimating Jupiter’s Gravity Field Using Juno Measurements, Trajectory Estimation Analysis, and a Flow Model Optimization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Galanti, Eli; Kaspi, Yohai [Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel); Durante, Daniele; Finocchiaro, Stefano; Iess, Luciano, E-mail: eli.galanti@weizmann.ac.il [Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e Aerospaziale, Sapienza Universita di Roma, Rome (Italy)

2017-07-01

The upcoming Juno spacecraft measurements have the potential of improving our knowledge of Jupiter’s gravity field. The analysis of the Juno Doppler data will provide a very accurate reconstruction of spatial gravity variations, but these measurements will be very accurate only over a limited latitudinal range. In order to deduce the full gravity field of Jupiter, additional information needs to be incorporated into the analysis, especially regarding the Jovian flow structure and its depth, which can influence the measured gravity field. In this study we propose a new iterative method for the estimation of the Jupiter gravity field, using a simulated Juno trajectory, a trajectory estimation model, and an adjoint-based inverse model for the flow dynamics. We test this method both for zonal harmonics only and with a full gravity field including tesseral harmonics. The results show that this method can fit some of the gravitational harmonics better to the “measured” harmonics, mainly because of the added information from the dynamical model, which includes the flow structure. Thus, it is suggested that the method presented here has the potential of improving the accuracy of the expected gravity harmonics estimated from the Juno and Cassini radio science experiments.

Scalar field mass in generalized gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faraoni, Valerio

2009-01-01

The notions of mass and range of a Brans-Dicke-like scalar field in scalar-tensor and f(R) gravity are subject to an ambiguity that hides a potential trap. We spell out this ambiguity and identify a physically meaningful and practical definition for these quantities. This is relevant when giving a mass to this scalar in order to circumvent experimental limits on the PPN parameters coming from solar system experiments.

Strings - Links between conformal field theory, gauge theory and gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Troost, J.

2009-05-01

String theory is a candidate framework for unifying the gauge theories of interacting elementary particles with a quantum theory of gravity. The last years we have made considerable progress in understanding non-perturbative aspects of string theory, and in bringing string theory closer to experiment, via the search for the Standard Model within string theory, but also via phenomenological models inspired by the physics of strings. Despite these advances, many deep problems remain, amongst which a non-perturbative definition of string theory, a better understanding of holography, and the cosmological constant problem. My research has concentrated on various theoretical aspects of quantum theories of gravity, including holography, black holes physics and cosmology. In this Habilitation thesis I have laid bare many more links between conformal field theory, gauge theory and gravity. Most contributions were motivated by string theory, like the analysis of supersymmetry preserving states in compactified gauge theories and their relation to affine algebras, time-dependent aspects of the holographic map between quantum gravity in anti-de-Sitter space and conformal field theories in the bulk, the direct quantization of strings on black hole backgrounds, the embedding of the no-boundary proposal for a wave-function of the universe in string theory, a non-rational Verlinde formula and the construction of non-geometric solutions to supergravity

Approach of regional gravity field modeling from GRACE data for improvement of geoid modeling for Japan

Science.gov (United States)

Kuroishi, Y.; Lemoine, F. G.; Rowlands, D. D.

2006-12-01

The latest gravimetric geoid model for Japan, JGEOID2004, suffers from errors at long wavelengths (around 1000 km) in a range of +/- 30 cm. The model was developed by combining surface gravity data with a global marine altimetric gravity model, using EGM96 as a foundation, and the errors at long wavelength are presumably attributed to EGM96 errors. The Japanese islands and their vicinity are located in a region of plate convergence boundaries, producing substantial gravity and geoid undulations in a wide range of wavelengths. Because of the geometry of the islands and trenches, precise information on gravity in the surrounding oceans should be incorporated in detail, even if the geoid model is required to be accurate only over land. The Kuroshio Current, which runs south of Japan, causes high sea surface variability, making altimetric gravity field determination complicated. To reduce the long-wavelength errors in the geoid model, we are investigating GRACE data for regional gravity field modeling at long wavelengths in the vicinity of Japan. Our approach is based on exclusive use of inter- satellite range-rate data with calibrated accelerometer data and attitude data, for regional or global gravity field recovery. In the first step, we calibrate accelerometer data in terms of scales and biases by fitting dynamically calculated orbits to GPS-determined precise orbits. The calibration parameters of accelerometer data thus obtained are used in the second step to recover a global/regional gravity anomaly field. This approach is applied to GRACE data obtained for the year 2005 and resulting global/regional gravity models are presented and discussed.

Superconducting gravity gradiometer for sensitive gravity measurements. II. Experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan, H.A.; Moody, M.V.; Paik, H.J.

1987-01-01

A sensitive superconducting gravity gradiometer has been constructed and tested. Coupling to gravity signals is obtained by having two superconducting proof masses modulate magnetic fields produced by persistent currents. The induced electrical currents are differenced by a passive superconducting circuit coupled to a superconducting quantum interference device. The experimental behavior of this device has been shown to follow the theoretical model closely in both signal transfer and noise characteristics. While its intrinsic noise level is shown to be 0.07 E Hz/sup -1/2/ (1 Eequivalent10/sup -9/ sec/sup -2/), the actual performance of the gravity gradiometer on a passive platform has been limited to 0.3--0.7 E Hz/sup -1/2/ due to its coupling to the environmental noise. The detailed structure of this excess noise is understood in terms of an analytical error model of the instrument. The calibration of the gradiometer has been obtained by two independent methods: by applying a linear acceleration and a gravity signal in two different operational modes of the instrument. This device has been successfully operated as a detector in a new null experiment for the gravitational inverse-square law. In this paper we report the design, fabrication, and detailed test results of the superconducting gravity gradiometer. We also present additional theoretical analyses which predict the specific dynamic behavior of the gradiometer and of the test

Ocean tides in GRACE monthly averaged gravity fields

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Per

2003-01-01

The GRACE mission will map the Earth's gravity fields and its variations with unprecedented accuracy during its 5-year lifetime. Unless ocean tide signals and their load upon the solid earth are removed from the GRACE data, their long period aliases obscure more subtle climate signals which GRACE...... aims at. In this analysis the results of Knudsen and Andersen (2002) have been verified using actual post-launch orbit parameter of the GRACE mission. The current ocean tide models are not accurate enough to correct GRACE data at harmonic degrees lower than 47. The accumulated tidal errors may affect...... the GRACE data up to harmonic degree 60. A study of the revised alias frequencies confirm that the ocean tide errors will not cancel in the GRACE monthly averaged temporal gravity fields. The S-2 and the K-2 terms have alias frequencies much longer than 30 days, so they remain almost unreduced...

Carroll versus Galilei gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bergshoeff, Eric [Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Groningen,Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen (Netherlands); Gomis, Joaquim [Departament de Física Cuàntica i Astrofísica and Institut de Ciències del Cosmos,Universitat de Barcelona,Martí i Franquès 1, E-08028 Barcelona (Spain); Rollier, Blaise [Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Groningen,Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen (Netherlands); Rosseel, Jan [Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna,Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna (Austria); Veldhuis, Tonnis ter [Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Groningen,Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen (Netherlands)

2017-03-30

We consider two distinct limits of General Relativity that in contrast to the standard non-relativistic limit can be taken at the level of the Einstein-Hilbert action instead of the equations of motion. One is a non-relativistic limit and leads to a so-called Galilei gravity theory, the other is an ultra-relativistic limit yielding a so-called Carroll gravity theory. We present both gravity theories in a first-order formalism and show that in both cases the equations of motion (i) lead to constraints on the geometry and (ii) are not sufficient to solve for all of the components of the connection fields in terms of the other fields. Using a second-order formalism we show that these independent components serve as Lagrange multipliers for the geometric constraints we found earlier. We point out a few noteworthy differences between Carroll and Galilei gravity and give some examples of matter couplings.

Quantum gravity from noncommutative spacetime

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Jungjai [Daejin University, Pocheon (Korea, Republic of); Yang, Hyunseok [Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2014-12-15

We review a novel and authentic way to quantize gravity. This novel approach is based on the fact that Einstein gravity can be formulated in terms of a symplectic geometry rather than a Riemannian geometry in the context of emergent gravity. An essential step for emergent gravity is to realize the equivalence principle, the most important property in the theory of gravity (general relativity), from U(1) gauge theory on a symplectic or Poisson manifold. Through the realization of the equivalence principle, which is an intrinsic property in symplectic geometry known as the Darboux theorem or the Moser lemma, one can understand how diffeomorphism symmetry arises from noncommutative U(1) gauge theory; thus, gravity can emerge from the noncommutative electromagnetism, which is also an interacting theory. As a consequence, a background-independent quantum gravity in which the prior existence of any spacetime structure is not a priori assumed but is defined by using the fundamental ingredients in quantum gravity theory can be formulated. This scheme for quantum gravity can be used to resolve many notorious problems in theoretical physics, such as the cosmological constant problem, to understand the nature of dark energy, and to explain why gravity is so weak compared to other forces. In particular, it leads to a remarkable picture of what matter is. A matter field, such as leptons and quarks, simply arises as a stable localized geometry, which is a topological object in the defining algebra (noncommutative *-algebra) of quantum gravity.

Quantum gravity from noncommutative spacetime

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jungjai; Yang, Hyunseok

2014-01-01

We review a novel and authentic way to quantize gravity. This novel approach is based on the fact that Einstein gravity can be formulated in terms of a symplectic geometry rather than a Riemannian geometry in the context of emergent gravity. An essential step for emergent gravity is to realize the equivalence principle, the most important property in the theory of gravity (general relativity), from U(1) gauge theory on a symplectic or Poisson manifold. Through the realization of the equivalence principle, which is an intrinsic property in symplectic geometry known as the Darboux theorem or the Moser lemma, one can understand how diffeomorphism symmetry arises from noncommutative U(1) gauge theory; thus, gravity can emerge from the noncommutative electromagnetism, which is also an interacting theory. As a consequence, a background-independent quantum gravity in which the prior existence of any spacetime structure is not a priori assumed but is defined by using the fundamental ingredients in quantum gravity theory can be formulated. This scheme for quantum gravity can be used to resolve many notorious problems in theoretical physics, such as the cosmological constant problem, to understand the nature of dark energy, and to explain why gravity is so weak compared to other forces. In particular, it leads to a remarkable picture of what matter is. A matter field, such as leptons and quarks, simply arises as a stable localized geometry, which is a topological object in the defining algebra (noncommutative *-algebra) of quantum gravity.

Non - minimal interaction of gravity with other physical fields: an overview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Novello, M.; Oliveira, L.A.R. de.

1986-01-01

A review on some modern developments concerning the interaction of gravity with other physical fields. It is argued that a suitable context for an account of their dynamical interplay is that of the non-minimal (e.g., conformal) coupling of these fields to gravity. Some interesting features of non-minimal coupling, such as the connection with Weyl-integrable spacetime (WIST) structure, the generation of eternal Universes, the appearance of a cosmological constant and the possible induction of repulsive gravity via spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) mechanisms, are discussed. In particular, examines a simple case of strong interacting scalar particles (such as the well-Known elastic reaction ΠK → ΠK), in a curved background, thereby obtaining the curious result that the actual, observed value of the strong coupling constant and the minimum value allowable, in order to preclude antigravity, are related by Eddington's number 10 39 . (Author) [pt

Non-nominal interaction of gravity with other physical fields: An overiview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Novello, M.; Oliveira, L.A.R. de

1987-01-01

A review is presented of some modern developments concerning the interaction of gravity with other physical fields. It is argued that a suitable context for an account of their dynamical interplay is that of the non-minimal (e.g. conformal) coupling of these fields to gravity. Some interesting features of non-minimal coupling, such as the connection with Weyl-integrable spacetime (WIST) structure, the generation of eternal Universes, the appearance of a cosmological constant and the possible induction of repulsive gravity via spontaneous breaking (SSB) mechanisms, are discussed. In particular, a simple case of strong-interacting scalar particles is examined (such as the well-Known elastic reaction ΠK -> ΠK), in a curved background, thereby obtaining the curious resul that the actual, observed value of the strong coupling constant and the minimum allowable value, in order to preclude antigravity, are related by Eddington's number 10 39 . (author) [pt

Modelling the Earth's static and time-varying gravity field using a combination of GRACE and GOCE data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Farahani, H.H.

2013-01-01

The main focus of the thesis is modelling the static and time-varying parts of the Earth's gravity field at the global scale based on data acquired by the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) and Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE). In addition, a new

Streaming gravity mode instability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Shui.

1989-05-01

In this paper, we study the stability of a current sheet with a sheared flow in a gravitational field which is perpendicular to the magnetic field and plasma flow. This mixing mode caused by a combined role of the sheared flow and gravity is named the streaming gravity mode instability. The conditions of this mode instability are discussed for an ideal four-layer model in the incompressible limit. (author). 5 refs

Renormalization and asymptotic freedom in quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomboulis, E.T.

1984-01-01

The article reviews some recent attempts to construct satisfactory theories of quantum gravity within the framework of local, continuum field theory. Quantum gravity; the renormalization group and its fixed points; fixed points and dimensional continuation in gravity; and quantum gravity at d=4-the 1/N expansion-asymptotic freedom; are all discussed. (U.K.)

Field estimates of gravity terrain corrections and Y2K-compatible method to convert from gravity readings with multiple base stations to tide- and long-term drift-corrected observations

Science.gov (United States)

Plouff, Donald

2000-01-01

Gravity observations are directly made or are obtained from other sources by the U.S. Geological Survey in order to prepare maps of the anomalous gravity field and consequently to interpret the subsurface distribution of rock densities and associated lithologic or geologic units. Observations are made in the field with gravity meters at new locations and at reoccupations of previously established gravity "stations." This report illustrates an interactively-prompted series of steps needed to convert gravity "readings" to values that are tied to established gravity datums and includes computer programs to implement those steps. Inasmuch as individual gravity readings have small variations, gravity-meter (instrument) drift may not be smoothly variable, and acommodations may be needed for ties to previously established stations, the reduction process is iterative. Decision-making by the program user is prompted by lists of best values and graphical displays. Notes about irregularities of topography, which affect the value of observed gravity but are not shown in sufficient detail on topographic maps, must be recorded in the field. This report illustrates ways to record field notes (distances, heights, and slope angles) and includes computer programs to convert field notes to gravity terrain corrections. This report includes approaches that may serve as models for other applications, for example: portrayal of system flow; style of quality control to document and validate computer applications; lack of dependence on proprietary software except source code compilation; method of file-searching with a dwindling list; interactive prompting; computer code to write directly in the PostScript (Adobe Systems Incorporated) printer language; and high-lighting the four-digit year on the first line of time-dependent data sets for assured Y2K compatibility. Computer source codes provided are written in the Fortran scientific language. In order for the programs to operate, they first

Two and Three Parameter Waveform Retracking of Cryosat-2 LRM Waveforms for Gravity Field Determination

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jain, Maulik; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Dall, Jørgen

2013-01-01

The project deals with sea surface height and gravity field determination in open ocean using Cryosat-2 LRM data. A three parameter model is being used to find the retracking offset for sea surface height determination. The estimates from the three parameter model are further improved upon by using...... a two parameter model. The sea surface heights thus obtained are used to develop sea surface height anomalies which are further processed to give gravity fields. Retracker performance evaluation is done using sea surface height anomaly and gravity field anomaly....

Stochastic Gravity: Theory and Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hu Bei Lok

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Whereas semiclassical gravity is based on the semiclassical Einstein equation with sources given by the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of quantum fields, stochastic semiclassical gravity is based on the Einstein–Langevin equation, which has, in addition, sources due to the noise kernel. The noise kernel is the vacuum expectation value of the (operator-valued stress-energy bitensor, which describes the fluctuations of quantum-matter fields in curved spacetimes. A new improved criterion for the validity of semiclassical gravity may also be formulated from the viewpoint of this theory. In the first part of this review we describe the fundamentals of this new theory via two approaches: the axiomatic and the functional. The axiomatic approach is useful to see the structure of the theory from the framework of semiclassical gravity, showing the link from the mean value of the stress-energy tensor to the correlation functions. The functional approach uses the Feynman–Vernon influence functional and the Schwinger–Keldysh closed-time-path effective action methods. In the second part, we describe three applications of stochastic gravity. First, we consider metric perturbations in a Minkowski spacetime, compute the two-point correlation functions of these perturbations and prove that Minkowski spacetime is a stable solution of semiclassical gravity. Second, we discuss structure formation from the stochastic-gravity viewpoint, which can go beyond the standard treatment by incorporating the full quantum effect of the inflaton fluctuations. Third, using the Einstein–Langevin equation, we discuss the backreaction of Hawking radiation and the behavior of metric fluctuations for both the quasi-equilibrium condition of a black-hole in a box and the fully nonequilibrium condition of an evaporating black hole spacetime. Finally, we briefly discuss the theoretical structure of stochastic gravity in relation to quantum gravity and point out

Topics in string theory and quantum gravity

CERN Document Server

Alvarez-Gaume, Luis

1992-01-01

These are the lecture notes for the Les Houches Summer School on Quantum Gravity held in July 1992. The notes present some general critical assessment of other (non-string) approaches to quantum gravity, and a selected set of topics concerning what we have learned so far about the subject from string theory. Since these lectures are long (133 A4 pages), we include in this abstract the table of contents, which should help the user of the bulletin board in deciding whether to latex and print the full file. 1-FIELD THEORETICAL APPROACH TO QUANTUM GRAVITY: Linearized gravity; Supergravity; Kaluza-Klein theories; Quantum field theory and classical gravity; Euclidean approach to Quantum Gravity; Canonical quantization of gravity; Gravitational Instantons. 2-CONSISTENCY CONDITIONS: ANOMALIES: Generalities about anomalies; Spinors in 2n dimensions; When can we expect to find anomalies?; The Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem and the computation of anomalies; Examples: Green-Schwarz cancellation mechanism and Witten's SU(2) ...

Light fermions in quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eichhorn, Astrid; Gies, Holger

2011-01-01

We study the impact of quantum gravity, formulated as a quantum field theory of the metric, on chiral symmetry in a fermionic matter sector. Specifically we address the question of whether metric fluctuations can induce chiral symmetry breaking and bound state formation. Our results based on the functional renormalization group indicate that chiral symmetry is left intact even at strong gravitational coupling. In particular, we found that asymptotically safe quantum gravity where the gravitational couplings approach a non-Gaußian fixed point generically admits universes with light fermions. Our results thus further support quantum gravity theories built on fluctuations of the metric field such as the asymptotic-safety scenario. A study of chiral symmetry breaking through gravitational quantum effects may also serve as a significant benchmark test for other quantum gravity scenarios, since a completely broken chiral symmetry at the Planck scale would not be in accordance with the observation of light fermions in our universe. We demonstrate that this elementary observation already imposes constraints on a generic UV completion of gravity. (paper)

The Juno Gravity Science Instrument

Science.gov (United States)

Asmar, Sami W.; Bolton, Scott J.; Buccino, Dustin R.; Cornish, Timothy P.; Folkner, William M.; Formaro, Roberto; Iess, Luciano; Jongeling, Andre P.; Lewis, Dorothy K.; Mittskus, Anthony P.; Mukai, Ryan; Simone, Lorenzo

2017-11-01

The Juno mission's primary science objectives include the investigation of Jupiter interior structure via the determination of its gravitational field. Juno will provide more accurate determination of Jupiter's gravity harmonics that will provide new constraints on interior structure models. Juno will also measure the gravitational response from tides raised on Jupiter by Galilean satellites. This is accomplished by utilizing Gravity Science instrumentation to support measurements of the Doppler shift of the Juno radio signal by NASA's Deep Space Network at two radio frequencies. The Doppler data measure the changes in the spacecraft velocity in the direction to Earth caused by the Jupiter gravity field. Doppler measurements at X-band (˜ 8 GHz) are supported by the spacecraft telecommunications subsystem for command and telemetry and are used for spacecraft navigation as well as Gravity Science. The spacecraft also includes a Ka-band (˜ 32 GHz) translator and amplifier specifically for the Gravity Science investigation contributed by the Italian Space Agency. The use of two radio frequencies allows for improved accuracy by removal of noise due to charged particles along the radio signal path.

Experimental tests of relativistic gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Damour, Thibault

2000-01-01

The confrontation between Einstein's gravitation theory and experimental results, notably binary pulsar data, is summarized and its significance discussed. Experiment and theory agree at the 10 -3 level or better. All the basic structures of Einstein's theory (coupling of gravity matter; propagation and self-interaction of the gravitational field, including in strong field conditions) have been verified. However, the theoretical possibility that scalar couplings be naturally driven toward zero by the cosmological expansion suggests that the present agreement between Einstein's theory and experiment might be compatible with the existence of a long-range scalar contribution to gravity (such as the dilation field, or a moduli field, of string theory). This provides a new theoretical paradigm, and new motivations for improving the experimental tests of gravity

Data reduction and tying in regional gravity surveys—results from a new gravity base station network and the Bouguer gravity anomaly map for northeastern Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Hurtado-Cardador, Manuel; Urrutia-Fucugauchi, Jaime

2006-12-01

Since 1947 Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has conducted oil exploration projects using potential field methods. Geophysical exploration companies under contracts with Pemex carried out gravity anomaly surveys that were referred to different floating data. Each survey comprises observations of gravity stations along highways, roads and trails at intervals of about 500 m. At present, 265 separate gravimeter surveys that cover 60% of the Mexican territory (mainly in the oil producing regions of Mexico) are available. This gravity database represents the largest, highest spatial resolution information, and consequently has been used in the geophysical data compilations for the Mexico and North America gravity anomaly maps. Regional integration of gravimeter surveys generates gradients and spurious anomalies in the Bouguer anomaly maps at the boundaries of the connected surveys due to the different gravity base stations utilized. The main objective of this study is to refer all gravimeter surveys from Pemex to a single new first-order gravity base station network, in order to eliminate problems of gradients and spurious anomalies. A second objective is to establish a network of permanent gravity base stations (BGP), referred to a single base from the World Gravity System. Four regional loops of BGP covering eight States of Mexico were established to support the tie of local gravity base stations from each of the gravimeter surveys located in the vicinity of these loops. The third objective is to add the gravity constants, measured and calculated, for each of the 265 gravimeter surveys to their corresponding files in the Pemex and Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo database. The gravity base used as the common datum is the station SILAG 9135-49 (Latin American System of Gravity) located in the National Observatory of Tacubaya in Mexico City. We present the results of the installation of a new gravity base network in northeastern Mexico, reference of the 43 gravimeter surveys

Is there a quantum theory of gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strominger, A.

1984-01-01

The paper concerns attempts to construct a unitary, renormalizable quantum field theory of gravity. Renormalizability and unitarity in quantum gravity; the 1/N expansion; 1/D expansions; and quantum gravity and particle physics; are all discussed. (U.K.)

Gravity a very short introduction

CERN Document Server

Clifton, Timothy

2017-01-01

Gravity is one of the four fundamental interactions that exist in nature. It also has the distinction of being the oldest, weakest, and most difficult force to quantize. Understanding gravity is not only essential for understanding the motion of objects on Earth, but also the motion of all celestial objects, and even the expansion of the Universe itself. It was the study of gravity that led Einstein to his profound realizations about the nature of space and time. Gravity is not only universal, it is also essential for understanding the behavior of the Universe, and all astrophysical bodies within it. In this Very Short Introduction Timothy Clifton looks at the development of our understanding of gravity since the early observations of Kepler and Newtonian theory. He discusses Einstein's theory of gravity, which now supplants Newton's, showing how it allows us to understand why the frequency of light changes as it passes through a gravitational field, why GPS satellites need their clocks corrected as they orbi...

Seasonal and Static Gravity Field of Mars from MGS, Mars Odyssey and MRO Radio Science

Science.gov (United States)

Genova, Antonio; Goossens, Sander; Lemoine, Frank G.; Mazarico, Erwan; Neumann, Gregory A.; Smith, David E.; Zuber, Maria T.

2016-01-01

We present a spherical harmonic solution of the static gravity field of Mars to degree and order 120, GMM-3, that has been calculated using the Deep Space Network tracking data of the NASA Mars missions, Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), Mars Odyssey (ODY), and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). We have also jointly determined spherical harmonic solutions for the static and time-variable gravity field of Mars, and the Mars k 2 Love numbers, exclusive of the gravity contribution of the atmosphere. Consequently, the retrieved time-varying gravity coefficients and the Love number k 2 solely yield seasonal variations in the mass of the polar caps and the solid tides of Mars, respectively. We obtain a Mars Love number k 2 of 0.1697 +/-0.0027 (3- sigma). The inclusion of MRO tracking data results in improved seasonal gravity field coefficients C 30 and, for the first time, C 50 . Refinements of the atmospheric model in our orbit determination program have allowed us to monitor the odd zonal harmonic C 30 for approx.1.5 solar cycles (16 years). This gravity model shows improved correlations with MOLA topography up to 15% larger at higher harmonics ( l = 60–80) than previous solutions.

Horizon thermodynamics and gravitational field equations in Horava-Lifshitz gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cai Ronggen; Ohta, Nobuyoshi

2010-01-01

We explore the relationship between the first law of thermodynamics and gravitational field equation at a static, spherically symmetric black hole horizon in Horava-Lifshitz theory with/without detailed balance. It turns out that as in the cases of Einstein gravity and Lovelock gravity, the gravitational field equation can be cast to a form of the first law of thermodynamics at the black hole horizon. This way we obtain the expressions for entropy and mass in terms of black hole horizon, consistent with those from other approaches. We also define a generalized Misner-Sharp energy for static, spherically symmetric spacetimes in Horava-Lifshitz theory. The generalized Misner-Sharp energy is conserved in the case without matter field, and its variation gives the first law of black hole thermodynamics at the black hole horizon.

Gravity, Topography, and Magnetic Field of Mercury from Messenger

Science.gov (United States)

Neumann, Gregory A.; Solomon, Sean C.; Zuber, Maria T.; Phillips, Roger J.; Barnouin, Olivier; Ernst, Carolyn; Goosens, Sander; Hauck, Steven A., II; Head, James W., III; Johnson, Catherine L.;

GRIM5-C1: Combination solution of the global gravity field to degree and order 120

Science.gov (United States)

Gruber, Thomas; Bode, Albert; Reigber, Christoph; Schwintzer, Peter; Balmino, Georges; Biancale, Richard; Lemoine, Jean-Michel

2000-12-01

The new satellite Earth gravity field model GRIM5-S1 was recently prepared in a joint GFZ and GRGS effort. Based on this satellite solution and terrestrial and altimetric gravity anomalies from NIMA, a combined model GRIM5-C1, with full variance-covariance matrix up to degree and order 120, was computed. Surface gravity and altimetric gravity data are corrected for several systematic effects, such as ellipsoidal corrections and aliasing. A weighting scheme for gravity anomalies, according to their given standard deviations was developed. From each data set full normal equations were set up and finally combined with the GRIM5-S1 normals. To take into account good information from the satellite-only model a procedure was developed to identify such coefficients and appropriately weighed them in the final normal equation system. Internal error propagation and comparisons to external data sets show, that the GRIM5-C1 model represents the best state of long wavelength gravity field models.

Gravity Field Interpretation for Major Fault Depth Detection in a Region Located SW- Qa’im / Iraq

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wadhah Mahmood Shakir Al-Khafaji

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This research deals with the qualitative and quantitative interpretation of Bouguer gravity anomaly data for a region located to the SW of Qa’im City within Anbar province by using 2D- mapping methods. The gravity residual field obtained graphically by subtracting the Regional Gravity values from the values of the total Bouguer anomaly. The residual gravity field processed in order to reduce noise by applying the gradient operator and 1st directional derivatives filtering. This was helpful in assigning the locations of sudden variation in Gravity values. Such variations may be produced by subsurface faults, fractures, cavities or subsurface facies lateral variations limits. A major fault was predicted to extend with the direction NE-SW. This fault is mentioned by previous studies as undefined subsurface fault depth within the sedimentary cover rocks. The results of this research that were obtained by gravity quantitative interpretation find that the depth to this major fault plane center is about 2.4 Km.

Topological strings from Liouville gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishibashi, N.; Li, M.

1991-01-01

We study constrained SU(2) WZW models, which realize a class of two-dimensional conformal field theories. We show that they give rise to topological gravity coupled to the topological minimal models when they are coupled to Liouville gravity. (orig.)

A GOCE-only global gravity field model by the space-wise approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Migliaccio, Frederica; Reguzzoni, Mirko; Gatti, Andrea

2011-01-01

The global gravity field model computed by the spacewise approach is one of three official solutions delivered by ESA from the analysis of the GOCE data. The model consists of a set of spherical harmonic coefficients and the corresponding error covariance matrix. The main idea behind this approach...... the orbit to reduce the noise variance and correlation before gridding the data. In the first release of the space-wise approach, based on a period of about two months, some prior information coming from existing gravity field models entered into the solution especially at low degrees and low orders...... degrees; the second is an internally computed GOCE-only prior model to be used in place of the official quick-look model, thus removing the dependency on EIGEN5C especially in the polar gaps. Once the procedure to obtain a GOCE-only solution has been outlined, a new global gravity field model has been...

Emergent Abelian Gauge Fields from Noncommutative Gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Allen Stern

2010-02-01

Full Text Available We construct exact solutions to noncommutative gravity following the formulation of Chamseddine and show that they are in general accompanied by Abelian gauge fields which are first order in the noncommutative scale. This provides a mechanism for generating cosmological electromagnetic fields in an expanding space-time background, and also leads to multipole-like fields surrounding black holes. Exact solutions to noncommutative Einstein-Maxwell theory can give rise to first order corrections to the metric tensor, as well as to the electromagnetic fields. This leads to first order shifts in the horizons of charged black holes.

Massive Gravity

OpenAIRE

de Rham, Claudia

2014-01-01

We review recent progress in massive gravity. We start by showing how different theories of massive gravity emerge from a higher-dimensional theory of general relativity, leading to the Dvali–Gabadadze–Porrati model (DGP), cascading gravity, and ghost-free massive gravity. We then explore their theoretical and phenomenological consistency, proving the absence of Boulware–Deser ghosts and reviewing the Vainshtein mechanism and the cosmological solutions in these models. Finally, we present alt...

High Performance Clocks and Gravity Field Determination

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, J.; Dirkx, D.; Kopeikin, S. M.; Lion, G.; Panet, I.; Petit, G.; Visser, P. N. A. M.

2018-02-01

Time measured by an ideal clock crucially depends on the gravitational potential and velocity of the clock according to general relativity. Technological advances in manufacturing high-precision atomic clocks have rapidly improved their accuracy and stability over the last decade that approached the level of 10^{-18}. This notable achievement along with the direct sensitivity of clocks to the strength of the gravitational field make them practically important for various geodetic applications that are addressed in the present paper. Based on a fully relativistic description of the background gravitational physics, we discuss the impact of those highly-precise clocks on the realization of reference frames and time scales used in geodesy. We discuss the current definitions of basic geodetic concepts and come to the conclusion that the advances in clocks and other metrological technologies will soon require the re-definition of time scales or, at least, clarification to ensure their continuity and consistent use in practice. The relative frequency shift between two clocks is directly related to the difference in the values of the gravity potential at the points of clock's localization. According to general relativity the relative accuracy of clocks in 10^{-18} is equivalent to measuring the gravitational red shift effect between two clocks with the height difference amounting to 1 cm. This makes the clocks an indispensable tool in high-precision geodesy in addition to laser ranging and space geodetic techniques. We show how clock measurements can provide geopotential numbers for the realization of gravity-field-related height systems and can resolve discrepancies in classically-determined height systems as well as between national height systems. Another application of clocks is the direct use of observed potential differences for the improved recovery of regional gravity field solutions. Finally, clock measurements for space-borne gravimetry are analyzed along with

Conformal Gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hooft, G.

2012-01-01

The dynamical degree of freedom for the gravitational force is the metric tensor, having 10 locally independent degrees of freedom (of which 4 can be used to fix the coordinate choice). In conformal gravity, we split this field into an overall scalar factor and a nine-component remainder. All unrenormalizable infinities are in this remainder, while the scalar component can be handled like any other scalar field such as the Higgs field. In this formalism, conformal symmetry is spontaneously broken. An imperative demand on any healthy quantum gravity theory is that black holes should be described as quantum systems with micro-states as dictated by the Hawking-Bekenstein theory. This requires conformal symmetry that may be broken spontaneously but not explicitly, and this means that all conformal anomalies must cancel out. Cancellation of conformal anomalies yields constraints on the matter sector as described by some universal field theory. Thus black hole physics may eventually be of help in the construction of unified field theories. (author)

On the use of airborne gravimetry in gravity field modelling: Experiences from the AGMASCO project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bastos, L.; Cunha, S.; Forsberg, René

2000-01-01

of the vertical accelerations acting on the airborne platform from the natural gravity signal. With the advances in DGPS techniques new prospects arise for gravity field recovery which are of great importance for geodesy, geophysics oceanography and satellite navigation. Furthermore, airborne gravimetric...... and the methods validated. Recovery of the gravity values directly from measurements with the Lacoste & Romberg air/sea gravimeter and from measurements with the inertial sensors was analysed. The potential of these sensors to recover gravity and the experience gained within this project are reported here....

Zero-gravity movement studies

Science.gov (United States)

Badler, N. I.; Fishwick, P.; Taft, N.; Agrawala, M.

1985-01-01

The use of computer graphics to simulate the movement of articulated animals and mechanisms has a number of uses ranging over many fields. Human motion simulation systems can be useful in education, medicine, anatomy, physiology, and dance. In biomechanics, computer displays help to understand and analyze performance. Simulations can be used to help understand the effect of external or internal forces. Similarly, zero-gravity simulation systems should provide a means of designing and exploring the capabilities of hypothetical zero-gravity situations before actually carrying out such actions. The advantage of using a simulation of the motion is that one can experiment with variations of a maneuver before attempting to teach it to an individual. The zero-gravity motion simulation problem can be divided into two broad areas: human movement and behavior in zero-gravity, and simulation of articulated mechanisms.

Subduction zones seen by GOCE gravity gradients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Švarc, Mario; Herceg, Matija; Cammarano, Fabio

In this study, the GOCE (Gravity field and steady state Ocean Circulation Explorer) gradiometry data were used to study geologic structures and mass variations within the lithosphere in areas of known subduction zones. The advantage of gravity gradiometry over other gravity methods is that gradie...

Separation of Non-metallic Inclusions from a Fe-Al-O Melt Using a Super-Gravity Field

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Gaoyang; Song, Bo; Guo, Zhancheng; Yang, Yuhou; Song, Mingming

2018-02-01

An innovative method for separating non-metallic inclusions from a high temperature melt using super gravity was systematically investigated. To explore the separation behavior of inclusion particles with densities less than that of metal liquid under a super-gravity field, a Fe-Al-O melt containing Al2O3 particles was treated with different gravity coefficients. Al2O3 particles migrated rapidly towards the reverse direction of the super gravity and gathered in the upper region of the sample. It was hard to find any inclusion particles with sizes greater than 2 μm in the middle and bottom areas. Additionally, the oxygen content in the middle region of the sample could be reduced to 0.0022 mass pct and the maximum removal rate of the oxygen content reached 61.4 pct. The convection in the melt along the direction of the super gravity was not generated by the super-gravity field, and the fluid velocity in the molten melt consisted only of the rotating tangential velocity. Moreover, the motion behavior of the Al2O3 particles was approximatively determined by Stokes' law along the direction of super gravity.

Preprocessing of gravity gradients at the GOCE high-level processing facility

Science.gov (United States)

Bouman, Johannes; Rispens, Sietse; Gruber, Thomas; Koop, Radboud; Schrama, Ernst; Visser, Pieter; Tscherning, Carl Christian; Veicherts, Martin

2009-07-01

One of the products derived from the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) observations are the gravity gradients. These gravity gradients are provided in the gradiometer reference frame (GRF) and are calibrated in-flight using satellite shaking and star sensor data. To use these gravity gradients for application in Earth scienes and gravity field analysis, additional preprocessing needs to be done, including corrections for temporal gravity field signals to isolate the static gravity field part, screening for outliers, calibration by comparison with existing external gravity field information and error assessment. The temporal gravity gradient corrections consist of tidal and nontidal corrections. These are all generally below the gravity gradient error level, which is predicted to show a 1/ f behaviour for low frequencies. In the outlier detection, the 1/ f error is compensated for by subtracting a local median from the data, while the data error is assessed using the median absolute deviation. The local median acts as a high-pass filter and it is robust as is the median absolute deviation. Three different methods have been implemented for the calibration of the gravity gradients. All three methods use a high-pass filter to compensate for the 1/ f gravity gradient error. The baseline method uses state-of-the-art global gravity field models and the most accurate results are obtained if star sensor misalignments are estimated along with the calibration parameters. A second calibration method uses GOCE GPS data to estimate a low-degree gravity field model as well as gravity gradient scale factors. Both methods allow to estimate gravity gradient scale factors down to the 10-3 level. The third calibration method uses high accurate terrestrial gravity data in selected regions to validate the gravity gradient scale factors, focussing on the measurement band. Gravity gradient scale factors may be estimated down to the 10-2 level with this

PPN-limit of Fourth Order Gravity inspired by Scalar-Tensor Gravity

OpenAIRE

Capozziello, S.; Troisi, A.

2005-01-01

Based on the {\\it dynamical} equivalence between higher order gravity and scalar-tensor gravity the PPN-limit of fourth order gravity is discussed. We exploit this analogy developing a fourth order gravity version of the Eddington PPN-parameters. As a result, Solar System experiments can be reconciled with higher order gravity, if physical constraints descending from experiments are fulfilled.

3D quantum gravity and effective noncommutative quantum field theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Freidel, Laurent; Livine, Etera R

2006-06-09

We show that the effective dynamics of matter fields coupled to 3D quantum gravity is described after integration over the gravitational degrees of freedom by a braided noncommutative quantum field theory symmetric under a kappa deformation of the Poincaré group.

Heat transfer to liquid sodium in a straight duct in the presence of a transverse magnetic field and a gravity field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Majid, A.

1998-01-01

Heat transfer to liquid sodium in the presence of a transverse magnetic field and gravity field was analyzed in a square cross section straight duct. The duct had conducting vanadium walls. Magnetohydrodynamic equations in three dimensions and energy equation in three dimensions in cartesian coordinate system were solved. Firstly Nusselt number was calculated with no magnetic field and gravity field. Secondly the Nusselt number was calculated for the case of transverse magnetic field acting on the fluid. Thirdly Nusselt number was calculated for the case of transverse magnetic field and gravity field acting on the fluid. Only one face of the channel was heated. It was found that Nusselt number is not sensitive to application of gravity field and is slightly sensitive to application of transverse magnetic field. The sensitivity of Nusselt number to magnetic field intensity becomes almost negligible after increasing the strength of magnetic field to 0.1 Tesla. (author)

Combination of monthly gravity field solutions from different processing centers

Science.gov (United States)

Jean, Yoomin; Meyer, Ulrich; Jäggi, Adrian

2015-04-01

Currently, the official GRACE Science Data System (SDS) monthly gravity field solutions are generated independently by the Centre for Space Research (CSR) and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). Additional GRACE SDS monthly fields are provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for validation and outside the SDS by a number of other institutions worldwide. Although the adopted background models and processing standards have been harmonized more and more by the various processing centers during the past years, notable differences still exist and the users are more or less left alone with a decision which model to choose for their individual applications. Combinations are well-established in the area of other space geodetic techniques, such as the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), where regular comparisons and combinations of space-geodetic products have tremendously increased the usefulness of the products in a wide range of disciplines and scientific applications. In the frame of the recently started Horizon 2020 project European Gravity Service for Improved Emergency Management (EGSIEM), a scientific combination service shall therefore be established to deliver the best gravity products for applications in Earth and environmental science research based on the unified knowledge of the European GRACE community. In a first step the large variety of available monthly GRACE gravity field solutions shall be mutually compared spatially and spectrally. We assess the noise of the raw as well as filtered solutions and compare the secular and seasonal periodic variations fitted to the monthly solutions. In a second step we will explore ways to generate combined solutions, e.g., based on a weighted average of the individual solutions using empirical weights derived from pair-wise comparisons. We will also assess the quality of such a combined solution and discuss the

Computing black hole entropy in loop quantum gravity from a conformal field theory perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agulló, Iván; Borja, Enrique F.; Díaz-Polo, Jacobo

2009-01-01

Motivated by the analogy proposed by Witten between Chern-Simons and conformal field theories, we explore an alternative way of computing the entropy of a black hole starting from the isolated horizon framework in loop quantum gravity. The consistency of the result opens a window for the interplay between conformal field theory and the description of black holes in loop quantum gravity

Equivalence of two-dimensional gravities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohammedi, N.

1990-01-01

The authors find the relationship between the Jackiw-Teitelboim model of two-dimensional gravity and the SL(2,R) induced gravity. These are shown to be related to a two-dimensional gauge theory obtained by dimensionally reducing the Chern-Simons action of the 2 + 1 dimensional gravity. The authors present an explicit solution to the equations of motion of the auxiliary field of the Jackiw-Teitelboim model in the light-cone gauge. A renormalization of the cosmological constant is also given

New 3D Gravity Model of the Lithosphere and new Approach of the Gravity Field Transformation in the Western Carpathian-Pannonian Region

Science.gov (United States)

Bielik, M.; Tasarova, Z. A.; Goetze, H.; Mikuska, J.; Pasteka, R.

2007-12-01

The 3-D forward modeling was performed for the Western Carpathians and the Pannonian Basin system. The density model includes 31 cross-sections, extends to depth of 220 km. By means of the combined 3-D modeling, new estimates of the density distribution of the crust and upper mantle, as well as depths of the Moho were derived. These data allowed to perform gravity stripping, which in the area of the Pannonian Basin is crucial for the signal analysis of the gravity field. In this region, namely, two pronounced features (i.e. the deep sedimentary basins and shallow Moho) with opposite gravity effects make it impossible to analyze the Bouguer anomaly by field separation or filtering. The results revealed a significantly different nature of the Western Carpathian- Pannonian region (ALACAPA and Tisza-Dacia microplates) from the European Platform lithosphere (i.e. these microplates to be much less dense than the surrounding European Platform lithosphere). The calculation of the transformed gravity maps by means of new method provided the additional information on the lithospheric structure. The use of existing elevation information represents an independent approach to the problem of transformation of gravity maps. Instead of standard separation and transformation methods both in wave-number and spatial domains, this method is based on the estimating of really existing linear trends within the values of complete Bouguer anomalies (CBA), which are understood as a function defined in 3D space. An important assumption that the points with known input values of CBA lie on a horizontal plane is therefore not required. Instead, the points with known CBA and elevation values are treated in their original positions, i.e. on the Earth surface.

Cold Atom Interferometers Used In Space (CAIUS) for Measuring the Earth's Gravity Field

Science.gov (United States)

Carraz, O.; Luca, M.; Siemes, C.; Haagmans, R.; Silvestrin, P.

2016-12-01

In the past decades, it has been shown that atomic quantum sensors are a newly emerging technology that can be used for measuring the Earth's gravity field. There are two ways of making use of that technology: One is a gravity gradiometer concept and the other is in a low-low satellite-to-satellite ranging concept. Whereas classical accelerometers typically suffer from high noise at low frequencies, Cold Atom Interferometers are highly accurate over the entire frequency range. We recently proposed a concept using cold atom interferometers for measuring all diagonal elements of the gravity gradient tensor and the full spacecraft angular velocity in order to achieve better performance than the GOCE gradiometer over a larger part of the spectrum, with the ultimate goals of determining the fine structures in the gravity field better than today. This concept relies on a high common mode rejection, which relaxes the drag free control compare to GOCE mission, and benefits from a long interaction time with the free falling clouds of atoms due to the micro gravity environment in space as opposed to the 1-g environment on-ground. Other concept is also being studied in the frame of NGGM, which relies on the hybridization between quantum and classical techniques to improve the performance of accelerometers. This could be achieved as it is realized in frequency measurements where quartz oscillators are phase locked on atomic or optical clocks. This technique could correct the spectrally colored noise of the electrostatic accelerometers in the lower frequencies. In both cases, estimation of the Earth gravity field model from the instruments has to be evaluated taking into account different system parameters such as attitude control, altitude of the satellite, time duration of the mission, etc. Miniaturization, lower consumptions and upgrading Technical Readiness Level are the key engineering challenges that have to be faced for these space quantum technologie.

Physics of trans-Planckian gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dvali, Gia; Folkerts, Sarah; Germani, Cristiano

2011-01-01

We study the field theoretical description of a generic theory of gravity flowing to Einstein general relativity in IR. We prove that, if ghost-free, in the weakly-coupled regime such a theory can never become weaker than general relativity. Using this fact, as a by-product, we suggest that in a ghost-free theory of gravity trans-Planckian propagating quantum degrees of freedom cannot exist. The only physical meaning of a trans-Planckian pole is the one of a classical state (black hole) which is described by the light IR quantum degrees of freedom and gives exponentially-suppressed contributions to virtual processes. In this picture Einstein gravity is UV self-complete, although not Wilsonian, and sub-Planckian distances are unobservable in any healthy theory of gravity. We then finally show that this UV/IR correspondence puts a severe constraint on any attempt of conventional Wilsonian UV-completion of trans-Planckian gravity. Specifically, there is no well-defined energy domain in which gravity could become asymptotically weak or safe.

Quantum field theory II introductions to quantum gravity, supersymmetry and string theory

CERN Document Server

Manoukian, Edouard B

2016-01-01

This book takes a pedagogical approach to explaining quantum gravity, supersymmetry and string theory in a coherent way. It is aimed at graduate students and researchers in quantum field theory and high-energy physics. The first part of the book introduces quantum gravity, without requiring previous knowledge of general relativity (GR). The necessary geometrical aspects are derived afresh leading to explicit general Lagrangians for gravity, including that of general relativity. The quantum aspect of gravitation, as described by the graviton, is introduced and perturbative quantum GR is discussed. The Schwinger-DeWitt formalism is developed to compute the one-loop contribution to the theory and renormalizability aspects of the perturbative theory are also discussed. This follows by introducing only the very basics of a non-perturbative, background-independent, formulation of quantum gravity, referred to as “loop quantum gravity”, which gives rise to a quantization of space. In the second part the author in...

Application of Cauchy-type integrals in developing effective methods for depth-to-basement inversion of gravity and gravity gradiometry data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cai, Hongzhu; Zhdanov, Michael

2015-01-01

to be discretized for the calculation of gravity field. This was especially significant in the modeling and inversion of gravity data for determining the depth to the basement. Another important result was developing a novel method of inversion of gravity data to recover the depth to basement, based on the 3D...... Cauchy-type integral representation. Our numerical studies determined that the new method is much faster than conventional volume discretization method to compute the gravity response. Our synthetic model studies also showed that the developed inversion algorithm based on Cauchy-type integral is capable......One of the most important applications of gravity surveys in regional geophysical studies is determining the depth to basement. Conventional methods of solving this problem are based on the spectrum and/or Euler deconvolution analysis of the gravity field and on parameterization of the earth...

Lanczos-Lovelock gravity from a thermodynamic perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chakraborty, Sumanta

2015-01-01

The deep connection between gravitational dynamics and horizon thermodynamics leads to several intriguing features both in general relativity and in Lanczos-Lovelock theories of gravity. Recently in http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.3253 several additional results strengthening the above connection have been established within the framework of general relativity. In this work we provide a generalization of the above setup to Lanczos-Lovelock gravity as well. To our expectation it turns out that most of the results obtained in the context of general relativity generalize to Lanczos-Lovelock gravity in a straightforward but non-trivial manner. First, we provide an alternative and more general derivation of the connection between Noether charge for a specific time evolution vector field and gravitational heat density of the boundary surface. This will lead to holographic equipartition for static spacetimes in Lanczos-Lovelock gravity as well. Taking a cue from this, we have introduced naturally defined four-momentum current associated with gravity and matter energy momentum tensor for both Lanczos-Lovelock Lagrangian and its quadratic part. Then, we consider the concepts of Noether charge for null boundaries in Lanczos-Lovelock gravity by providing a direct generalization of previous results derived in the context of general relativity. Another very interesting feature for gravity is that gravitational field equations for arbitrary static and spherically symmetric spacetimes with horizon can be written as a thermodynamic identity in the near horizon limit. This result holds in both general relativity and in Lanczos-Lovelock gravity as well. In a previous work [http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.05297] we have shown that, for an arbitrary spacetime, the gravitational field equations near any null surface generically leads to a thermodynamic identity. In this work, we have also generalized this result to Lanczos-Lovelock gravity by showing that gravitational field equations for Lanczos

Gravity field and ocean tides modeling for precise orbit determination of doris satellites

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Štěpánek, P.; Bezděk, Aleš; Kostelecký, J.; Filler, V.

2016-01-01

Roč. 13, č. 1 (2016), s. 27-40 ISSN 1214-9705 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LG14026 Grant - others:GA ČR(CZ) GC15-24730J Institutional support: RVO:67985815 Keywords : gravity field truncation degree * ocean tides * time variable gravity Subject RIV: BN - Astronomy, Celestial Mechanics, Astrophysics Impact factor: 0.699, year: 2016

Scalar field collapse in Gauss-Bonnet gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Banerjee, Narayan; Paul, Tanmoy

2018-02-01

We consider a "scalar-Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet" theory in four dimension, where the scalar field couples non-minimally with the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) term. This coupling with the scalar field ensures the non-topological character of the GB term. In this scenario, we examine the possibility for collapsing of the scalar field. Our result reveals that such a collapse is possible in the presence of Gauss-Bonnet gravity for suitable choices of parametric regions. The singularity formed as a result of the collapse is found to be a curvature singularity which is hidden from the exterior by an apparent horizon.

Matter Loops Corrected Modified Gravity in Palatini Formulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meng Xinhe; Wang Peng

2008-01-01

Recently, corrections to the standard Einstein-Hilbert action were proposed to explain the current cosmic acceleration in stead of introducing dark energy. In the Palatini formulation of those modified gravity models, there is an important observation due to Arkani-Hamed: matter loops will give rise to a correction to the modified gravity action proportional to the Ricci scalar of the metric. In the presence of such a term, we show that the current forms of modified gravity models in Palatini formulation, specifically, the 1/R gravity and ln R gravity, will have phantoms. Then we study the possible instabilities due to the presence of phantom fields. We show that the strong instability in the metric formulation of 1/R gravity indicated by Dolgov and Kawasaki will not appear and the decay timescales for the phantom fields may be long enough for the theories to make sense as effective field theory. On the other hand, if we change the sign of the modification terms to eliminate the phantoms, some other inconsistencies will arise for the various versions of the modified gravity models. Finally, we comment on the universal property of the Palatini formulation of the matter loops corrected modified gravity models and its implications

Discussion of entanglement entropy in quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma, Chen-Te

2018-01-01

We study entanglement entropy in gravity theory with quantum effects. A simplest model is a two dimensional Einstein gravity theory. We use an n-sheet manifold to obtain an area term of entanglement entropy by summing over all background fields. Based on AdS/CFT correspondence, strongly coupled conformal field theory is expected to describe perturbative quantum gravity theory. An ultraviolet complete quantum gravity theory should not depend on a choice of an entangling surface. To analysis the problem explicitly, we analyze two dimensional conformal field theory. We find that a coefficient of a universal term of entanglement entropy is independent of a choice of an entangling surface in two dimensional conformal field theory for one interval to show a tentative evidence. Finally, we discuss that translational invariance in a quantum system at zero temperature, size goes to infinity and no mass scales, except for cut-off, possibly be a necessary condition in quantum gravity theory by ruing out a volume law of entanglement entropy. (copyright 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

High resolution Slovak Bouguer gravity anomaly map and its enhanced derivative transformations: new possibilities for interpretation of anomalous gravity fields

Science.gov (United States)

Pašteka, Roman; Zahorec, Pavol; Kušnirák, David; Bošanský, Marián; Papčo, Juraj; Szalaiová, Viktória; Krajňák, Martin; Ivan, Marušiak; Mikuška, Ján; Bielik, Miroslav

2017-06-01

The paper deals with the revision and enrichment of the present gravimetric database of the Slovak Republic. The output of this process is a new version of the complete Bouguer anomaly (CBA) field on our territory. Thanks to the taking into account of more accurate terrain corrections, this field has significantly higher quality and higher resolution capabilities. The excellent features of this map will allow us to re-evaluate and improve the qualitative interpretation of the gravity field when researching the structural and tectonic geology of the Western Carpathian lithosphere. In the contribution we also analyse the field of the new CBA based on the properties of various transformed fields - in particular the horizontal gradient, which by its local maximums defines important density boundaries in the lateral direction. All original and new transformed maps make a significant contribution to improving the geological interpretation of the CBA field. Except for the horizontal gradient field, we are also interested in a new special transformation of TDXAS, which excellently separates various detected anomalies of gravity field and improves their lateral delimitation.

Superconducting gravity gradiometer for sensitive gravity measurements. I. Theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan, H.A.; Paik, H.J.

1987-01-01

Because of the equivalence principle, a global measurement is necessary to distinguish gravity from acceleration of the reference frame. A gravity gradiometer is therefore an essential instrument needed for precision tests of gravity laws and for applications in gravity survey and inertial navigation. Superconductivity and SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) technology can be used to obtain a gravity gradiometer with very high sensitivity and stability. A superconducting gravity gradiometer has been developed for a null test of the gravitational inverse-square law and space-borne geodesy. Here we present a complete theoretical model of this instrument. Starting from dynamical equations for the device, we derive transfer functions, a common mode rejection characteristic, and an error model of the superconducting instrument. Since a gradiometer must detect a very weak differential gravity signal in the midst of large platform accelerations and other environmental disturbances, the scale factor and common mode rejection stability of the instrument are extremely important in addition to its immunity to temperature and electromagnetic fluctuations. We show how flux quantization, the Meissner effect, and properties of liquid helium can be utilized to meet these challenges

Gravitational field of static p -branes in linearized ghost-free gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Boos, Jens; Frolov, Valeri P.; Zelnikov, Andrei

2018-04-01

We study the gravitational field of static p -branes in D -dimensional Minkowski space in the framework of linearized ghost-free (GF) gravity. The concrete models of GF gravity we consider are parametrized by the nonlocal form factors exp (-□/μ2) and exp (□2/μ4) , where μ-1 is the scale of nonlocality. We show that the singular behavior of the gravitational field of p -branes in general relativity is cured by short-range modifications introduced by the nonlocalities, and we derive exact expressions of the regularized gravitational fields, whose geometry can be written as a warped metric. For large distances compared to the scale of nonlocality, μ r →∞ , our solutions approach those found in linearized general relativity.

And what if gravity is intrinsically quantic ?

OpenAIRE

Ziaeepour, Houri

2009-01-01

Since the early days of search for a quantum theory of gravity the attempts have been mostly concentrated on the quantization of an otherwise classical system. The two most contentious candidate theories of gravity, sting theory and quantum loop gravity are based on a quantum field theory - the latter is a quantum field theory of connections on a SU(2) group manifold and former a quantum field theory in two dimensional spaces. Here we argue that there is a very close relation between quantum ...

Dualities and emergent gravity: Gauge/gravity duality

Science.gov (United States)

de Haro, Sebastian

2017-08-01

In this paper I develop a framework for relating dualities and emergence: two notions that are close to each other but also exclude one another. I adopt the conception of duality as 'isomorphism', from the physics literature, cashing it out in terms of three conditions. These three conditions prompt two conceptually different ways in which a duality can be modified to make room for emergence; and I argue that this exhausts the possibilities for combining dualities and emergence (via coarse-graining). I apply this framework to gauge/gravity dualities, considering in detail three examples: AdS/CFT, Verlinde's scheme, and black holes. My main point about gauge/gravity dualities is that the theories involved, qua theories of gravity, must be background-independent. I distinguish two senses of background-independence: (i) minimalistic and (ii) extended. I argue that the former is sufficiently strong to allow for a consistent theory of quantum gravity; and that AdS/CFT is background-independent on this account; while Verlinde's scheme best fits the extended sense of background-independence. I argue that this extended sense should be applied with some caution: on pain of throwing the baby (general relativity) out with the bath-water (extended background-independence). Nevertheless, it is an interesting and potentially fruitful heuristic principle for quantum gravity theory construction. It suggests some directions for possible generalisations of gauge/gravity dualities. The interpretation of dualities is discussed; and the so-called 'internal' vs. 'external' viewpoints are articulated in terms of: (i) epistemic and metaphysical commitments; (ii) parts vs. wholes. I then analyse the emergence of gravity in gauge/gravity dualities in terms of the two available conceptualisations of emergence; and I show how emergence in AdS/CFT and in Verlinde's scenario differ from each other. Finally, I give a novel derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy formula based on

Dark Matter in Quantum Gravity

OpenAIRE

Calmet, Xavier; Latosh, Boris

2018-01-01

We show that quantum gravity, whatever its ultra-violet completion might be, could account for dark matter. Indeed, besides the massless gravitational field recently observed in the form of gravitational waves, the spectrum of quantum gravity contains two massive fields respectively of spin 2 and spin 0. If these fields are long-lived, they could easily account for dark matter. In that case, dark matter would be very light and only gravitationally coupled to the standard model particles.

Curved backgrounds in emergent gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Chaurasia, Shikha; Erlich, Joshua; Zhou, Yiyu

2018-06-01

Field theories that are generally covariant but nongravitational at tree level typically give rise to an emergent gravitational interaction whose strength depends on a physical regulator. We consider emergent gravity models in which scalar fields assume the role of clock and rulers, addressing the problem of time in quantum gravity. We discuss the possibility of nontrivial dynamics for clock and ruler fields, and describe some of the consequences of those dynamics for the emergent gravitational theory.

High-resolution gravity model of Venus

Science.gov (United States)

Reasenberg, R. D.; Goldberg, Z. M.

1992-01-01

The anomalous gravity field of Venus shows high correlation with surface features revealed by radar. We extract gravity models from the Doppler tracking data from the Pioneer Venus Orbiter by means of a two-step process. In the first step, we solve the nonlinear spacecraft state estimation problem using a Kalman filter-smoother. The Kalman filter has been evaluated through simulations. This evaluation and some unusual features of the filter are discussed. In the second step, we perform a geophysical inversion using a linear Bayesian estimator. To allow an unbiased comparison between gravity and topography, we use a simulation technique to smooth and distort the radar topographic data so as to yield maps having the same characteristics as our gravity maps. The maps presented cover 2/3 of the surface of Venus and display the strong topography-gravity correlation previously reported. The topography-gravity scatter plots show two distinct trends.

Generalized Vaidya spacetime for cubic gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Ruan, Shan-Ming

2016-03-01

We present a kind of generalized Vaidya solution of a new cubic gravity in five dimensions whose field equations in spherically symmetric spacetime are always second order like the Lovelock gravity. We also study the thermodynamics of its spherically symmetric apparent horizon and get its entropy expression and generalized Misner-Sharp energy. Finally, we present the first law and second law hold in this gravity. Although all the results are analogous to those in Lovelock gravity, we in fact introduce the contribution of a new cubic term in five dimensions where the cubic Lovelock term is just zero.

From Discrete Gravity Survey Data to a High-resolution Gravity Field Representation in the Nordic-Baltic Region

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Märdla, Silja; Ågren, Jonas; Strykowski, Gabriel

2017-01-01

The deduction of a regularly spaced gravity anomaly grid from scattered survey data is studied, addressing mainly two aspects: reduction of gravity to anomalies and subsequent interpolation by various methods. The problem is illustrated in a heterogeneous study area and contrasting test areas inc...

The contributions of Bryce DeWitt to quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Isham, C.J.

1984-01-01

The paper reviews the work of Bryce DeWitt in the field of Quantum Gravity. Covariant commutators; R 2 lagrangians; DeWitt and Schwinger; gravity as a regulator; the full background field method; and the canonical quantization of gravity; are all discussed. (U.K.)

Is nonrelativistic gravity possible?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kocharyan, A. A.

2009-01-01

We study nonrelativistic gravity using the Hamiltonian formalism. For the dynamics of general relativity (relativistic gravity) the formalism is well known and called the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) formalism. We show that if the lapse function is constrained correctly, then nonrelativistic gravity is described by a consistent Hamiltonian system. Surprisingly, nonrelativistic gravity can have solutions identical to relativistic gravity ones. In particular, (anti-)de Sitter black holes of Einstein gravity and IR limit of Horava gravity are locally identical.

Drag-Free Motion Control of Satellite for High-Precision Gravity Field Mapping

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ziegler, Bent Lindvig; Blanke, Mogens

2002-01-01

High precision mapping of the geoid and the Earth's gravity field are of importance to a wide range of ongoing studies in areas like ocean circulation, solid Earth physics and ice sheet dynamics. Using a satellite in orbit around the Earth gives the opportunity to map the Earth's gravity field in 3...... will compromise measurement accuracy, unless they are accurately compensated by on-board thrusters. The paper concerns the design of a control system to performing such delicate drag compensation. A six degrees-of-freedom model for the satellite is developed with the model including dynamics of the satellite...

Research Progress of the Gravity Field Application in Earth's Geodynamics and Interior Structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SUN Heping

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The exploration of deep internal structure and internal dynamics of the earth has always been a hot topic in the field of basic geoscience research.Traditional approach relies mainly on seismic technology. However, in recent decades, the innovation of modern gravity observation technology (especially the successful application of high-precision superconducting gravity technology makes it possible to detect the earth's internal dynamics and physical information. In this paper, we summarize the research progress of Chinese group in detecting the earth's free oscillation, free core nutation, inner core translational oscillation, tidal model and polar tide and the internal structure by using modern high-precision gravity technology in recent years.

Nonlinear massive spin-2 field generated by higher derivative gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magnano, Guido; Sokolowski, Leszek M.

2003-01-01

We present a systematic exposition of the Lagrangian field theory for the massive spin-2 field generated in higher-derivative gravity upon reduction to a second-order theory by means of the appropriate Legendre transformation. It has been noticed by various authors that this nonlinear field overcomes the well-known inconsistency of the theory for a linear massive spin-2 field interacting with Einstein's gravity. Starting from a Lagrangian quadratically depending on the Ricci tensor of the metric, we explore the two possible second-order pictures usually called '(Helmholtz-)Jordan frame' and 'Einstein frame'. In spite of their mathematical equivalence, the two frames have different structural properties: in Einstein frame, the spin-2 field is minimally coupled to gravity, while in the other frame it is necessarily coupled to the curvature, without a separate kinetic term. We prove that the theory admits a unique and linearly stable ground state solution, and that the equations of motion are consistent, showing that these results can be obtained independently in either frame (each frame therefore provides a self-contained theory). The full equations of motion and the (variational) energy-momentum tensor for the spin-2 field in Einstein frame are given, and a simple but non-trivial exact solution to these equations is found. The comparison of the energy-momentum tensors for the spin-2 field in the two frames suggests that the Einstein frame is physically more acceptable. We point out that the energy-momentum tensor generated by the Lagrangian of the linearized theory is unrelated to the corresponding tensor of the full theory. It is then argued that the ghost-like nature of the nonlinear spin-2 field, found long ago in the linear approximation, may not be so harmful to classical stability issues, as has been expected

Lovelock gravities from Born-Infeld gravity theory

Science.gov (United States)

Concha, P. K.; Merino, N.; Rodríguez, E. K.

2017-02-01

We present a Born-Infeld gravity theory based on generalizations of Maxwell symmetries denoted as Cm. We analyze different configuration limits allowing to recover diverse Lovelock gravity actions in six dimensions. Further, the generalization to higher even dimensions is also considered.

Euler–Chern–Simons gravity from Lovelock–Born–Infeld gravity

OpenAIRE

Izaurieta, F.; Rodriguez, E.; Salgado, P.

2004-01-01

In the context of a gauge theoretical formulation, higher dimensional gravity invariant under the AdS group is dimensionally reduced to Euler-Chern-Simons gravity. The dimensional reduction procedure of Grignani-Nardelli [Phys. Lett. B 300, 38 (1993)] is generalized so as to permit reducing D-dimensional Lanczos Lovelock gravity to d=D-1 dimensions.

Constraining Saturn's interior density profile from precision gravity field measurement obtained during Grand Finale

Science.gov (United States)

Movshovitz, N.; Fortney, J. J.; Helled, R.; Hubbard, W. B.; Mankovich, C.; Thorngren, D.; Wahl, S. M.; Militzer, B.; Durante, D.

2017-12-01

The external gravity field of a planetary body is determined by the distribution of mass in its interior. Therefore, a measurement of the external field, properlyinterpreted, tells us about the interior density profile, ρ(r), which in turn can be used to constrain the composition in the interior and thereby learn about theformation mechanism of the planet. Recently, very high precision measurements of the gravity coefficients for Saturn have been made by the radio science instrument on the Cassini spacecraft during its Grand Finale orbits. The resulting coefficients come with an associated uncertainty. The task of matching a given density profile to a given set of gravity coefficients is relatively straightforward, but the question of how to best account for the uncertainty is not. In essentially all prior work on matching models to gravity field data inferences about planetary structure have rested on assumptions regarding the imperfectly known H/He equation of state and the assumption of an adiabatic interior. Here we wish to vastly expand the phase space of such calculations. We present a framework for describing all the possible interior density structures of a Jovian planet constrained by a given set of gravity coefficients and their associated uncertainties. Our approach is statistical. We produce a random sample of ρ(a) curves drawn from the underlying (and unknown) probability distribution of all curves, where ρ is the density on an interior level surface with equatorial radius a. Since the resulting set of density curves is a random sample, that is, curves appear with frequency proportional to the likelihood of their being consistent with the measured gravity, we can compute probability distributions for any quantity that is a function of ρ, such as central pressure, oblateness, core mass and radius, etc. Our approach is also Bayesian, in that it can utilize any prior assumptions about the planet's interior, as necessary, without being overly

Gravity

CERN Document Server

Gamow, George

2003-01-01

A distinguished physicist and teacher, George Gamow also possessed a special gift for making the intricacies of science accessible to a wide audience. In Gravity, he takes an enlightening look at three of the towering figures of science who unlocked many of the mysteries behind the laws of physics: Galileo, the first to take a close look at the process of free and restricted fall; Newton, originator of the concept of gravity as a universal force; and Einstein, who proposed that gravity is no more than the curvature of the four-dimensional space-time continuum.Graced with the author's own draw

Warped conformal field theory as lower spin gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Hofman, Diego M.; Rollier, Blaise

2015-08-01

Two dimensional Warped Conformal Field Theories (WCFTs) may represent the simplest examples of field theories without Lorentz invariance that can be described holographically. As such they constitute a natural window into holography in non-AdS space-times, including the near horizon geometry of generic extremal black holes. It is shown in this paper that WCFTs posses a type of boost symmetry. Using this insight, we discuss how to couple these theories to background geometry. This geometry is not Riemannian. We call it Warped Geometry and it turns out to be a variant of a Newton-Cartan structure with additional scaling symmetries. With this formalism the equivalent of Weyl invariance in these theories is presented and we write two explicit examples of WCFTs. These are free fermionic theories. Lastly we present a systematic description of the holographic duals of WCFTs. It is argued that the minimal setup is not Einstein gravity but an SL (2, R) × U (1) Chern-Simons Theory, which we call Lower Spin Gravity. This point of view makes manifest the definition of boundary for these non-AdS geometries. This case represents the first step towards understanding a fully invariant formalism for WN field theories and their holographic duals.

Warped conformal field theory as lower spin gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diego M. Hofman

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Two dimensional Warped Conformal Field Theories (WCFTs may represent the simplest examples of field theories without Lorentz invariance that can be described holographically. As such they constitute a natural window into holography in non-AdS space–times, including the near horizon geometry of generic extremal black holes. It is shown in this paper that WCFTs posses a type of boost symmetry. Using this insight, we discuss how to couple these theories to background geometry. This geometry is not Riemannian. We call it Warped Geometry and it turns out to be a variant of a Newton–Cartan structure with additional scaling symmetries. With this formalism the equivalent of Weyl invariance in these theories is presented and we write two explicit examples of WCFTs. These are free fermionic theories. Lastly we present a systematic description of the holographic duals of WCFTs. It is argued that the minimal setup is not Einstein gravity but an SL(2,R×U(1 Chern–Simons Theory, which we call Lower Spin Gravity. This point of view makes manifest the definition of boundary for these non-AdS geometries. This case represents the first step towards understanding a fully invariant formalism for WN field theories and their holographic duals.

Unitarity bounds on low scale quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atkins, Michael; Calmet, Xavier

2010-01-01

We study the unitarity of models with low scale quantum gravity both in four dimensions and in models with a large extra-dimensional volume. We find that models with low scale quantum gravity have problems with unitarity below the scale at which gravity becomes strong. An important consequence of our work is that their first signal at the Large Hadron Collider would not be of a gravitational nature such as graviton emission or small black holes, but rather would be linked to the mechanism which fixes the unitarity problem. We also study models with scalar fields with non-minimal couplings to the Ricci scalar. We consider the strength of gravity in these models and study the consequences for inflation models with non-minimally coupled scalar fields. We show that a single scalar field with a large non-minimal coupling can lower the Planck mass in the TeV region. In that model, it is possible to lower the scale at which gravity becomes strong down to 14 TeV without violating unitarity below that scale. (orig.)

Scalar field collapse in Gauss-Bonnet gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Banerjee, Narayan [Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Department of Physical Sciences, Nadia, West Bengal (India); Paul, Tanmoy [Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Department of Theoretical Physics, Kolkata (India)

2018-02-15

We consider a ''scalar-Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet'' theory in four dimension, where the scalar field couples non-minimally with the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) term. This coupling with the scalar field ensures the non-topological character of the GB term. In this scenario, we examine the possibility for collapsing of the scalar field. Our result reveals that such a collapse is possible in the presence of Gauss-Bonnet gravity for suitable choices of parametric regions. The singularity formed as a result of the collapse is found to be a curvature singularity which is hidden from the exterior by an apparent horizon. (orig.)

Quintic quasi-topological gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cisterna, Adolfo [Vicerrectoría académica, Universidad Central de Chile,Toesca 1783 Santiago (Chile); Instituto de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad Austral de Chile,Casilla 567, Valdivia (Chile); Guajardo, Luis; Hassaïne, Mokhtar [Instituto de Matemática y Física, Universidad de Talca,Casilla 747, Talca (Chile); Oliva, Julio [Departamento de Física, Universidad de Concepción,Casilla, 160-C, Concepción (Chile)

2017-04-11

We construct a quintic quasi-topological gravity in five dimensions, i.e. a theory with a Lagrangian containing R{sup 5} terms and whose field equations are of second order on spherically (hyperbolic or planar) symmetric spacetimes. These theories have recently received attention since when formulated on asymptotically AdS spacetimes might provide for gravity duals of a broad class of CFTs. For simplicity we focus on five dimensions. We show that this theory fulfils a Birkhoff’s Theorem as it is the case in Lovelock gravity and therefore, for generic values of the couplings, there is no s-wave propagating mode. We prove that the spherically symmetric solution is determined by a quintic algebraic polynomial equation which resembles Wheeler’s polynomial of Lovelock gravity. For the black hole solutions we compute the temperature, mass and entropy and show that the first law of black holes thermodynamics is fulfilled. Besides of being of fourth order in general, we show that the field equations, when linearized around AdS are of second order, and therefore the theory does not propagate ghosts around this background. Besides the class of theories originally introduced in https://arxiv.org/abs/1003.4773, the general geometric structure of these Lagrangians remains an open problem.

Chiral W-gravities for general extended conformal algebras

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hull, C.M.

1991-01-01

The gauging of any chiral extended conformal symmetry of any two-dimensional field theory is achieved by coupling to the appropriate chiral W-gravity. Only a linear coupling to the W-gravity gauge fields is needed. The gauging of algebras with central charges requires the introduction of spin-zero gauge fields corresponding to the central charges. The example of Liouville theory is discussed in detail and a new way of coupling it to gravity is obtained. (orig.)

Logamediate Inflation in f ( T ) Teleparallel Gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rezazadeh, Kazem; Karami, Kayoomars [Department of Physics, University of Kurdistan, Pasdaran Street, P.O. Box 66177-15175, Sanandaj (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Abdolmaleki, Asrin, E-mail: rezazadeh86@gmail.com [Research Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics of Maragha (RIAAM), P.O. Box 55134-441, Maragha (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

2017-02-20

We study logamediate inflation in the context of f ( T ) teleparallel gravity. f ( T )-gravity is a generalization of the teleparallel gravity which is formulated on the Weitzenbock spacetime, characterized by the vanishing curvature tensor (absolute parallelism) and the non-vanishing torsion tensor. We consider an f ( T )-gravity model which is sourced by a canonical scalar field. Assuming a power-law f ( T ) function in the action, we investigate an inflationary universe with a logamediate scale factor. Our results show that, although logamediate inflation is completely ruled out by observational data in the standard inflationary scenario based on Einstein gravity, it can be compatible with the 68% confidence limit joint region of Planck 2015 TT,TE,EE+lowP data in the framework of f ( T )-gravity.

Entropy of Egypt's virtual water trade gravity field

Science.gov (United States)

Karakatsanis, Georgios; Bierbach, Sandra

2016-04-01

's 20 trading partner countries, for a time frame from 1995 to 2013. The calculations -implemented for each country and each crop- display a network that illustrates the gravity of virtual water trade. It is then possible for us to model the entropy of Egypt's virtual water trade gravity field, via the statistical examination of its spatial fragmentation or continuity for each traded crop and for each water footprint type. Hence, with the distribution's entropy we may conduct a targeted analysis on the comparative advantages of the Egyptian agriculture. Keywords: entropy, virtual water trade, gravity model, agricultural trade, water footprint, water subsidies, comparative advantage References 1. Antonelli, Marta and Martina Sartori (2014), Unfolding the potential of the Virtual Water concept. What is still under debate?, MPRA Paper No. 60501, http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/60501/ 2. Fracasso, Andrea (2014), A gravity model of virtual water trade, Ecological Economics, Vol. 108, p. 215-228 3. Fracasso, Andrea; Martina Sartori and Stefano Schiavo (2014), Determinants of virtual water flows in the Mediterranean, MPRA Paper No. 60500, https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/60500/ 4. Yang, H. et al. (2006), Virtual water trade: An assessment of water use efficiency in the international food trade, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 10, p. 443-454

Granular Superconductors and Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Noever, David; Koczor, Ron

1999-01-01

As a Bose condensate, superconductors provide novel conditions for revisiting previously proposed couplings between electromagnetism and gravity. Strong variations in Cooper pair density, large conductivity and low magnetic permeability define superconductive and degenerate condensates without the traditional density limits imposed by the Fermi energy (approx. 10(exp -6) g cu cm). Recent experiments have reported anomalous weight loss for a test mass suspended above a rotating Type II, YBCO superconductor, with a relatively high percentage change (0.05-2.1%) independent of the test mass' chemical composition and diamagnetic properties. A variation of 5 parts per 104 was reported above a stationary (non-rotating) superconductor. In experiments using a sensitive gravimeter, bulk YBCO superconductors were stably levitated in a DC magnetic field and exposed without levitation to low-field strength AC magnetic fields. Changes in observed gravity signals were measured to be less than 2 parts in 108 of the normal gravitational acceleration. Given the high sensitivity of the test, future work will examine variants on the basic magnetic behavior of granular superconductors, with particular focus on quantifying their proposed importance to gravity.

Einstein gravity with torsion induced by the scalar field

Science.gov (United States)

Özçelik, H. T.; Kaya, R.; Hortaçsu, M.

2018-06-01

We couple a conformal scalar field in (2+1) dimensions to Einstein gravity with torsion. The field equations are obtained by a variational principle. We could not solve the Einstein and Cartan equations analytically. These equations are solved numerically with 4th order Runge-Kutta method. From the numerical solution, we make an ansatz for the rotation parameter in the proposed metric, which gives an analytical solution for the scalar field for asymptotic regions.

Gauge/gravity duality. A road towards reality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kerner, Patrick

2012-01-01

In this dissertation we use gauge/gravity duality to investigate various phenomena of strongly coupled systems. In particular, we consider applications of the duality to real-world systems such as condensed matter systems and the quark-gluon plasma created by heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Gauge/gravity duality which originates from string theory relates strongly coupled gauge theories to weakly coupled gravity theories. This duality allows for computations of non-perturbative results on the field theory side by perturbative calculations on the gravity side. As we have learned in the recent years, the duality is especially suitable to describe hot and dense plasmas as well as real-time processes related to transport properties or spectral functions. Unfortunately, so far there is no dual gravity description modeling every aspect of a strongly coupled real-world system. However, there are many gravity duals which describe several phenomena. The general idea of this thesis is to study different gravity duals in order to develop a gravity description of hot and dense plasmas. In particular, we focus on physics in thermal equilibrium and close to equilibrium. Motivated by the experimentally observed mesonic resonances in the quark-gluon plasma, we first study quasinormal modes of a gravity dual which contains such resonances. The quasinormal modes on the gravity side are identified with the poles of the Green's function on the field theory side. By studying these quasinormal modes, we observe how quasiparticle resonances develop in a hot and dense plasma. We find interesting trajectories of quasinormal frequencies which may be found experimentally as the temperature and density is varied. In addition, we find an instability in the quasinormal mode spectrum at large chemical potential or magnetic field. At large chemical potential, this instability triggers the condensation of a field which breaks

Gauge/gravity duality. A road towards reality

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kerner, Patrick

2012-02-23

In this dissertation we use gauge/gravity duality to investigate various phenomena of strongly coupled systems. In particular, we consider applications of the duality to real-world systems such as condensed matter systems and the quark-gluon plasma created by heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Gauge/gravity duality which originates from string theory relates strongly coupled gauge theories to weakly coupled gravity theories. This duality allows for computations of non-perturbative results on the field theory side by perturbative calculations on the gravity side. As we have learned in the recent years, the duality is especially suitable to describe hot and dense plasmas as well as real-time processes related to transport properties or spectral functions. Unfortunately, so far there is no dual gravity description modeling every aspect of a strongly coupled real-world system. However, there are many gravity duals which describe several phenomena. The general idea of this thesis is to study different gravity duals in order to develop a gravity description of hot and dense plasmas. In particular, we focus on physics in thermal equilibrium and close to equilibrium. Motivated by the experimentally observed mesonic resonances in the quark-gluon plasma, we first study quasinormal modes of a gravity dual which contains such resonances. The quasinormal modes on the gravity side are identified with the poles of the Green's function on the field theory side. By studying these quasinormal modes, we observe how quasiparticle resonances develop in a hot and dense plasma. We find interesting trajectories of quasinormal frequencies which may be found experimentally as the temperature and density is varied. In addition, we find an instability in the quasinormal mode spectrum at large chemical potential or magnetic field. At large chemical potential, this instability triggers the condensation of a field which

Lovelock gravities from Born–Infeld gravity theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P.K. Concha

2017-02-01

Full Text Available We present a Born–Infeld gravity theory based on generalizations of Maxwell symmetries denoted as Cm. We analyze different configuration limits allowing to recover diverse Lovelock gravity actions in six dimensions. Further, the generalization to higher even dimensions is also considered.

Natural inflation and quantum gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

de la Fuente, Anton; Saraswat, Prashant; Sundrum, Raman

2015-04-17

Cosmic inflation provides an attractive framework for understanding the early Universe and the cosmic microwave background. It can readily involve energies close to the scale at which quantum gravity effects become important. General considerations of black hole quantum mechanics suggest nontrivial constraints on any effective field theory model of inflation that emerges as a low-energy limit of quantum gravity, in particular, the constraint of the weak gravity conjecture. We show that higher-dimensional gauge and gravitational dynamics can elegantly satisfy these constraints and lead to a viable, theoretically controlled and predictive class of natural inflation models.

Lanczos–Lovelock models of gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Padmanabhan, T.; Kothawala, D.

2013-01-01

Lanczos–Lovelock models of gravity represent a natural and elegant generalization of Einstein’s theory of gravity to higher dimensions. They are characterized by the fact that the field equations only contain up to second derivatives of the metric even though the action functional can be a quadratic or higher degree polynomial in the curvature tensor. Because these models share several key properties of Einstein’s theory they serve as a useful set of candidate models for testing the emergent paradigm for gravity. This review highlights several geometrical and thermodynamical aspects of Lanczos–Lovelock models which have attracted recent attention

A family of metric gravities

Science.gov (United States)

Shuler, Robert

2018-04-01

The goal of this paper is to take a completely fresh approach to metric gravity, in which the metric principle is strictly adhered to but its properties in local space-time are derived from conservation principles, not inferred from a global field equation. The global field strength variation then gains some flexibility, but only in the regime of very strong fields (2nd-order terms) whose measurement is now being contemplated. So doing provides a family of similar gravities, differing only in strong fields, which could be developed into meaningful verification targets for strong fields after the manner in which far-field variations were used in the 20th century. General Relativity (GR) is shown to be a member of the family and this is demonstrated by deriving the Schwarzschild metric exactly from a suitable field strength assumption. The method of doing so is interesting in itself because it involves only one differential equation rather than the usual four. Exact static symmetric field solutions are also given for one pedagogical alternative based on potential, and one theoretical alternative based on inertia, and the prospects of experimentally differentiating these are analyzed. Whether the method overturns the conventional wisdom that GR is the only metric theory of gravity and that alternatives must introduce additional interactions and fields is somewhat semantical, depending on whether one views the field strength assumption as a field and whether the assumption that produces GR is considered unique in some way. It is of course possible to have other fields, and the local space-time principle can be applied to field gravities which usually are weak-field approximations having only time dilation, giving them the spatial factor and promoting them to full metric theories. Though usually pedagogical, some of them are interesting from a quantum gravity perspective. Cases are noted where mass measurement errors, or distributions of dark matter, can cause one

Wormholes, emergent gauge fields, and the weak gravity conjecture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Harlow, Daniel [Center for the Fundamental Laws of Nature, Physics Department, Harvard University,Cambridge MA, 02138 (United States)

2016-01-20

This paper revisits the question of reconstructing bulk gauge fields as boundary operators in AdS/CFT. In the presence of the wormhole dual to the thermofield double state of two CFTs, the existence of bulk gauge fields is in some tension with the microscopic tensor factorization of the Hilbert space. I explain how this tension can be resolved by splitting the gauge field into charged constituents, and I argue that this leads to a new argument for the “principle of completeness”, which states that the charge lattice of a gauge theory coupled to gravity must be fully populated. I also claim that it leads to a new motivation for (and a clarification of) the “weak gravity conjecture”, which I interpret as a strengthening of this principle. This setup gives a simple example of a situation where describing low-energy bulk physics in CFT language requires knowledge of high-energy bulk physics. This contradicts to some extent the notion of “effective conformal field theory”, but in fact is an expected feature of the resolution of the black hole information problem. An analogous factorization issue exists also for the gravitational field, and I comment on several of its implications for reconstructing black hole interiors and the emergence of spacetime more generally.

Nonlocal gravity

CERN Document Server

Mashhoon, Bahram

2017-01-01

Relativity theory is based on a postulate of locality, which means that the past history of the observer is not directly taken into account. This book argues that the past history should be taken into account. In this way, nonlocality---in the sense of history dependence---is introduced into relativity theory. The deep connection between inertia and gravitation suggests that gravity could be nonlocal, and in nonlocal gravity the fading gravitational memory of past events must then be taken into account. Along this line of thought, a classical nonlocal generalization of Einstein's theory of gravitation has recently been developed. A significant consequence of this theory is that the nonlocal aspect of gravity appears to simulate dark matter. According to nonlocal gravity theory, what astronomers attribute to dark matter should instead be due to the nonlocality of gravitation. Nonlocality dominates on the scale of galaxies and beyond. Memory fades with time; therefore, the nonlocal aspect of gravity becomes wea...

PREFACE: Conceptual and Technical Challenges for Quantum Gravity 2014 - Parallel session: Noncommutative Geometry and Quantum Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Martinetti, P.; Wallet, J.-C.; Amelino-Camelia, G.

2015-08-01

The conference Conceptual and Technical Challenges for Quantum Gravity at Sapienza University of Rome, from 8 to 12 September 2014, has provided a beautiful opportunity for an encounter between different approaches and different perspectives on the quantum-gravity problem. It contributed to a higher level of shared knowledge among the quantum-gravity communities pursuing each specific research program. There were plenary talks on many different approaches, including in particular string theory, loop quantum gravity, spacetime noncommutativity, causal dynamical triangulations, asymptotic safety and causal sets. Contributions from the perspective of philosophy of science were also welcomed. In addition several parallel sessions were organized. The present volume collects contributions from the Noncommutative Geometry and Quantum Gravity parallel session4, with additional invited contributions from specialists in the field. Noncommutative geometry in its many incarnations appears at the crossroad of many researches in theoretical and mathematical physics: • from models of quantum space-time (with or without breaking of Lorentz symmetry) to loop gravity and string theory, • from early considerations on UV-divergencies in quantum field theory to recent models of gauge theories on noncommutative spacetime, • from Connes description of the standard model of elementary particles to recent Pati-Salam like extensions. This volume provides an overview of these various topics, interesting for the specialist as well as accessible to the newcomer. 4partially funded by CNRS PEPS /PTI ''Metric aspect of noncommutative geometry: from Monge to Higgs''

Relic gravity waves from braneworld inflation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sahni, Varun; Sami, M.; Souradeep, Tarun

2002-01-01

We discuss a scenario in which extra dimensional effects allow a scalar field with a steep potential to play the dual role of the inflaton as well as dark energy (quintessence). The post-inflationary evolution of the universe in this scenario is generically characterized by a 'kinetic regime' during which the kinetic energy of the scalar field greatly exceeds its potential energy resulting in a 'stiff' equation of state for scalar field matter P φ ≅ρ φ . The kinetic regime precedes the radiation dominated epoch and introduces an important new feature into the spectrum of relic gravity waves created quantum mechanically during inflation. The amplitude of the gravity wave spectrum increases with the wave number for wavelengths shorter than the comoving horizon scale at the commencement of the radiative regime. This 'blue tilt' is a generic feature of models with steep potentials and imposes strong constraints on a class of inflationary braneworld models. Prospects for detection of the gravity wave background by terrestrial and space-borne gravity wave observatories such as LIGO II and LISA are discussed

Polyhedral shape model for terrain correction of gravity and gravity gradient data based on an adaptive mesh

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Zhikui; Chen, Chao; Tao, Chunhui

2016-04-01

Since 2007, there are four China Da yang cruises (CDCs), which have been carried out to investigate polymetallic sulfides in the southwest Indian ridge (SWIR) and have acquired both gravity data and bathymetry data on the corresponding survey lines(Tao et al., 2014). Sandwell et al. (2014) published a new global marine gravity model including the free air gravity data and its first order vertical gradient (Vzz). Gravity data and its gradient can be used to extract unknown density structure information(e.g. crust thickness) under surface of the earth, but they contain all the mass effect under the observation point. Therefore, how to get accurate gravity and its gradient effect of the existing density structure (e.g. terrain) has been a key issue. Using the bathymetry data or ETOPO1 (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/global.html) model at a full resolution to calculate the terrain effect could spend too much computation time. We expect to develop an effective method that takes less time but can still yield the desired accuracy. In this study, a constant-density polyhedral model is used to calculate the gravity field and its vertical gradient, which is based on the work of Tsoulis (2012). According to gravity field attenuation with distance and variance of bathymetry, we present an adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening strategies to merge both global topography data and multi-beam bathymetry data. The local coarsening or size of mesh depends on user-defined accuracy and terrain variation (Davis et al., 2011). To depict terrain better, triangular surface element and rectangular surface element are used in fine and coarse mesh respectively. This strategy can also be applied to spherical coordinate in large region and global scale. Finally, we applied this method to calculate Bouguer gravity anomaly (BGA), mantle Bouguer anomaly(MBA) and their vertical gradient in SWIR. Further, we compared the result with previous results in the literature. Both synthetic model

Recent advancements in conformal gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

O’Brien, James G.; Chaykov, Spasen S.; Moss, Robert J.; Dentico, Jeremy; Stulge, Modestas; Stefanski, Brian

2017-01-01

In recent years, due to the lack of direct observed evidence of cold dark matter, coupled with the shrinking parameter space to search for new dark matter particles, there has been increased interest in Alternative Gravitational theories. This paper, addresses three recent advances in conformal gravity, a fourth order renormalizable metric theory of gravitation originally formulated by Weyl, and later advanced by Mannheim and Kazanas. The first section of the paper applies conformal gravity to the rotation curves of the LITTLE THINGS survey, extending the total number of rotation curves successfully fit by conformal gravity to well over 200 individual data sets without the need for additional dark matter. Further, in this rotation curve study, we show how MOND and conformal gravity compare for each galaxy in the sample. Second, we look at the original Zwicky problem of applying the virial theorem to the Coma cluster in order to get an estimate for the cluster mass. However, instead of using the standard Newtonian potential, here we use the weak field approximation of conformal gravity. We show that in the conformal case we can get a much smaller mass estimate and thus there is no apparent need to include dark matter. We then show that this calculation is in agreement with the observational data from other well studied clusters. Last, we explore the calculation of the deflection of starlight through conformal gravity, as a first step towards applying conformal gravity to gravitaitonal lensing. (paper)

Circulation-based Modeling of Gravity Currents

Science.gov (United States)

Meiburg, E. H.; Borden, Z.

2013-05-01

Atmospheric and oceanic flows driven by predominantly horizontal density differences, such as sea breezes, thunderstorm outflows, powder snow avalanches, and turbidity currents, are frequently modeled as gravity currents. Efforts to develop simplified models of such currents date back to von Karman (1940), who considered a two-dimensional gravity current in an inviscid, irrotational and infinitely deep ambient. Benjamin (1968) presented an alternative model, focusing on the inviscid, irrotational flow past a gravity current in a finite-depth channel. More recently, Shin et al. (2004) proposed a model for gravity currents generated by partial-depth lock releases, considering a control volume that encompasses both fronts. All of the above models, in addition to the conservation of mass and horizontal momentum, invoke Bernoulli's law along some specific streamline in the flow field, in order to obtain a closed system of equations that can be solved for the front velocity as function of the current height. More recent computational investigations based on the Navier-Stokes equations, on the other hand, reproduce the dynamics of gravity currents based on the conservation of mass and momentum alone. We propose that it should therefore be possible to formulate a fundamental gravity current model without invoking Bernoulli's law. The talk will show that the front velocity of gravity currents can indeed be predicted as a function of their height from mass and momentum considerations alone, by considering the evolution of interfacial vorticity. This approach does not require information on the pressure field and therefore avoids the need for an energy closure argument such as those invoked by the earlier models. Predictions by the new theory are shown to be in close agreement with direct numerical simulation results. References Von Karman, T. 1940 The engineer grapples with nonlinear problems, Bull. Am. Math Soc. 46, 615-683. Benjamin, T.B. 1968 Gravity currents and related

Loop Quantum Gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Rovelli, Carlo

2008-01-01

The problem of describing the quantum behavior of gravity, and thus understanding quantum spacetime , is still open. Loop quantum gravity is a well-developed approach to this problem. It is a mathematically well-defined background-independent quantization of general relativity, with its conventional matter couplings. Today research in loop quantum gravity forms a vast area, ranging from mathematical foundations to physical applications. Among the most significant results obtained so far are: (i) The computation of the spectra of geometrical quantities such as area and volume, which yield tentative quantitative predictions for Planck-scale physics. (ii) A physical picture of the microstructure of quantum spacetime, characterized by Planck-scale discreteness. Discreteness emerges as a standard quantum effect from the discrete spectra, and provides a mathematical realization of Wheeler's "spacetime foam" intuition. (iii) Control of spacetime singularities, such as those in the interior of black holes and the cosmological one. This, in particular, has opened up the possibility of a theoretical investigation into the very early universe and the spacetime regions beyond the Big Bang. (iv) A derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking black-hole entropy. (v) Low-energy calculations, yielding n -point functions well defined in a background-independent context. The theory is at the roots of, or strictly related to, a number of formalisms that have been developed for describing background-independent quantum field theory, such as spin foams, group field theory, causal spin networks, and others. I give here a general overview of ideas, techniques, results and open problems of this candidate theory of quantum gravity, and a guide to the relevant literature.

Radion and holographic brane gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kanno, Sugumi; Soda, Jiro

2002-01-01

The low energy effective theory for the Randall-Sundrum two-brane system is investigated with an emphasis on the role of the nonlinear radion in the brane world. The equations of motion in the bulk are solved using a low energy expansion method. This allows us, through the junction conditions, to deduce the effective equations of motion for gravity on the brane. It is shown that the gravity on the brane world is described by a quasi-scalar-tensor theory with a specific coupling function ω(Ψ)=3Ψ/2(1-Ψ) on the positive tension brane and ω(Φ)=-3Φ/2(1+Φ) on the negative tension brane, where Ψ and Φ are nonlinear realizations of the radion on the positive and negative tension branes, respectively. In contrast with the usual scalar-tensor gravity, the quasi-scalar-tensor gravity couples with two kinds of matter; namely, the matter on both positive and negative tension branes, with different effective gravitational coupling constants. In particular, the radion disguised as the scalar fields Ψ and Φ couples with the sum of the traces of the energy-momentum tensor on both branes. In the course of the derivation, it is revealed that the radion plays an essential role in converting the nonlocal Einstein gravity with generalized dark radiation to local quasi-scalar-tensor gravity. For completeness, we also derive the effective action for our theory by substituting the bulk solution into the original action. It is also shown that quasi-scalar-tensor gravity works as a hologram at low energy in the sense that the bulk geometry can be reconstructed from the solution of quasi-scalar-tensor gravity

Flattening the inflaton potential beyond minimal gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lee Hyun Min

2018-01-01

Full Text Available We review the status of the Starobinsky-like models for inflation beyond minimal gravity and discuss the unitarity problem due to the presence of a large non-minimal gravity coupling. We show that the induced gravity models allow for a self-consistent description of inflation and discuss the implications of the inflaton couplings to the Higgs field in the Standard Model.

Stochastic quantum gravity-(2+1)-dimensional case

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hosoya, Akio

1991-01-01

At first the amazing coincidences are pointed out in quantum field theory in curved space-time and quantum gravity, when they exhibit stochasticity. To explore the origin of them, the (2+1)-dimensional quantum gravity is considered as a toy model. It is shown that the torus universe in the (2+1)-dimensional quantum gravity is a quantum chaos in a rigorous sense. (author). 15 refs

Lovelock-Brans-Dicke gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Wenjie Tian, David; Booth, Ivan

2016-02-01

According to Lovelock’s theorem, the Hilbert-Einstein and the Lovelock actions are indistinguishable from their field equations. However, they have different scalar-tensor counterparts, which correspond to the Brans-Dicke and the Lovelock-Brans-Dicke (LBD) gravities, respectively. In this paper the LBD model of alternative gravity with the Lagrangian density {{L}}{LBD}=\\frac{1}{16π }≤ft[φ ≤ft(R+\\frac{a}{\\sqrt{-g}}{}*{RR}+b{ G }\\right)-\\frac{{ω }{{L}}}{φ }{{{\

Massive Conformal Gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faria, F. F.

2014-01-01

We construct a massive theory of gravity that is invariant under conformal transformations. The massive action of the theory depends on the metric tensor and a scalar field, which are considered the only field variables. We find the vacuum field equations of the theory and analyze its weak-field approximation and Newtonian limit.

Holographic entanglement entropy in Lovelock gravities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Boer, J.; Kulaxizi, M.; Parnachev, A.

2011-01-01

We study entanglement entropies of simply connected surfaces in field theories dual to Lovelock gravities. We consider Gauss-Bonnet and cubic Lovelock gravities in detail. In the conformal case the logarithmic terms in the entanglement entropy are governed by the conformal anomalies of the CFT; we

Black holes and asymptotics of 2+1 gravity coupled to a scalar field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Henneaux, Marc; Martinez, Cristian; Troncoso, Ricardo; Zanelli, Jorge

2002-01-01

We consider 2+1 gravity minimally coupled to a self-interacting scalar field. The case in which the fall-off of the fields at infinity is slower than that of a localized distribution of matter is analyzed. It is found that the asymptotic symmetry group remains the same as in pure gravity (i.e., the conformal group). The generators of the asymptotic symmetries, however, acquire a contribution from the scalar field, but the algebra of the canonical generators possesses the standard central extension. In this context, new massive black hole solutions with a regular scalar field are found for a one-parameter family of potentials. These black holes are continuously connected to the standard zero mass black hole

GRACE, time-varying gravity, Earth system dynamics and climate change

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wouters, B.; Bonin, J.A.; Chambers, D.P.; Riva, R.E.M.; Sasgen, I.; Wahr, J.

2014-01-01

Continuous observations of temporal variations in the Earth's gravity field have recently become available at an unprecedented resolution of a few hundreds of kilometers. The gravity field is a product of the Earth's mass distribution, and these data—provided by the satellites of the Gravity

A time-lapse gravity survey of the Coso geothermal field, China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, California

Science.gov (United States)

Phelps, Geoffrey; Cronkite-Ratcliff, Collin; Blake, Kelly

2018-04-19

We have conducted a gravity survey of the Coso geothermal field to continue the time-lapse gravity study of the area initiated in 1991. In this report, we outline a method of processing the gravity data that minimizes the random errors and instrument bias introduced into the data by the Scintrex CG-5 relative gravimeters that were used. After processing, the standard deviation of the data was estimated to be ±13 microGals. These data reveal that the negative gravity anomaly over the Coso geothermal field, centered on gravity station CER1, is continuing to increase in magnitude over time. Preliminary modeling indicates that water-table drawdown at the location of CER1 is between 65 and 326 meters over the last two decades. We note, however, that several assumptions on which the model results depend, such as constant elevation and free-water level over the study period, still require verification.

Multipole analysis in the radiation field for linearized f (R ) gravity with irreducible Cartesian tensors

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Bofeng; Huang, Chao-Guang

2018-04-01

The 1 /r expansion in the distance to the source is applied to the linearized f (R ) gravity, and its multipole expansion in the radiation field with irreducible Cartesian tensors is presented. Then, the energy, momentum, and angular momentum in the gravitational waves are provided for linearized f (R ) gravity. All of these results have two parts, which are associated with the tensor part and the scalar part in the multipole expansion of linearized f (R ) gravity, respectively. The former is the same as that in General Relativity, and the latter, as the correction to the result in General Relativity, is caused by the massive scalar degree of freedom and plays an important role in distinguishing General Relativity and f (R ) gravity.

Killing vector fields in three dimensions: a method to solve massive gravity field equations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guerses, Metin, E-mail: gurses@fen.bilkent.edu.t [Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Sciences, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara (Turkey)

2010-10-21

Killing vector fields in three dimensions play an important role in the construction of the related spacetime geometry. In this work we show that when a three-dimensional geometry admits a Killing vector field then the Ricci tensor of the geometry is determined in terms of the Killing vector field and its scalars. In this way we can generate all products and covariant derivatives at any order of the Ricci tensor. Using this property we give ways to solve the field equations of topologically massive gravity (TMG) and new massive gravity (NMG) introduced recently. In particular when the scalars of the Killing vector field (timelike, spacelike and null cases) are constants then all three-dimensional symmetric tensors of the geometry, the Ricci and Einstein tensors, their covariant derivatives at all orders, and their products of all orders are completely determined by the Killing vector field and the metric. Hence, the corresponding three-dimensional metrics are strong candidates for solving all higher derivative gravitational field equations in three dimensions.

Newton-Cartan gravity and torsion

Science.gov (United States)

Bergshoeff, Eric; Chatzistavrakidis, Athanasios; Romano, Luca; Rosseel, Jan

2017-10-01

We compare the gauging of the Bargmann algebra, for the case of arbitrary torsion, with the result that one obtains from a null-reduction of General Relativity. Whereas the two procedures lead to the same result for Newton-Cartan geometry with arbitrary torsion, the null-reduction of the Einstein equations necessarily leads to Newton-Cartan gravity with zero torsion. We show, for three space-time dimensions, how Newton-Cartan gravity with arbitrary torsion can be obtained by starting from a Schrödinger field theory with dynamical exponent z = 2 for a complex compensating scalar and next coupling this field theory to a z = 2 Schrödinger geometry with arbitrary torsion. The latter theory can be obtained from either a gauging of the Schrödinger algebra, for arbitrary torsion, or from a null-reduction of conformal gravity.

A contrastive study on the influences of radial and three-dimensional satellite gravity gradiometry on the accuracy of the Earth's gravitational field recovery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng Wei; Hsu Hou-Tse; Zhong Min; Yun Mei-Juan

2012-01-01

The accuracy of the Earth's gravitational field measured from the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE), up to 250 degrees, influenced by the radial gravity gradient V zz and three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij from the satellite gravity gradiometry (SGG) are contrastively demonstrated based on the analytical error model and numerical simulation, respectively. Firstly, the new analytical error model of the cumulative geoid height, influenced by the radial gravity gradient V zz and three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij are established, respectively. In 250 degrees, the GOCE cumulative geoid height error measured by the radial gravity gradient V zz is about 2 ½ times higher than that measured by the three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij . Secondly, the Earth's gravitational field from GOCE completely up to 250 degrees is recovered using the radial gravity gradient V zz and three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij by numerical simulation, respectively. The study results show that when the measurement error of the gravity gradient is 3 × 10 −12 /s 2 , the cumulative geoid height errors using the radial gravity gradient V zz and three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij are 12.319 cm and 9.295 cm at 250 degrees, respectively. The accuracy of the cumulative geoid height using the three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij is improved by 30%–40% on average compared with that using the radial gravity gradient V zz in 250 degrees. Finally, by mutual verification of the analytical error model and numerical simulation, the orders of magnitude from the accuracies of the Earth's gravitational field recovery make no substantial differences based on the radial and three-dimensional gravity gradients, respectively. Therefore, it is feasible to develop in advance a radial cold-atom interferometric gradiometer with a measurement accuracy of 10 −13 /s 2 −10 −15 /s 2 for precisely producing the next-generation GOCE Follow-On Earth gravity field

Seasonal changes in the European gravity field from GRACE: A comparison with superconducting gravimeters and hydrology model predictions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hinderer, J.; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Lemoine, F.

2006-01-01

This paper is devoted to the investigation of seasonal changes of the Earth's gravity field from GRACE satellites and the comparison with surface gravity measurements in Europe from the Global Geodynamics Project (GGP) sub-network, as well as with recent hydrology models for continental soil...... moisture and snow. We used gravity maps in Europe retrieved from the initial GRACE monthly solutions spanning a 21 -month duration from April 2002 to December 2003 for various truncation levels of the initial spherical harmonic decomposition of the field. The transfer function between satellite......-derived and ground gravity changes due to continental hydrology is studied and we also compute the theoretical ratio of gravity versus radial displacement (in mu Gal/mm) involved in the hydrological loading process. The 'mean' value (averaged in time and in space over Europe) from hydrologic forward modeling...

Focus on quantum Einstein gravity Focus on quantum Einstein gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Ambjorn, Jan; Reuter, Martin; Saueressig, Frank

2012-09-01

The gravitational asymptotic safety program summarizes the attempts to construct a consistent and predictive quantum theory of gravity within Wilson's generalized framework of renormalization. Its key ingredient is a non-Gaussian fixed point of the renormalization group flow which controls the behavior of the theory at trans-Planckian energies and renders gravity safe from unphysical divergences. Provided that the fixed point comes with a finite number of ultraviolet-attractive (relevant) directions, this construction gives rise to a consistent quantum field theory which is as predictive as an ordinary, perturbatively renormalizable one. This opens up the exciting possibility of establishing quantum Einstein gravity as a fundamental theory of gravity, without introducing supersymmetry or extra dimensions, and solely based on quantization techniques that are known to work well for the other fundamental forces of nature. While the idea of gravity being asymptotically safe was proposed by Steven Weinberg more than 30 years ago [1], the technical tools for investigating this scenario only emerged during the last decade. Here a key role is played by the exact functional renormalization group equation for gravity, which allows the construction of non-perturbative approximate solutions for the RG-flow of the gravitational couplings. Most remarkably, all solutions constructed to date exhibit a suitable non-Gaussian fixed point, lending strong support to the asymptotic safety conjecture. Moreover, the functional renormalization group also provides indications that the central idea of a non-Gaussian fixed point providing a safe ultraviolet completion also carries over to more realistic scenarios where gravity is coupled to a suitable matter sector like the standard model. These theoretical successes also triggered a wealth of studies focusing on the consequences of asymptotic safety in a wide range of phenomenological applications covering the physics of black holes, early

Non-perturbative aspects of quantum field theory. From the quark-gluon plasma to quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Christiansen, Nicolai

2015-01-01

In this dissertation we investigate several aspects of non-perturbative quantum field theory. Two main parts of the thesis are concerned with non-perturbative renormalization of quantum gravity within the asymptotic safety scenario. This framework is based on a non-Gaussian ultraviolet fixed point and provides a well-defined theory of quantized gravity. We employ functional renormalization group (FRG) techniques that allow for the study of quantum fields even in strongly coupled regimes. We construct a setup for the computation of graviton correlation functions and analyze the ultraviolet completion of quantum gravity in terms of the properties of the two- and three point function of the graviton. Moreover, the coupling of gravity to Yang-Mills theories is discussed. In particular, we study the effects of graviton induced interactions on asymptotic freedom on the one hand, and the role of gluonic fluctuations in the gravity sector on the other hand. The last subject of this thesis is the physics of the quark-gluon plasma. We set-up a general non-perturbative strategy for the computation of transport coefficients in non-Abelian gauge theories. We determine the viscosity over entropy ratio η/s in SU(3) Yang-Mills theory as a function of temperature and estimate its behavior in full quantum chromodynamics (QCD).

Detecting small gravity change in field measurement: simulations and experiments of the superconducting gravimeter—iGrav

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kao, Ricky; Kabirzadeh, Hojjat; Kim, Jeong Woo; Neumeyer, Juergen; Sideris, Michael G

2014-01-01

In order to detect small gravity changes in field measurements, such as with CO 2  storage, we designed simulations and experiments to validate the capabilities of the iGrav superconducting gravimeter. Qualified data processing was important to obtain the residual gravity from the iGrav's raw gravity signals, without the tidal components, atmosphere, polar motion and hydrological effects. Two simulations and four designed experiments are presented in this study. The first simulation detected the gravity change during CO 2  injection. The residual gravity of CO 2  leakage was targeted with the second simulation from the main storage reservoir to secondary space underground. The designed experiments monitored the situation of gravity anomalies in the iGrav's records. These tests focused on short-term gravity anomalies, such as gravity changes, step functions, repeat observations and gradient measurements from the iGrav, rather than on long-term tidal effects. The four laboratory experiments detected a decrease in gravity of −0.56 ± 0.15 µGal (10 −8  m s −2 ) with a 92.8 kg weight on the top of the iGrav. A step function occurred in the gravity signals, when the tilt control was out of balance. We also used a professional camera dolly with a track to observe repeated horizontal movements and an electric lift table for controlled vertical movements to measure the average gradient of −2.67 ± 0.01 µGal cm −1 . (paper)

Decoding the hologram: Scalar fields interacting with gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Kabat, Daniel; Lifschytz, Gilad

2014-03-01

We construct smeared conformal field theory (CFT) operators which represent a scalar field in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space interacting with gravity. The guiding principle is microcausality: scalar fields should commute with themselves at spacelike separation. To O(1/N) we show that a correct and convenient criterion for constructing the appropriate CFT operators is to demand microcausality in a three-point function with a boundary Weyl tensor and another boundary scalar. The resulting bulk observables transform in the correct way under AdS isometries and commute with boundary scalar operators at spacelike separation, even in the presence of metric perturbations.

Quantum Gravity Phenomenology

OpenAIRE

Amelino-Camelia, Giovanni

2003-01-01

Comment: 9 pages, LaTex. These notes were prepared while working on an invited contribution to the November 2003 issue of Physics World, which focused on quantum gravity. They intend to give a non-technical introduction (accessible to readers from outside quantum gravity) to "Quantum Gravity Phenomenology"

A Unified Field Theory of Gravity, Electromagnetism, and the Yang-Mills Gauge Field

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suhendro I.

2008-01-01

Full Text Available In this work, we attempt at constructing a comprehensive four-dimensional unified field theory of gravity, electromagnetism, and the non-Abelian Yang-Mills gauge field in which the gravitational, electromagnetic, and material spin fields are unified as intrinsic geometric objects of the space-time manifold S4 via the connection, with the general- ized non-Abelian Yang-Mills gauge field appearing in particular as a sub-field of the geometrized electromagnetic interaction.

Gauss–Bonnet cosmology with induced gravity and a non-minimally coupled scalar field on the brane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nozari, Kourosh; Fazlpour, Behnaz

2008-01-01

We construct a cosmological model with a non-minimally coupled scalar field on the brane, where Gauss–Bonnet and induced gravity effects are taken into account. This model has 5D character at both high and low energy limits but reduces to 4D gravity for intermediate scales. While induced gravity is a manifestation of the IR limit of the model, the Gauss–Bonnet term and non-minimal coupling of the scalar field and induced gravity are essentially related to the UV limit of the scenario. We study the cosmological implications of this scenario focusing on the late time behavior of the solutions. In this setup, non-minimal coupling plays the role of an additional fine-tuning parameter that controls the initial density of the predicted finite density big bang. Also, non-minimal coupling has important implications for the bouncing nature of the solutions

Automated borehole gravity meter system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lautzenhiser, Th.V.; Wirtz, J.D.

1984-01-01

An automated borehole gravity meter system for measuring gravity within a wellbore. The gravity meter includes leveling devices for leveling the borehole gravity meter, displacement devices for applying forces to a gravity sensing device within the gravity meter to bring the gravity sensing device to a predetermined or null position. Electronic sensing and control devices are provided for (i) activating the displacement devices, (ii) sensing the forces applied to the gravity sensing device, (iii) electronically converting the values of the forces into a representation of the gravity at the location in the wellbore, and (iv) outputting such representation. The system further includes electronic control devices with the capability of correcting the representation of gravity for tidal effects, as well as, calculating and outputting the formation bulk density and/or porosity

Classically scale-invariant B–L model and conformal gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oda, Ichiro

2013-01-01

We consider a coupling of conformal gravity to the classically scale-invariant B–L extended standard model which has been recently proposed as a phenomenologically viable model realizing the Coleman–Weinberg mechanism of breakdown of the electroweak symmetry. As in a globally scale-invariant dilaton gravity, it is also shown in a locally scale-invariant conformal gravity that without recourse to the Coleman–Weinberg mechanism, the B–L gauge symmetry is broken in the process of spontaneous symmetry breakdown of the local scale invariance (Weyl invariance) at the tree level and as a result the B–L gauge field becomes massive via the Higgs mechanism. As a bonus of conformal gravity, the massless dilaton field does not appear and the parameters in front of the non-minimal coupling of gravity are completely fixed in the present model. This observation clearly shows that the conformal gravity has a practical application even if the scalar field does not possess any dynamical degree of freedom owing to the local scale symmetry

Gravity is Geometry.

Science.gov (United States)

MacKeown, P. K.

1984-01-01

Clarifies two concepts of gravity--those of a fictitious force and those of how space and time may have geometry. Reviews the position of Newton's theory of gravity in the context of special relativity and considers why gravity (as distinct from electromagnetics) lends itself to Einstein's revolutionary interpretation. (JN)

Gravity inversion code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burkhard, N.R.

1979-01-01

The gravity inversion code applies stabilized linear inverse theory to determine the topography of a subsurface density anomaly from Bouguer gravity data. The gravity inversion program consists of four source codes: SEARCH, TREND, INVERT, and AVERAGE. TREND and INVERT are used iteratively to converge on a solution. SEARCH forms the input gravity data files for Nevada Test Site data. AVERAGE performs a covariance analysis on the solution. This document describes the necessary input files and the proper operation of the code. 2 figures, 2 tables

Field-theoretic approach to gravity in the flat space-time

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cavalleri, G [Centro Informazioni Studi Esperienze, Milan (Italy); Milan Univ. (Italy). Ist. di Fisica); Spinelli, G [Istituto di Matematica del Politecnico di Milano, Milano (Italy)

1980-01-01

In this paper it is discussed how the field-theoretical approach to gravity starting from the flat space-time is wider than the Einstein approach. The flat approach is able to predict the structure of the observable space as a consequence of the behaviour of the particle proper masses. The field equations are formally equal to Einstein's equations without the cosmological term.

Loop Quantum Gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rovelli Carlo

2008-07-01

Full Text Available The problem of describing the quantum behavior of gravity, and thus understanding quantum spacetime, is still open. Loop quantum gravity is a well-developed approach to this problem. It is a mathematically well-defined background-independent quantization of general relativity, with its conventional matter couplings. Today research in loop quantum gravity forms a vast area, ranging from mathematical foundations to physical applications. Among the most significant results obtained so far are: (i The computation of the spectra of geometrical quantities such as area and volume, which yield tentative quantitative predictions for Planck-scale physics. (ii A physical picture of the microstructure of quantum spacetime, characterized by Planck-scale discreteness. Discreteness emerges as a standard quantum effect from the discrete spectra, and provides a mathematical realization of Wheeler’s “spacetime foam” intuition. (iii Control of spacetime singularities, such as those in the interior of black holes and the cosmological one. This, in particular, has opened up the possibility of a theoretical investigation into the very early universe and the spacetime regions beyond the Big Bang. (iv A derivation of the Bekenstein–Hawking black-hole entropy. (v Low-energy calculations, yielding n-point functions well defined in a background-independent context. The theory is at the roots of, or strictly related to, a number of formalisms that have been developed for describing background-independent quantum field theory, such as spin foams, group field theory, causal spin networks, and others. I give here a general overview of ideas, techniques, results and open problems of this candidate theory of quantum gravity, and a guide to the relevant literature.

Geological Mapping of Sabah, Malaysia, Using Airborne Gravity Survey

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fauzi Nordin, Ahmad; Jamil, Hassan; Noor Isa, Mohd

2016-01-01

Airborne gravimetry is an effective tool for mapping local gravity fields using a combination of airborne sensors, aircraft and positioning systems. It is suitable for gravity surveys over difficult terrains and areas mixed with land and ocean. This paper describes the geological mapping of Sabah...... using airborne gravity surveys. Airborne gravity data over land areas of Sabah has been combined with the marine airborne gravity data to provide a seamless land-to-sea gravity field coverage in order to produce the geological mapping. Free-air and Bouguer anomaly maps (density 2.67 g/cm3) have been...... derived from the airborne data both as simple ad-hoc plots (at aircraft altitude), and as final plots from the downward continued airborne data, processed as part of the geoids determination. Data are gridded at 0.025 degree spacing which is about 2.7 km and the data resolution of the filtered airborne...

The covariant formulation of f ( T ) gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krššák, Martin; Saridakis, Emmanuel N

2016-01-01

We show that the well-known problem of frame dependence and violation of local Lorentz invariance in the usual formulation of f ( T ) gravity is a consequence of neglecting the role of spin connection. We re-formulate f ( T ) gravity starting from, instead of the ‘pure tetrad’ teleparallel gravity, the covariant teleparallel gravity, using both the tetrad and the spin connection as dynamical variables, resulting in a fully covariant, consistent, and frame-independent version of f ( T ) gravity, which does not suffer from the notorious problems of the usual, pure tetrad, f ( T ) theory. We present the method to extract solutions for the most physically important cases, such as the Minkowski, the Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) and the spherically symmetric ones. We show that in covariant f ( T ) gravity we are allowed to use an arbitrary tetrad in an arbitrary coordinate system along with the corresponding spin connection, resulting always in the same physically relevant field equations. (paper)

Gravity brake

Science.gov (United States)

Lujan, Richard E.

2001-01-01

A mechanical gravity brake that prevents hoisted loads within a shaft from free-falling when a loss of hoisting force occurs. A loss of hoist lifting force may occur in a number of situations, for example if a hoist cable were to break, the brakes were to fail on a winch, or the hoist mechanism itself were to fail. Under normal hoisting conditions, the gravity brake of the invention is subject to an upward lifting force from the hoist and a downward pulling force from a suspended load. If the lifting force should suddenly cease, the loss of differential forces on the gravity brake in free-fall is translated to extend a set of brakes against the walls of the shaft to stop the free fall descent of the gravity brake and attached load.

On the Langevin equation for stochastic quantization of gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakazawa, Naohito.

1989-10-01

We study the Langevin equation for stochastic quantization of gravity. By introducing two independent variables with a second-class constraint for the gravitational field, we formulate a pair of the Langevin equations for gravity which couples with white noises. After eliminating the multiplier field for the second-class constraint, we show that the equations leads to stochastic quantization of gravity including an unique superspace metric. (author)

Field Equations for Abelian Vector Fields in the Bianchi Type I Metric in the Framework of Teleparallel Gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Triyanta; Zen, F. P.; Supardi; Wardaya, A. Y.

2010-01-01

Gauge theory, under the framework of quantum field theory, has successfully described three fundamental interactions: electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions. Problems of describing the gravitational interaction in a similar manner has not been satisfied yet until now. Teleparallel gravity (TG) is one proposal describing gravitational field as a gauge field. This theory is quite new and it is equivalent to Einstein's general relativity. But as gravitational field in TG is expressed by torsion, rather than curvature, it gives an alternative framework for solving problems on gravity. This paper will present solution of the dynamical equation of abelian vector fields under the framework of TG in the Bianchi type I spacetime.

Quantum gravity and the renormalisation group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Litim, D.

2011-01-01

The Standard Model of particle physics is remarkably successful in describing three out of the four known fundamental forces of Nature. But what is up with gravity? Attempts to understand quantum gravity on the same footing as the other forces still face problems. Some time ago, it has been pointed out that gravity may very well exist as a fundamental quantum field theory provided its high-energy behaviour is governed by a fixed point under the renormalisation group. In recent years, this 'asymptotic safety' scenario has found significant support thanks to numerous renormalisation group studies, lattice simulations, and new ideas within perturbation theory. The lectures will give an introduction into the renormalisation group approach for quantum gravity, aimed at those who haven't met the topic before. After an introduction and overview, the key ideas and concepts of asymptotic safety for gravity are fleshed out. Results for gravitational high-energy fixed points and scaling exponents are discussed as well as key features of the gravitational phase diagram. The survey concludes with some phenomenological implications of fixed point gravity including the physics of black holes and particle physics beyond the Standard Model. (author)

The Geopotential Research Mission - Mapping the near earth gravity and magnetic fields

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, P. T.; Keating, T.; Smith, D. E.; Langel, R. A.; Schnetzler, C. C.; Kahn, W. D.

1983-01-01

The Geopotential Research Mission (GRM), NASA's low-level satellite system designed to measure the gravity and magnetic fields of the earth, and its objectives are described. The GRM will consist of two, Shuttle launched, satellite systems (300 km apart) that will operate simultaneously at a 160 km circular-polar orbit for six months. Current mission goals include mapping the global geoid to 10 cm, measuring gravity-field anomalies to 2 mgal with a spatial resolution of 100 km, detecting crustal magnetic anomalies of 100 km wavelength with 1 nT accuracy, measuring the vectors components to + or - 5 arc sec and 5 nT, and computing the main dipole or core field to 5 nT with a 2 nT/year secular variation detection. Resource analysis and exploration geology are additional applications considered.

The Cause of Gravity

OpenAIRE

Byrne, Michael

1999-01-01

Einstein said that gravity is an acceleration like any other acceleration. But gravity causes relativistic effects at non-relativistic speeds; so gravity could have relativistic origins. And since the strong force is thought to cause most of mass, and mass is proportional to gravity; the strong force is therefore also proportional to gravity. The strong force could thus cause relativistic increases of mass through the creation of virtual gluons; along with a comparable contraction of space ar...

Electrostatic analogy for symmetron gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Ogden, Lillie; Brown, Katherine; Mathur, Harsh; Rovelli, Kevin

2017-12-01

The symmetron model is a scalar-tensor theory of gravity with a screening mechanism that suppresses the effect of the symmetron field at high densities characteristic of the Solar System and laboratory scales but allows it to act with gravitational strength at low density on the cosmological scale. We elucidate the screening mechanism by showing that in the quasistatic Newtonian limit there are precise analogies between symmetron gravity and electrostatics for both strong and weak screening. For strong screening we find that large dense bodies behave in a manner analogous to perfect conductors in electrostatics. Based on this analogy we find that the symmetron field exhibits a lightning rod effect wherein the field gradients are enhanced near the ends of pointed or elongated objects. An ellipsoid placed in a uniform symmetron gradient is shown to experience a torque. By symmetry there is no gravitational torque in this case. Hence this effect unmasks the symmetron and might serve as the basis for future laboratory experiments. The symmetron force between a point mass and a large dense body includes a component corresponding to the interaction of the point mass with its image in the larger body. None of these effects have counterparts in the Newtonian limit of Einstein gravity. We discuss the similarities between symmetron gravity and the chameleon model as well as the differences between the two.

Tensor Galileons and gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chatzistavrakidis, Athanasios [Van Swinderen Institute for Particle Physics and Gravity, University of Groningen,Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen (Netherlands); Khoo, Fech Scen [Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen,Campus Ring 1, 28759 Bremen (Germany); Roest, Diederik [Van Swinderen Institute for Particle Physics and Gravity, University of Groningen,Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen (Netherlands); Schupp, Peter [Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen,Campus Ring 1, 28759 Bremen (Germany)

2017-03-13

The particular structure of Galileon interactions allows for higher-derivative terms while retaining second order field equations for scalar fields and Abelian p-forms. In this work we introduce an index-free formulation of these interactions in terms of two sets of Grassmannian variables. We employ this to construct Galileon interactions for mixed-symmetry tensor fields and coupled systems thereof. We argue that these tensors are the natural generalization of scalars with Galileon symmetry, similar to p-forms and scalars with a shift-symmetry. The simplest case corresponds to linearised gravity with Lovelock invariants, relating the Galileon symmetry to diffeomorphisms. Finally, we examine the coupling of a mixed-symmetry tensor to gravity, and demonstrate in an explicit example that the inclusion of appropriate counterterms retains second order field equations.

A general framework to test gravity using galaxy clusters - I. Modelling the dynamical mass of haloes in f(R) gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, Myles A.; He, Jian-hua; Arnold, Christian; Li, Baojiu

2018-06-01

We propose a new framework for testing gravity using cluster observations, which aims to provide an unbiased constraint on modified gravity models from Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) and X-ray cluster counts and the cluster gas fraction, among other possible observables. Focusing on a popular f(R) model of gravity, we propose a novel procedure to recalibrate mass scaling relations from Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) to f(R) gravity for SZ and X-ray cluster observables. We find that the complicated modified gravity effects can be simply modelled as a dependence on a combination of the background scalar field and redshift, fR(z)/(1 + z), regardless of the f(R) model parameter. By employing a large suite of N-body simulations, we demonstrate that a theoretically derived tanh fitting formula is in excellent agreement with the dynamical mass enhancement of dark matter haloes for a large range of background field parameters and redshifts. Our framework is sufficiently flexible to allow for tests of other models and inclusion of further observables, and the one-parameter description of the dynamical mass enhancement can have important implications on the theoretical modelling of observables and on practical tests of gravity.

Anomalies in chiral W--gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carvalho, Marcelo; Vilar, Luiz Claudio Queiroz; Sorella, S.P.

1994-01-01

W-algebras are an extension of the Virasoro algebra. They describe the commutation relations between the components of the stress-energy tensor (T ++ ,T -- ) and the currents (W ++++... , W ----... ) of higher spin. Among the various W-algebras considered in the recent literature, the so-called W 3 -algebra plays a rather special role, due to the fact that it has a simple field theory realization. The corresponding field model, known as W 3 -gravity, yields a generalization of the usual bosonic string action. In this work, anomalies in chiral W--gravity are studied

Unifying Einstein and Palatini gravities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amendola, Luca; Enqvist, Kari; Koivisto, Tomi

2011-01-01

We consider a novel class of f(R) gravity theories where the connection is related to the conformally scaled metric g μν =C(R)g μν with a scaling that depends on the scalar curvature R only. We call them C theories and show that the Einstein and Palatini gravities can be obtained as special limits. In addition, C theories include completely new physically distinct gravity theories even when f(R)=R. With nonlinear f(R), C theories interpolate and extrapolate the Einstein and Palatini cases and may avoid some of their conceptual and observational problems. We further show that C theories have a scalar-tensor formulation, which in some special cases reduces to simple Brans-Dicke-type gravity. If matter fields couple to the connection, the conservation laws in C theories are modified. The stability of perturbations about flat space is determined by a simple condition on the Lagrangian.

Studies in gravity and supergravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castellani, L.

1981-01-01

The canonical treatment for theories with local gauge invariances is reviewed and an algorithm for the construction of all the gauge generators is found. This algorithm is then applied to Yang-Mills theories and to (metric) gravity. The first part of the work is concluded with a complete treatment of hamiltonian first order tetrad gravity. In the second part, the geometrical aspects of (super)gravity theories are concentrated on. After an interlude with path integrals in curved space (equivalence is shown with canonical quantization), N = 2 supergravity in superspace, and conformal supergravity in the group manifold scenario are studied. A progress report is added, regarding a study on higher divergences in quantum field theory

Global Lunar Gravity Field Determination Using Historical and Recent Tracking Data in Preparation for SELENE

Science.gov (United States)

Goossens, S.; Matsumoto, K.; Namiki, N.; Hanada, H.; Iwata, T.; Tsuruta, S.; Kawano, N.; Sasaki, S.

2006-12-01

In the near future, a number of satellite missions are planned to be launched to the Moon. These missions include initiatives by China, India, the USA, as well as the Japanese SELENE mission. These missions will gather a wealth of lunar data which will improve the knowledge of the Moon. One of the main topics to be addressed will be the lunar gravity field. Especially SELENE will contribute to improving the knowledge of the gravity field, by applying 4-way Doppler tracking between the main satellite and a relay satellite, and by applying a separate differential VLBI experiment. These will improve the determination of the global gravity field, especially over the far side and at the lower degrees (mostly for degrees lower than 30), as is shown by extensive simulations of the SELENE mission. This work focuses on the determination of the global lunar gravity field from all available tracking data to this date. In preparation for the SELENE mission, analysis using Lunar Prospector tracking data, as well as Clementine data and historical data from the Apollo and Lunar Orbiter projects is being conducted at NAOJ. Some SMART-1 tracking data are also included. The goal is to combine the good-quality data from the existing lunar missions up to this date with the tracking data from SELENE in order to derive a new lunar gravity field model. The focus therefore currently lies on processing the available data and extracting lunar gravity field information from them. It is shown that the historical tracking data contribute especially to the lower degrees of the global lunar gravity field model. Due to the large gap in tracking data coverage over the far side for the historical data, the higher degrees are almost fully determined by the a priori information in the form of a Kaula rule. The combination with SELENE data is thus expected to improve the estimate for the lower degrees even further, including coverage of the far side. Since historical tracking data are from orbits with

The quest for quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Au, G.

1995-03-01

One of the greatest challenges facing theoretical physics lies in reconciling Einstein's classical theory of gravity - general relativity -with quantum field theory. Although both theories have been experimentally supported in their respective regimes, they are as compatible as a square peg and a round hole. This article summarises the current status of the superstring approach to the problem, the status of the Ashtekar program, and problem of time in quantum gravity

Constraining the interior density profile of a Jovian planet from precision gravity field data

Science.gov (United States)

Movshovitz, Naor; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Helled, Ravit; Hubbard, William B.; Thorngren, Daniel; Mankovich, Chris; Wahl, Sean; Militzer, Burkhard; Durante, Daniele

2017-10-01

The external gravity field of a planetary body is determined by the distribution of mass in its interior. Therefore, a measurement of the external field, properly interpreted, tells us about the interior density profile, ρ(r), which in turn can be used to constrain the composition in the interior and thereby learn about the formation mechanism of the planet. Planetary gravity fields are usually described by the coefficients in an expansion of the gravitational potential. Recently, high precision measurements of these coefficients for Jupiter and Saturn have been made by the radio science instruments on the Juno and Cassini spacecraft, respectively.The resulting coefficients come with an associated uncertainty. And while the task of matching a given density profile with a given set of gravity coefficients is relatively straightforward, the question of how best to account for the uncertainty is not. In essentially all prior work on matching models to gravity field data, inferences about planetary structure have rested on imperfect knowledge of the H/He equation of state and on the assumption of an adiabatic interior. Here we wish to vastly expand the phase space of such calculations. We present a framework for describing all the possible interior density structures of a Jovian planet, constrained only by a given set of gravity coefficients and their associated uncertainties. Our approach is statistical. We produce a random sample of ρ(a) curves drawn from the underlying (and unknown) probability distribution of all curves, where ρ is the density on an interior level surface with equatorial radius a. Since the resulting set of density curves is a random sample, that is, curves appear with frequency proportional to the likelihood of their being consistent with the measured gravity, we can compute probability distributions for any quantity that is a function of ρ, such as central pressure, oblateness, core mass and radius, etc. Our approach is also bayesian, in that

Gravity, Magnetism, and "Down": Non-Physics College Students' Conceptions of Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Asghar, Anila; Libarkin, Julie C.

2010-01-01

This study investigates how students enrolled in entry-level geology, most of whom would graduate from college without university-level physics courses, thought about and applied the concept of gravity while solving problems concerning gravity. The repercussions of students' gravity concepts are then considered in the context of non-physics…

Gravity data processing and research in potential evaluation of uranium resource in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Hu; Zhao Dan; Ke Dan; Li Bihong; Han Shaoyang

2012-01-01

Through data processing, anomaly extraction, geologic structure deduction from gravity in 39 uranium metallogenic zones and 29 prediction areas, the predicting factors such as tectonic units, faults, scope and depth of rocks, scope of basins and strata structure were provided for the evaluation of uranium resources potential. Gravity field features of uranium metallogenic environment were summarized for hydrothermal type uranium deposits (granite, volcanic and carbonate-siliceous-argillaceous type) as regional gravity transition from high to the low field or the region near the low field, and the key metallogenic factors as granite rocks and volcanic basins in the low gravity field. It was found that Large-scale sandstone type uranium mineralization basins are located in the high regional gravity field, provenance areas are in the low field, and the edge and inner uplift areas usually located in the high field of the residual gravity. Faults related to different type uranium mineralization occur as the gradient zones, boundaries, a string of bead anomalies and striped gravity anomalies in the gravity field. (authors)

Gsolve, a Python computer program with a graphical user interface to transform relative gravity survey measurements to absolute gravity values and gravity anomalies

Science.gov (United States)

McCubbine, Jack; Tontini, Fabio Caratori; Stagpoole, Vaughan; Smith, Euan; O'Brien, Grant

2018-01-01

A Python program (Gsolve) with a graphical user interface has been developed to assist with routine data processing of relative gravity measurements. Gsolve calculates the gravity at each measurement site of a relative gravity survey, which is referenced to at least one known gravity value. The tidal effects of the sun and moon, gravimeter drift and tares in the data are all accounted for during the processing of the survey measurements. The calculation is based on a least squares formulation where the difference between the absolute gravity at each surveyed location and parameters relating to the dynamics of the gravimeter are minimized with respect to the relative gravity observations, and some supplied gravity reference site values. The program additionally allows the user to compute free air gravity anomalies, with respect to the GRS80 and GRS67 reference ellipsoids, from the determined gravity values and calculate terrain corrections at each of the surveyed sites using a prism formula and a user supplied digital elevation model. This paper reviews the mathematical framework used to reduce relative gravimeter survey observations to gravity values. It then goes on to detail how the processing steps can be implemented using the software.

Dynamical structure of linearized GL(4) gravities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aragone, C.; Restuccia, A.

1978-01-01

The physical content of the three more natural models of GL(4) gravity is analyzed, for the case of weak fields. It is shown that the first model is the linearized version of Yang's one-tensor-field gravity and is a scalar-tensor theory, with its scalar part contained in a symmetric tensor. The second and the third linearized models, which can both be derived from the fourth-order action postulated by Yang, are two-tensor decoupled systems. In both cases one of the tensors is the symmetric weak metric gravity tensor field. the second tensor appearing in these two models, representing the GL(4)-gauge field, is either a linearized symmetric affinity (in the second model) or a linearized but nonsymmetric affinity (for the third model). It is shown that in these last two cases the affinity contains a helicity-3 propagating field. Owing to the presence of helicity-3 fields it is shown that it is better to regard Yang's action as an action for a two-tensor system instead of trying to recover from a pure gravity (one-tensor-field) action. Finally, it is shown what is the dynamical structure of the second and third linearized two-tensor models which can be derived from Yang's action. (author)

Simultaneous measurement of gravity acceleration and gravity gradient with an atom interferometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sorrentino, F.; Lien, Y.-H.; Rosi, G.; Tino, G. M.; Bertoldi, A.; Bodart, Q.; Cacciapuoti, L.; Angelis, M. de; Prevedelli, M.

2012-01-01

We demonstrate a method to measure the gravitational acceleration with a dual cloud atom interferometer; the use of simultaneous atom interferometers reduces the effect of seismic noise on the gravity measurement. At the same time, the apparatus is capable of accurate measurements of the vertical gravity gradient. The ability to determine the gravity acceleration and gravity gradient simultaneously and with the same instrument opens interesting perspectives in geophysical applications.

Aspects of Nonlocality in Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Gravity and Cosmology

CERN Document Server

Barvinsky, A O

2015-01-01

This paper contains a collection of essays on nonlocal phenomena in quantum field theory, gravity and cosmology. Mechanisms of nonlocal contributions to the quantum effective action are discussed within the covariant perturbation expansion in field strengths and spacetime curvatures and the nonperturbative method based on the late time asymptotics of the heat kernel. Euclidean version of the Schwinger-Keldysh technique for quantum expectation values is presented as a special rule of obtaining the nonlocal effective equations of motion for the mean quantum field from the Euclidean effective action. This rule is applied to a new model of ghost free nonlocal cosmology which can generate the de Sitter stage of cosmological evolution at an arbitrary value of $\\varLambda$ -- a model of dark energy with its scale played by the dynamical variable that can be fixed by a kind of a scaling symmetry breaking mechanism. This model is shown to interpolate between the superhorizon phase of gravity theory mediated by a scala...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for EN08 (2013)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusettes, Maine, and Canada collected in 2013 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity...

The earth's shape and gravity

CERN Document Server

Garland, G D; Wilson, J T

2013-01-01

The Earth's Shape and Gravity focuses on the progress of the use of geophysical methods in investigating the interior of the earth and its shape. The publication first offers information on gravity, geophysics, geodesy, and geology and gravity measurements. Discussions focus on gravity measurements and reductions, potential and equipotential surfaces, absolute and relative measurements, and gravity networks. The text then elaborates on the shape of the sea-level surface and reduction of gravity observations. The text takes a look at gravity anomalies and structures in the earth's crust; interp

Exploring plane-symmetric solutions in f(R) gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shamir, M. F., E-mail: farasat.shamir@nu.edu.pk [National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Department of Sciences and Humanities (Pakistan)

2016-02-15

The modified theories of gravity, especially the f(R) gravity, have attracted much attention in the last decade. This paper is devoted to exploring plane-symmetric solutions in the context of metric f(R) gravity. We extend the work on static plane-symmetric vacuum solutions in f(R) gravity already available in the literature [1, 2]. The modified field equations are solved using the assumptions of both constant and nonconstant scalar curvature. Some well-known solutions are recovered with power-law and logarithmic forms of f(R) models.

No chiral truncation of quantum log gravity?

Science.gov (United States)

Andrade, Tomás; Marolf, Donald

2010-03-01

At the classical level, chiral gravity may be constructed as a consistent truncation of a larger theory called log gravity by requiring that left-moving charges vanish. In turn, log gravity is the limit of topologically massive gravity (TMG) at a special value of the coupling (the chiral point). We study the situation at the level of linearized quantum fields, focussing on a unitary quantization. While the TMG Hilbert space is continuous at the chiral point, the left-moving Virasoro generators become ill-defined and cannot be used to define a chiral truncation. In a sense, the left-moving asymptotic symmetries are spontaneously broken at the chiral point. In contrast, in a non-unitary quantization of TMG, both the Hilbert space and charges are continuous at the chiral point and define a unitary theory of chiral gravity at the linearized level.

Magnetic field is the dominant factor to induce the response of Streptomyces avermitilis in altered gravity simulated by diamagnetic levitation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mei Liu

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Diamagnetic levitation is a technique that uses a strong, spatially varying magnetic field to simulate an altered gravity environment, as in space. In this study, using Streptomyces avermitilis as the test organism, we investigate whether changes in magnetic field and altered gravity induce changes in morphology and secondary metabolism. We find that a strong magnetic field (12T inhibit the morphological development of S. avermitilis in solid culture, and increase the production of secondary metabolites. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: S. avermitilis on solid medium was levitated at 0 g*, 1 g* and 2 g* in an altered gravity environment simulated by diamagnetic levitation and under a strong magnetic field, denoted by the asterix. The morphology was obtained by electromicroscopy. The production of the secondary metabolite, avermectin, was determined by OD(245 nm. The results showed that diamagnetic levitation could induce a physiological response in S. avermitilis. The difference between 1 g* and the control group grown without the strong magnetic field (1 g, showed that the magnetic field was a more dominant factor influencing changes in morphology and secondary metabolite production, than altered gravity. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: We have discovered that magnetic field, rather than altered gravity, is the dominant factor in altered gravity simulated by diamagnetic levitation, therefore care should to be taken in the interpretation of results when using diamagnetic levitation as a technique to simulate altered gravity. Hence, these results are significant, and timely to researchers considering the use of diamagnetic levitation to explore effects of weightlessness on living organisms and on physical phenomena.

(2 + 1)-dimensional interacting model of two massless spin-2 fields as a bi-gravity model

Science.gov (United States)

Hoseinzadeh, S.; Rezaei-Aghdam, A.

2018-06-01

We propose a new group-theoretical (Chern-Simons) formulation for the bi-metric theory of gravity in (2 + 1)-dimensional spacetime which describe two interacting massless spin-2 fields. Our model has been formulated in terms of two dreibeins rather than two metrics. We obtain our Chern-Simons gravity model by gauging mixed AdS-AdS Lie algebra and show that it has a two dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) at the boundary of the anti de Sitter (AdS) solution. We show that the central charge of the dual CFT is proportional to the mass of the AdS solution. We also study cosmological implications of our massless bi-gravity model.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN08 (2016)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2016 over one survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum...

Large N field theories, string theory and gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maldacena, J [Lyman Laboratory of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge (United States)

2002-05-15

We describe the holographic correspondence between field theories and string/M theory, focusing on the relation between compactifications of string/ M theory on Anti-de Sitter spaces and conformal field theories. We review the background for this correspondence and discuss its motivations and the evidence for its correctness. We describe the main results that have been derived from the correspondence in the regime that the field theory is approximated by classical or semiclassical gravity. We focus on the case of the N = 4 supersymmetric gauge theory in four dimensions. These lecture notes are based on the Review written by O. Aharony, S. Gubser, J. Maldacena, H. Ooguri and Y. Oz. (author)

Einstein gravity 3-point functions from conformal field theory

Science.gov (United States)

Afkhami-Jeddi, Nima; Hartman, Thomas; Kundu, Sandipan; Tajdini, Amirhossein

2017-12-01

We study stress tensor correlation functions in four-dimensional conformal field theories with large N and a sparse spectrum. Theories in this class are expected to have local holographic duals, so effective field theory in anti-de Sitter suggests that the stress tensor sector should exhibit universal, gravity-like behavior. At the linearized level, the hallmark of locality in the emergent geometry is that stress tensor three-point functions 〈 T T T 〉, normally specified by three constants, should approach a universal structure controlled by a single parameter as the gap to higher spin operators is increased. We demonstrate this phenomenon by a direct CFT calculation. Stress tensor exchange, by itself, violates causality and unitarity unless the three-point functions are carefully tuned, and the unique consistent choice exactly matches the prediction of Einstein gravity. Under some assumptions about the other potential contributions, we conclude that this structure is universal, and in particular, that the anomaly coefficients satisfy a ≈ c as conjectured by Camanho et al. The argument is based on causality of a four-point function, with kinematics designed to probe bulk locality, and invokes the chaos bound of Maldacena, Shenker, and Stanford.

The quest for quantum gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Au, G

1995-03-01

One of the greatest challenges facing theoretical physics lies in reconciling Einstein`s classical theory of gravity - general relativity -with quantum field theory. Although both theories have been experimentally supported in their respective regimes, they are as compatible as a square peg and a round hole. This article summarises the current status of the superstring approach to the problem, the status of the Ashtekar program, and problem of time in quantum gravity.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AS01 (2008)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2008 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CS04 (2009)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Texas collected in 2009 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN05 (2011)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2011 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for TS01 (2014)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands collected in 2009 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN06 (2011)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2011 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AS02 (2010)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2010 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for EN01 (2011)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for New York, Canada, and Lake Ontario collected in 2011 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN03 (2010)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2010 and 2012 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN04 (2010)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2010 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CS05 (2014)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Texas collected in 2014 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for EN06 (2016)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Maine, Canada, and the Atlantic Ocean collected in 2012 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN02 (2010)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2010 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for ES01 (2013)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Florida, the Bahamas, and the Atlantic Ocean collected in 2013 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of...

Gravity signal at Ghawar, Saudi Arabia, from the global gravitational field model EGM 2008 and similarities around

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Klokočník, Jaroslav; Kostelecký, J.

2015-01-01

Roč. 8, č. 6 (2015), s. 3515-3522 ISSN 1866-7511 Institutional support: RVO:67985815 Keywords : gravity disturbance (anomaly) * Marussi tensor * invariants of the gravity field Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography Impact factor: 1.224, year: 2014

Semiclassical analysis of loop quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Conrady, F.

2005-01-01

In this Ph.D. thesis, we explore and develop new methods that should help in determining an effective semiclassical description of canonical loop quantum gravity and spin foam gravity. A brief introduction to loop quantum gravity is followed by three research papers that present the results of the Ph.D. project. In the first article, we deal with the problem of time and a new proposal for implementing proper time as boundary conditions in a sum over histories: we investigate a concrete realization of this formalism for free scalar field theory. In the second article, we translate semiclassical states of linearized gravity into states of loop quantum gravity. The properties of the latter indicate how semiclassicality manifests itself in the loop framework, and how this may be exploited for doing semiclassical expansions. In the third part, we propose a new formulation of spin foam models that is fully triangulation- and background-independent: by means of a symmetry condition, we identify spin foam models whose triangulation-dependence can be naturally removed. (orig.)

Semiclassical analysis of loop quantum gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Conrady, F.

2005-10-17

In this Ph.D. thesis, we explore and develop new methods that should help in determining an effective semiclassical description of canonical loop quantum gravity and spin foam gravity. A brief introduction to loop quantum gravity is followed by three research papers that present the results of the Ph.D. project. In the first article, we deal with the problem of time and a new proposal for implementing proper time as boundary conditions in a sum over histories: we investigate a concrete realization of this formalism for free scalar field theory. In the second article, we translate semiclassical states of linearized gravity into states of loop quantum gravity. The properties of the latter indicate how semiclassicality manifests itself in the loop framework, and how this may be exploited for doing semiclassical expansions. In the third part, we propose a new formulation of spin foam models that is fully triangulation- and background-independent: by means of a symmetry condition, we identify spin foam models whose triangulation-dependence can be naturally removed. (orig.)

Analogue Gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barceló Carlos

2005-12-01

Full Text Available Analogue models of (and for gravity have a long and distinguished history dating back to the earliest years of general relativity. In this review article we will discuss the history, aims, results, and future prospects for the various analogue models. We start the discussion by presenting a particularly simple example of an analogue model, before exploring the rich history and complex tapestry of models discussed in the literature. The last decade in particular has seen a remarkable and sustained development of analogue gravity ideas, leading to some hundreds of published articles, a workshop, two books, and this review article. Future prospects for the analogue gravity programme also look promising, both on the experimental front (where technology is rapidly advancing and on the theoretical front (where variants of analogue models can be used as a springboard for radical attacks on the problem of quantum gravity.

NGS Absolute Gravity Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The NGS Absolute Gravity data (78 stations) was received in July 1993. Principal gravity parameters include Gravity Value, Uncertainty, and Vertical Gradient. The...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CS08 (2015)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for CS08 collected in 2006 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for ES02 (2013)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Florida and the Gulf of Mexico collected in 2013 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American...

Loop Quantum Gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rovelli Carlo

1998-01-01

Full Text Available The problem of finding the quantum theory of the gravitational field, and thus understanding what is quantum spacetime, is still open. One of the most active of the current approaches is loop quantum gravity. Loop quantum gravity is a mathematically well-defined, non-perturbative and background independent quantization of general relativity, with its conventional matter couplings. Research in loop quantum gravity today forms a vast area, ranging from mathematical foundations to physical applications. Among the most significant results obtained are: (i The computation of the physical spectra of geometrical quantities such as area and volume, which yields quantitative predictions on Planck-scale physics. (ii A derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy formula. (iii An intriguing physical picture of the microstructure of quantum physical space, characterized by a polymer-like Planck scale discreteness. This discreteness emerges naturally from the quantum theory and provides a mathematically well-defined realization of Wheeler's intuition of a spacetime ``foam''. Long standing open problems within the approach (lack of a scalar product, over-completeness of the loop basis, implementation of reality conditions have been fully solved. The weak part of the approach is the treatment of the dynamics: at present there exist several proposals, which are intensely debated. Here, I provide a general overview of ideas, techniques, results and open problems of this candidate theory of quantum gravity, and a guide to the relevant literature.

Southern Africa Gravity Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data base (14,559 records) was received in January 1986. Principal gravity parameters include elevation and observed gravity. The observed gravity values are...

General Relativity solutions in modified gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Motohashi, Hayato; Minamitsuji, Masato

2018-06-01

Recent gravitational wave observations of binary black hole mergers and a binary neutron star merger by LIGO and Virgo Collaborations associated with its optical counterpart constrain deviation from General Relativity (GR) both on strong-field regime and cosmological scales with high accuracy, and further strong constraints are expected by near-future observations. Thus, it is important to identify theories of modified gravity that intrinsically possess the same solutions as in GR among a huge number of theories. We clarify the three conditions for theories of modified gravity to allow GR solutions, i.e., solutions with the metric satisfying the Einstein equations in GR and the constant profile of the scalar fields. Our analysis is quite general, as it applies a wide class of single-/multi-field scalar-tensor theories of modified gravity in the presence of matter component, and any spacetime geometry including cosmological background as well as spacetime around black hole and neutron star, for the latter of which these conditions provide a necessary condition for no-hair theorem. The three conditions will be useful for further constraints on modified gravity theories as they classify general theories of modified gravity into three classes, each of which possesses i) unique GR solutions (i.e., no-hair cases), ii) only hairy solutions (except the cases that GR solutions are realized by cancellation between singular coupling functions in the Euler-Lagrange equations), and iii) both GR and hairy solutions, for the last of which one of the two solutions may be selected dynamically.

How to turn gravity waves into Alfven waves and other such tricks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Newington, Marie E; Cally, Paul S

2011-01-01

Recent observations of travelling gravity waves at the base of the chromosphere suggest an interplay between gravity wave propagation and magnetic field. Our aims are: to explain the observation that gravity wave flux is suppressed in magnetic regions; to understand why we see travelling waves instead of standing waves; and to see if gravity waves can undergo mode conversion and couple to Alfven waves in regions where the plasma beta is of order unity. We model gravity waves in a VAL C atmosphere, subject to a uniform magnetic field of various orientations, considering both adiabatic and radiatively damped propagation. Results indicate that in the presence of a magnetic field, the gravity wave can propagate as a travelling wave, with the magnetic field orientation playing a crucial role in determining the wave character. For the majority of magnetic field orientations, the gravity wave is reflected at low heights as a slow magneto-acoustic wave, explaining the observation of reduced flux in magnetic regions. In a highly inclined magnetic field, the gravity wave undergoes mode conversion to either field guided acoustic waves or Alfven waves. The primary effect of incorporating radiative damping is a reduction in acoustic and magnetic fluxes measured at the top of the integration region. By demonstrating the mode conversion of gravity waves to Alfven waves, this work identifies a possible pathway for energy transport from the solar surface to the upper atmosphere.

General relativity and gauge gravity theories of higher order

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konopleva, N.P.

1998-01-01

It is a short review of today's gauge gravity theories and their relations with Einstein General Relativity. The conceptions of construction of the gauge gravity theories with higher derivatives are analyzed. GR is regarded as the gauge gravity theory corresponding to the choice of G ∞4 as the local gauge symmetry group and the symmetrical tensor of rank two g μν as the field variable. Using the mathematical technique, single for all fundamental interactions (namely variational formalism for infinite Lie groups), we can obtain Einstein's theory as the gauge theory without any changes. All other gauge approaches lead to non-Einstein theories of gravity. But above-mentioned mathematical technique permits us to construct the gauge gravity theory of higher order (for instance SO (3,1)-gravity) so that all vacuum solutions of Einstein equations are the solutions of the SO (3,1)-gravity theory. The structure of equations of SO(3,1)-gravity becomes analogous to Weeler-Misner geometrodynamics one

Magnetic Field and Gravity Effects on Peristaltic Transport of a Jeffrey Fluid in an Asymmetric Channel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. M. Abd-Alla

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the peristaltic flow of a Jeffrey fluid in an asymmetric channel has been investigated. Mathematical modeling is carried out by utilizing long wavelength and low Reynolds number assumptions. Closed form expressions for the pressure gradient, pressure rise, stream function, axial velocity, and shear stress on the channel walls have been computed numerically. Effects of the Hartmann number, the ratio of relaxation to retardation times, time-mean flow, the phase angle and the gravity field on the pressure gradient, pressure rise, streamline, axial velocity, and shear stress are discussed in detail and shown graphically. The results indicate that the effect of Hartmann number, ratio of relaxation to retardation times, time-mean flow, phase angle, and gravity field are very pronounced in the peristaltic transport phenomena. Comparison was made with the results obtained in the presence and absence of magnetic field and gravity field.

Stochastic Gravity: Theory and Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hu Bei Lok

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Whereas semiclassical gravity is based on the semiclassical Einstein equation with sources given by the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of quantum fields, stochastic semiclassical gravity is based on the Einstein-Langevin equation, which has in addition sources due to the noise kernel. The noise kernel is the vacuum expectation value of the (operator-valued stress-energy bi-tensor which describes the fluctuations of quantum matter fields in curved spacetimes. In the first part, we describe the fundamentals of this new theory via two approaches: the axiomatic and the functional. The axiomatic approach is useful to see the structure of the theory from the framework of semiclassical gravity, showing the link from the mean value of the stress-energy tensor to their correlation functions. The functional approach uses the Feynman-Vernon influence functional and the Schwinger-Keldysh closed-time-path effective action methods which are convenient for computations. It also brings out the open systems concepts and the statistical and stochastic contents of the theory such as dissipation, fluctuations, noise, and decoherence. We then focus on the properties of the stress-energy bi-tensor. We obtain a general expression for the noise kernel of a quantum field defined at two distinct points in an arbitrary curved spacetime as products of covariant derivatives of the quantum field's Green function. In the second part, we describe three applications of stochastic gravity theory. First, we consider metric perturbations in a Minkowski spacetime. We offer an analytical solution of the Einstein-Langevin equation and compute the two-point correlation functions for the linearized Einstein tensor and for the metric perturbations. Second, we discuss structure formation from the stochastic gravity viewpoint, which can go beyond the standard treatment by incorporating the full quantum effect of the inflaton fluctuations. Third, we discuss the backreaction

Global inter-annual gravity changes from GRACE: Early results

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Hinderer, J.

2005-01-01

with an accuracy of 0.4 muGal corresponding to 9 mm water thickness on spatial scales longer than 1300 km. Four of the most widely used global hydrological models have been investigated for their spatial comparison with GRACE observations of inter-annual gravity field variations due to changes in continental water...... storage. The Global Land Data Assimilation System model has a spatial correlation coefficient with GRACE observations of 0.65 over the northern hemisphere. This demonstrates that the observed gravity field changes on these scales are largely related to changes in continental water storage.......Fifteen monthly gravity field solutions from the GRACE twin satellites launched more than two years ago have been studied to estimate gravity field changes between 2002 and 2003. The results demonstrate that GRACE is capable of capturing the changes in ground water on inter-annual scales...

Einstein gravity emerging from quantum weyl gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zee, A.

1983-01-01

We advocate a conformal invariant world described by the sum of the Weyl, Dirac, and Yang-Mills action. Quantum fluctuations bring back Einstein gravity so that the long-distance phenomenology is as observed. Formulas for the induced Newton's constant and Eddington's constant are derived in quantized Weyl gravity. We show that the analogue of the trace anomaly for the Weyl action is structurally similar to that for the Yang-Mills action

influence of gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Animesh Mukherjee

1991-01-01

Full Text Available Based upon Biot's [1965] theory of initial stresses of hydrostatic nature produced by the effect of gravity, a study is made of surface waves in higher order visco-elastic media under the influence of gravity. The equation for the wave velocity of Stonely waves in the presence of viscous and gravitational effects is obtained. This is followed by particular cases of surface waves including Rayleigh waves and Love waves in the presence of viscous and gravity effects. In all cases the wave-velocity equations are found to be in perfect agreement with the corresponding classical results when the effects of gravity and viscosity are neglected.

A Transportable Gravity Gradiometer Based on Atom Interferometry

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Nan; Thompson, Robert J.; Kellogg, James R.; Aveline, David C.; Maleki, Lute; Kohel, James M.

2010-01-01

A transportable atom interferometer-based gravity gradiometer has been developed at JPL to carry out measurements of Earth's gravity field at ever finer spatial resolutions, and to facilitate high-resolution monitoring of temporal variations in the gravity field from ground- and flight-based platforms. Existing satellite-based gravity missions such as CHAMP and GRACE measure the gravity field via precise monitoring of the motion of the satellites; i.e. the satellites themselves function as test masses. JPL's quantum gravity gradiometer employs a quantum phase measurement technique, similar to that employed in atomic clocks, made possible by recent advances in laser cooling and manipulation of atoms. This measurement technique is based on atomwave interferometry, and individual laser-cooled atoms are used as drag-free test masses. The quantum gravity gradiometer employs two identical atom interferometers as precision accelerometers to measure the difference in gravitational acceleration between two points (Figure 1). By using the same lasers for the manipulation of atoms in both interferometers, the accelerometers have a common reference frame and non-inertial accelerations are effectively rejected as common mode noise in the differential measurement of the gravity gradient. As a result, the dual atom interferometer-based gravity gradiometer allows gravity measurements on a moving platform, while achieving the same long-term stability of the best atomic clocks. In the laboratory-based prototype (Figure 2), the cesium atoms used in each atom interferometer are initially collected and cooled in two separate magneto-optic traps (MOTs). Each MOT, consisting of three orthogonal pairs of counter-propagating laser beams centered on a quadrupole magnetic field, collects up to 10(exp 9) atoms. These atoms are then launched vertically as in an atom fountain by switching off the magnetic field and introducing a slight frequency shift between pairs of lasers to create a moving

Quantum fields in the non-perturbative regime. Yang-Mills theory and gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eichhorn, Astrid

2011-01-01

In this thesis we study candidates for fundamental quantum field theories, namely non-Abelian gauge theories and asymptotically safe quantum gravity. Whereas the first ones have a stronglyinteracting low-energy limit, the second one enters a non-perturbative regime at high energies. Thus, we apply a tool suited to the study of quantum field theories beyond the perturbative regime, namely the Functional Renormalisation Group. In a first part, we concentrate on the physical properties of non-Abelian gauge theories at low energies. Focussing on the vacuum properties of the theory, we present an evaluation of the full effective potential for the field strength invariant F μν F μν from non-perturbative gauge correlation functions and find a non-trivial minimum corresponding to the existence of a dimension four gluon condensate in the vacuum. We also relate the infrared asymptotic form of the β function of the running background-gauge coupling to the asymptotic behavior of Landau-gauge gluon and ghost propagators and derive an upper bound on their scaling exponents. We then consider the theory at finite temperature and study the nature of the confinement phase transition in d = 3+1 dimensions in various non-Abelian gauge theories. For SU(N) with N= 3,..,12 and Sp(2) we find a first-order phase transition in agreement with general expectations. Moreover our study suggests that the phase transition in E(7) Yang-Mills theory also is of first order. Our studies shed light on the question which property of a gauge group determines the order of the phase transition. In a second part we consider asymptotically safe quantum gravity. Here, we focus on the Faddeev-Popov ghost sector of the theory, to study its properties in the context of an interacting UV regime. We investigate several truncations, which all lend support to the conjecture that gravity may be asymptotically safe. In a first truncation, we study the ghost anomalous dimension which we find to be negative at the

Violation of causality in f(T) gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Otalora, G. [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Instituto de Fisica, Valparaiso (Chile); Reboucas, M.J. [Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2017-11-15

In the standard formulation, the f(T) field equations are not invariant under local Lorentz transformations, and thus the theory does not inherit the causal structure of special relativity. Actually, even locally violation of causality can occur in this formulation of f(T) gravity. A locally Lorentz covariant f(T) gravity theory has been devised recently, and this local causality problem seems to have been overcome. The non-locality question, however, is left open. If gravitation is to be described by this covariant f(T) gravity theory there are a number of issues that ought to be examined in its context, including the question as to whether its field equations allow homogeneous Goedel-type solutions, which necessarily leads to violation of causality on non-local scale. Here, to look into the potentialities and difficulties of the covariant f(T) theories, we examine whether they admit Goedel-type solutions. We take a combination of a perfect fluid with electromagnetic plus a scalar field as source, and determine a general Goedel-type solution, which contains special solutions in which the essential parameter of Goedel-type geometries, m{sup 2}, defines any class of homogeneous Goedel-type geometries. We show that solutions of the trigonometric and linear classes (m{sup 2} < 0 and m = 0) are permitted only for the combined matter sources with an electromagnetic field matter component. We extended to the context of covariant f(T) gravity a theorem which ensures that any perfect-fluid homogeneous Goedel-type solution defines the same set of Goedel tetrads h{sub A}{sup μ} up to a Lorentz transformation. We also showed that the single massless scalar field generates Goedel-type solution with no closed time-like curves. Even though the covariant f(T) gravity restores Lorentz covariance of the field equations and the local validity of the causality principle, the bare existence of the Goedel-type solutions makes apparent that the covariant formulation of f(T) gravity

The generalized second law of thermodynamics in generalized gravity theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu Shaofeng; Yang Guohong; Wang Bin; Zhang Pengming

2008-01-01

We investigate the generalized second law of thermodynamics (GSL) in generalized theories of gravity. We examine the total entropy evolution with time including the horizon entropy, the non-equilibrium entropy production, and the entropy of all matter, field and energy components. We derive a universal condition to protect the generalized second law and study its validity in different gravity theories. In Einstein gravity (even in the phantom-dominated universe with a Schwarzschild black hole), Lovelock gravity and braneworld gravity, we show that the condition to keep the GSL can always be satisfied. In f(R) gravity and scalar-tensor gravity, the condition to protect the GSL can also hold because the temperature should be positive, gravity is always attractive and the effective Newton constant should be an approximate constant satisfying the experimental bounds

Theories of quantum gravity: Pt. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aragone, C.

1990-01-01

Superstrings continue to be a source of inspiration for the basic understanding of quantum gravity. They seem to provide a more fundamental arena than quantum field theory. Even though we still do not have a theory of everything, string concepts bring a new theoretical richness to research in quantum and classical gravity. Papers presented at the session on this subject are reviewed. (author)

Physical properties of W gravities and W strings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Das, S.R.; Dhar, A.; Rama, S.K.

1991-01-01

This paper investigates some basic physical properties of W gravities and W strings, using a free field realization. The authors argue that the configuration space of W gravities have global characteristics in addition to the Euler characteristic. The authors identify one such global quantity to be a monopole charge and show how this charge appears in the exponents. The free energy would then involve a θ parameter. Using a BRST procedure the authors find all the physical states of W 3 and W 4 gravities, and show that physical operators are nonsingular composites of the screening charge operators. (The latter are not physical operators for N ≥ 3.) For W strings we show how the W constraints lead to the emergence of a single (and not many) extra dimension coming from the W-gravity sector. By analyzing the resulting dispersion relations the authors find that both the lower and upper critical dimensions are lowered compared to ordinary two-dimensional gravity. The pure W gravity spectrum reveals an intriguing numerological connection with unitary minimal models coupled to ordinary gravity

Gravity Defied From Potato Asteroids to Magnetised Neutron Stars

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Left to itself, gravity wouldpull everything together, and the Universe would be nothingbut a gigantic black hole. Nature throws almost every bit ofphysics – rotation, magnetic field, heat, quantum effects andso on, at gravity to escape such a fate. In this series of articles,we shall explore systems where the eternal pull of gravity ...

Loop quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pullin, J.

2015-01-01

Loop quantum gravity is one of the approaches that are being studied to apply the rules of quantum mechanics to the gravitational field described by the theory of General Relativity . We present an introductory summary of the main ideas and recent results. (Author)

Observational tests of modified gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jain, Bhuvnesh; Zhang Pengjie

2008-01-01

Modifications of general relativity provide an alternative explanation to dark energy for the observed acceleration of the Universe. Modified gravity theories have richer observational consequences for large-scale structures than conventional dark energy models, in that different observables are not described by a single growth factor even in the linear regime. We examine the relationships between perturbations in the metric potentials, density and velocity fields, and discuss strategies for measuring them using gravitational lensing, galaxy cluster abundances, galaxy clustering/dynamics, and the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. We show how a broad class of gravity theories can be tested by combining these probes. A robust way to interpret observations is by constraining two key functions: the ratio of the two metric potentials, and the ratio of the gravitational 'constant' in the Poisson equation to Newton's constant. We also discuss quasilinear effects that carry signatures of gravity, such as through induced three-point correlations. Clustering of dark energy can mimic features of modified gravity theories and thus confuse the search for distinct signatures of such theories. It can produce pressure perturbations and anisotropic stresses, which break the equality between the two metric potentials even in general relativity. With these two extra degrees of freedom, can a clustered dark energy model mimic modified gravity models in all observational tests? We show with specific examples that observational constraints on both the metric potentials and density perturbations can in principle distinguish modifications of gravity from dark energy models. We compare our result with other recent studies that have slightly different assumptions (and apparently contradictory conclusions).

Thin accretion disk signatures in dynamical Chern-Simons-modified gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harko, Tiberiu; Kovacs, Zoltan; Lobo, Francisco S N

2010-01-01

A promising extension of general relativity is Chern-Simons (CS)-modified gravity, in which the Einstein-Hilbert action is modified by adding a parity-violating CS term, which couples to gravity via a scalar field. In this work, we consider the interesting, yet relatively unexplored, dynamical formulation of CS-modified gravity, where the CS coupling field is treated as a dynamical field, endowed with its own stress-energy tensor and evolution equation. We consider the possibility of observationally testing dynamical CS-modified gravity by using the accretion disk properties around slowly rotating black holes. The energy flux, temperature distribution, the emission spectrum as well as the energy conversion efficiency are obtained, and compared to the standard general relativistic Kerr solution. It is shown that the Kerr black hole provides a more efficient engine for the transformation of the energy of the accreting mass into radiation than their slowly rotating counterparts in CS-modified gravity. Specific signatures appear in the electromagnetic spectrum, thus leading to the possibility of directly testing CS-modified gravity by using astrophysical observations of the emission spectra from accretion disks.

Massive gravity and Fierz-Pauli theory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blasi, Alberto [Universita di Genova, Dipartimento di Fisica, Genova (Italy); Maggiore, Nicola [I.N.F.N.-Sezione di Genova, Genoa (Italy)

2017-09-15

Linearized gravity is considered as an ordinary gauge field theory. This implies the need for gauge fixing in order to have well-defined propagators. Only after having achieved this, the most general mass term is added. The aim of this paper is to study of the degrees of freedom of the gauge fixed theory of linearized gravity with mass term. The main result is that, even outside the usual Fierz-Pauli constraint on the mass term, it is possible to choose a gauge fixing belonging to the Landau class, which leads to a massive theory of gravity with the five degrees of freedom of a spin-2 massive particle. (orig.)

Massive gravity and Fierz-Pauli theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blasi, Alberto; Maggiore, Nicola

2017-01-01

Linearized gravity is considered as an ordinary gauge field theory. This implies the need for gauge fixing in order to have well-defined propagators. Only after having achieved this, the most general mass term is added. The aim of this paper is to study of the degrees of freedom of the gauge fixed theory of linearized gravity with mass term. The main result is that, even outside the usual Fierz-Pauli constraint on the mass term, it is possible to choose a gauge fixing belonging to the Landau class, which leads to a massive theory of gravity with the five degrees of freedom of a spin-2 massive particle. (orig.)

Antimatter gravity experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, R.E.; Camp, J.B.; Darling, T.W.

1990-01-01

An experiment is being developed to measure the acceleration of the antiproton in the gravitational field of the earth. Antiprotons of a few MeV from the LEAR facility at CERN will be slowed, captured, cooled to a temperature of about 10 K, and subsequently launched a few at a time into a drift tube where the effect of gravity on their motion will be determined by a time-of-flight method. Development of the experiment is proceeding at Los Alamos using normal matter. The fabrication of a drift tube that will produce a region of space in which gravity is the dominant force on moving ions is of major difficulty. This involves a study of methods of minimizing the electric fields produced by spatially varying work functions on conducting surfaces. Progress in a number of areas is described, with stress on the drift-tube development

Gravity field and structure of the Sorong Fault Zone, eastern Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Sardjono

Gravity surveys along coastlines of islands in the region Banggai-Sula, Eastern Sulawesi, Halmahera, Bacan and Obi were carried out as part of the Sorong Fault Zone Project. Results of the Surveys were integrated with gravity data previously acquired by other projects, including on-land gravity data from the Bird Head area Irian Jaya (Dow et al 1986), Seram Island (Milsom 1977), Buru Island (Oemar and Reminton 1993) and Central Sulawesi (Silver et al. 1983) as well as marine gravity information within and surrounding the Sorong Fault Zone (Bowin et al. 1980). Gravity expeditions of the Sorong Fault Zone Project also include measurements in Mayu Island and the island group of Talaud, situated further north in the Central Molucca Sea region. A total of one hundred and forty two gravity data were acquired in the region of Banggai-Sula islands, forty seven in eastern part of Central Sulawesi, about four hundred in Halmahera, Bacan and Obi, and seventy nine in Mayu and Talaud. Surveys in the eastern part of Central Sulawesi were carried out for the purpose of tieing the older gravity data obtained from Silver et al. (1983) and the more recent data of the Sorong Fault Zone Project. About one thousand thirty hundred and thirty gravity data were acquired as part of the Irian Jaya Geological Mapping Project (IJGMP) in the period of 1978-1983, a project commissioned by the Indonesian Geological Research and Development Centre (GRDC) and the Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR). The remoteness of the survey areas of the Sorong Fault Zone Project necessitated a careful planning for travel arrangements and provision of logistics. A wide range of magnitude of gravity field was observed in the Sorong Fault Zone, extending from values below -250 mGal recorded in the southern part of the Molucca Sea to values in excess of +320 mGal measured near to sea level in the coastal areas south of Mangole and north of Sulabesi, the two islands of the Sula Group. Steep gradients of

Basement-involved faults and deep structures in the West Philippine Basin: constrains from gravity field

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Gang; Jiang, Suhua; Li, Sanzhong; Zhang, Huixuan; Lei, Jianping; Gao, Song; Zhao, Feiyu

2017-06-01

To reveal the basement-involved faults and deep structures of the West Philippine Basin (WPB), the gravitational responses caused by these faults are observed and analyzed based on the latest spherical gravity model: WGM2012 Model. By mapping the free-air and Bouguer gravity anomalies, several main faults and some other linear structures are located and observed in the WPB. Then, by conducting a 2D discrete multi-scale wavelet decomposition, the Bouguer anomalies are decomposed into the first- to eighth-order detail and approximation fields (the first- to eighth-order Details and Approximations). The first- to third-order Details reflect detailed and localized geological information of the crust at different depths, and of which the higher-order reflects gravity field of the deeper depth. The first- to fourth-order Approximations represent the regional gravity fields at different depths of the crust, respectively. The fourth-order Approximation represents the regional gravity fluctuation caused by the density inhomogeneity of Moho interface. Therefore, taking the fourth-order Approximation as input, and adopting Parker-Oldenburg interactive inversion, We calculated the depth of Moho interface in the WPB. Results show that the Moho interface depth in the WPB ranges approximately from 8 to 12 km, indicating that there is typical oceanic crust in the basin. In the Urdaneta Plateau and the Benham Rise, the Moho interface depths are about 14 and 16 km, respectively, which provides a piece of evidence to support that the Banham Rise could be a transitional crust caused by a large igneous province. The second-order vertical derivative and the horizontal derivatives in direction 0° and 90° are computed based on the data of the third-order Detail, and most of the basement-involved faults and structures in the WPB, such as the Central Basin Fault Zone, the Gagua Ridge, the Luzon-Okinawa Fault Zone, and the Mindanao Fault Zone are interpreted by the gravity derivatives.

C-metric solution for conformal gravity with a conformally coupled scalar field

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meng, Kun, E-mail: mengkun@tjpu.edu.cn [School of Science, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387 (China); Zhao, Liu, E-mail: lzhao@nankai.edu.cn [School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071 (China)

2017-02-15

The C-metric solution of conformal gravity with a conformally coupled scalar field is presented. The solution belongs to the class of Petrov type D spacetimes and is conformal to the standard AdS C-metric appeared in vacuum Einstein gravity. For all parameter ranges, we identify some of the physically interesting static regions and the corresponding coordinate ranges. The solution may contain a black hole event horizon, an acceleration horizon, either of which may be cut by the conformal infinity or be hidden behind the conformal infinity. Since the model is conformally invariant, we also discussed the possible effects of the conformal gauge choices on the structure of the spacetime.

Instantons and gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konopleva, N.P.

1996-01-01

The problems of application of nonperturbative quantization methods in the theories of the gauge fields and gravity are discussed. Unification of interactions is considered in the framework of the geometrical gauge fields theory. Vacuum conception in the unified theory of interactions and instantons role in the vacuum structure are analyzed. The role of vacuum solutions of Einstein equations in definition of the gauge field vacuum is demonstrated

Simulation of the Chang'E-5 mission contribution in lunar long wavelength gravity field improvement

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Jianguo; Yang, Xuan; Ping, Jinsong; Ye, Mao; Liu, Shanhong; Jin, Weitong; Li, Fei; Barriot, Jean-Pierre

2018-06-01

The precision of lunar gravity field estimation has improved by means of three to five orders of magnitude since the successful GRAIL lunar mission. There are still discrepancies however, in the low degree coefficients and long wavelength components of the solutions developed by two space research centers (JPL and GSFC). These discrepancies hint at the possibilities for improving the accuracy in the long wavelength part of the lunar gravity field. In the near future, China will launch the Chang'E-5 lunar mission. In this sample-return mission, there will be a chance to do KBRR measurements between an ascending module and an orbiting module. These two modules will fly around lunar at an inclination of ˜49 degrees, with an orbital height of 100 km and an inter-satellite distance of 200 km. In our research, we simulated the contribution of the KBRR tracking mode for different GRAIL orbital geometries. This analysis indicated possible deficiencies in the low degree coefficient solutions for the polar satellite-to-satellite tracking mode at various orbital heights. We also investigated the potential contributions of the KBRR to the Chang'E-5 mission goal of lunar gravity field recovery, especially in the long wavelength component. Potential improvements were assessed using various power spectrums of the lunar gravity field models. In addition, we also investigated possible improvements in solving lunar tidal Love number K2. These results may assist the implementation of the Chang'E-5 mission.

Topics in field theory-higher spins, CFT, and gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Z.

1990-01-01

Several topics in field theory are investigated. (1) Massive higher spin actions are obtained as gauge theories from the dimensional reduction of the corresponding massless ones. (2) The author considers a model of spin4 and spin2 interaction through the Bel-Robinson tensor of spin2 field, which in conserved at free level. The coupling is inconsistent, yet there are indications that adding still higher spin couplings would be a promising direction to achieve consistency. (3) Energy and Stability of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet models of gravity are studied. It is shown that flat space is stable while AdS is not. (4) Gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten models are studied in detail. The equivalence to GKO construction of conformal field theory is considered. BRST quantization of the models is given. (5) Nonrenormalizability of quantum gravity is, in the binomial first order metric formulation, traced to a mismatch between the symmetries of its quadratic and cubic term. (6) The possibility that the gravitational model defined in D = 3 by an action which is the sum of Einstein and Chern-Simons terms is a viable quantum theory is investigated. It is shown that it is compatible with power-counting renormalizability. Gauge invariant regularizations, however, have not been found to exist. Detailed BRS analysis shows that there are possible anomalies

Is Gravity an Entropic Force?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shan Gao

2011-04-01

Full Text Available The remarkable connections between gravity and thermodynamics seem to imply that gravity is not fundamental but emergent, and in particular, as Verlinde suggested, gravity is probably an entropic force. In this paper, we will argue that the idea of gravity as an entropic force is debatable. It is shown that there is no convincing analogy between gravity and entropic force in Verlinde’s example. Neither holographic screen nor test particle satisfies all requirements for the existence of entropic force in a thermodynamics system. Furthermore, we show that the entropy increase of the screen is not caused by its statistical tendency to increase entropy as required by the existence of entropic force, but in fact caused by gravity. Therefore, Verlinde’s argument for the entropic origin of gravity is problematic. In addition, we argue that the existence of a minimum size of spacetime, together with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in quantum theory, may imply the fundamental existence of gravity as a geometric property of spacetime. This may provide a further support for the conclusion that gravity is not an entropic force.

Lorentz invariance violation in modified gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brax, Philippe

2012-01-01

We consider an environmentally dependent violation of Lorentz invariance in scalar-tensor models of modified gravity where General Relativity is retrieved locally thanks to a screening mechanism. We find that fermions have a modified dispersion relation and would go faster than light in an anisotropic and space-dependent way along the scalar field lines of force. Phenomenologically, these models are tightly restricted by the amount of Cerenkov radiation emitted by the superluminal particles, a constraint which is only satisfied by chameleons. Measuring the speed of neutrinos emitted radially from the surface of the earth and observed on the other side of the earth would probe the scalar field profile of modified gravity models in dense environments. We argue that the test of the equivalence principle provided by the Lunar ranging experiment implies that a deviation from the speed of light, for natural values of the coupling scale between the scalar field and fermions, would be below detectable levels, unless gravity is modified by camouflaged chameleons where the field normalisation is environmentally dependent.

Lorentz invariance violation in modified gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brax, Philippe, E-mail: philippe.brax@cea.fr [Institut de Physique Theorique, CEA, IPhT, CNRS, URA 2306, F-91191Gif/Yvette Cedex (France)

2012-06-06

We consider an environmentally dependent violation of Lorentz invariance in scalar-tensor models of modified gravity where General Relativity is retrieved locally thanks to a screening mechanism. We find that fermions have a modified dispersion relation and would go faster than light in an anisotropic and space-dependent way along the scalar field lines of force. Phenomenologically, these models are tightly restricted by the amount of Cerenkov radiation emitted by the superluminal particles, a constraint which is only satisfied by chameleons. Measuring the speed of neutrinos emitted radially from the surface of the earth and observed on the other side of the earth would probe the scalar field profile of modified gravity models in dense environments. We argue that the test of the equivalence principle provided by the Lunar ranging experiment implies that a deviation from the speed of light, for natural values of the coupling scale between the scalar field and fermions, would be below detectable levels, unless gravity is modified by camouflaged chameleons where the field normalisation is environmentally dependent.

Dynamics and entanglement in spherically symmetric quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Husain, Viqar; Terno, Daniel R.

2010-01-01

The gravity-scalar field system in spherical symmetry provides a natural setting for exploring gravitational collapse and its aftermath in quantum gravity. In a canonical approach, we give constructions of the Hamiltonian operator, and of semiclassical states peaked on constraint-free data. Such states provide explicit examples of physical states. We also show that matter-gravity entanglement is an inherent feature of physical states, whether or not there is a black hole.

Strings and quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vega, H.J. de

1990-01-01

One of the main challenges in theoretical physics today is the unification of all interactions including gravity. At present, string theories appear as the most promising candidates to achieve such a unification. However, gravity has not completely been incorporated in string theory, many technical and conceptual problems remain and a full quantum theory of gravity is still non-existent. Our aim is to properly understand strings in the context of quantum gravity. Attempts towards this are reviewed. (author)

Feynman diagrams coupled to three-dimensional quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barrett, John W

2006-01-01

A framework for quantum field theory coupled to three-dimensional quantum gravity is proposed. The coupling with quantum gravity regulates the Feynman diagrams. One recovers the usual Feynman amplitudes in the limit as the cosmological constant tends to zero

Maglev Facility for Simulating Variable Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yuanming; Strayer, Donald M.; Israelsson, Ulf E.

2010-01-01

An improved magnetic levitation apparatus ("Maglev Facility") has been built for use in experiments in which there are requirements to impose variable gravity (including zero gravity) in order to assess the effects of gravity or the absence thereof on physical and physiological processes. The apparatus is expected to be especially useful for experiments on the effects of gravity on convection, boiling, and heat transfer in fluids and for experiments on mice to gain understanding of bone loss induced in human astronauts by prolonged exposure to reduced gravity in space flight. The maglev principle employed by the apparatus is well established. Diamagnetic cryogenic fluids such as liquid helium have been magnetically levitated for studying their phase transitions and critical behaviors. Biological entities consist mostly of diamagnetic molecules (e.g., water molecules) and thus can be levitated by use of sufficiently strong magnetic fields having sufficiently strong vertical gradients. The heart of the present maglev apparatus is a vertically oriented superconducting solenoid electromagnet (see figure) that generates a static magnetic field of about 16 T with a vertical gradient sufficient for levitation of water in normal Earth gravity. The electromagnet is enclosed in a Dewar flask having a volume of 100 L that contains liquid helium to maintain superconductivity. The Dewar flask features a 66-mm-diameter warm bore, lying within the bore of the magnet, wherein experiments can be performed at room temperature. The warm bore is accessible from its top and bottom ends. The superconducting electromagnet is run in the persistent mode, in which the supercurrent and the magnetic field can be maintained for weeks with little decay, making this apparatus extremely cost and energy efficient to operate. In addition to water, this apparatus can levitate several common fluids: liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen, methane, ammonia, sodium, and lithium, all of which are useful

Anomalies and gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mielke, Eckehard W.

2006-01-01

Anomalies in Yang-Mills type gauge theories of gravity are reviewed. Particular attention is paid to the relation between the Dirac spin, the axial current j5 and the non-covariant gauge spin C. Using diagrammatic techniques, we show that only generalizations of the U(1)- Pontrjagin four-form F and F = dC arise in the chiral anomaly, even when coupled to gravity. Implications for Ashtekar's canonical approach to quantum gravity are discussed

Topological aspects of classical and quantum (2+1)-dimensional gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soda, Jiro.

1990-03-01

In order to understand (3+1)-dimensional gravity, (2+1)-dimensional gravity is studied as a toy model. Our emphasis is on its topological aspects, because (2+1)-dimensional gravity without matter fields has no local dynamical degrees of freedom. Starting from a review of the canonical ADM formalism and York's formalism for the initial value problem, we will solve the evolution equations of (2+1)-dimensional gravity with a cosmological constant in the case of g=0 and g=1, where g is the genus of Riemann surface. The dynamics of it is understood as the geodesic motion in the moduli space. This remarkable fact is the same with the case of (2+1)-dimensional pure gravity and seen more apparently from the action level. Indeed we will show the phase space reduction of (2+1)-dimensional gravity in the case of g=1. For g ≥ 2, unfortunately we are not able to explicitly perform the phase space reduction of (2+1)-dimensional gravity due to the complexity of the Hamiltonian constraint equation. Based on this result, we will attempt to incorporate matter fields into (2+1)-dimensional pure gravity. The linearization and mini-superspace methods are used for this purpose. By using the linearization method, we conclude that the transverse-traceless part of the energy-momentum tensor affects the geodesic motion. In the case of the Einstein-Maxwell theory, we observe that the Wilson lines interact with the geometry to bend the geodesic motion. We analyze the mini-superspace model of (2+1)-dimensional gravity with the matter fields in the case of g=0 and g=1. For g=0, a wormhole solution is found but for g=1 we can not find an analogous solution. Quantum gravity is also considered and we succeed to perform the phase space reduction of (2+1)-dimensional gravity in the case of g=1 at the quantum level. From this analysis we argue that the conformal rotation is not necessary in the sense that the Euclidean quantum gravity is inappropriate for the full gravity. (author)

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CN02 (2013 & 2014)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Nebraska collected in 2013 & 2014 over 3 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical...

On the covariant formalism of the effective field theory of gravity and leading order corrections

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Codello, Alessandro; Jain, Rajeev Kumar

2016-01-01

We construct the covariant effective field theory of gravity as an expansion in inverse powers of the Planck mass, identifying the leading and next-to-leading quantum corrections. We determine the form of the effective action for the cases of pure gravity with cosmological constant as well...... as gravity coupled to matter. By means of heat kernel methods we renormalize and compute the leading quantum corrections to quadratic order in a curvature expansion. The final effective action in our covariant formalism is generally non-local and can be readily used to understand the phenomenology...... on different spacetimes. In particular, we point out that on curved backgrounds the observable leading quantum gravitational effects are less suppressed than on Minkowski spacetime....

Gravity loop corrections to the standard model Higgs in Einstein gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yugo Abe; Masaatsu Horikoshi; Takeo Inami

2016-01-01

We study one-loop quantum gravity corrections to the standard model Higgs potential V(φ) à la Coleman-Weinberg and examine the stability question of V(φ) in the energy region of Planck mass scale, μ ≃ M_P_l (M_P_l = 1.22x10"1"9 GeV). We calculate the gravity one-loop corrections to V(φ) in Einstein gravity by using the momentum cut-off Λ. We have found that even small gravity corrections compete with the standard model term of V(φ) and affect the stability argument of the latter part alone. This is because the latter part is nearly zero in the energy region of M_P_l. (author)

Alternative Hamiltonian representation for gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosas-RodrIguez, R

2007-01-01

By using a Hamiltonian formalism for fields wider than the canonical one, we write the Einstein vacuum field equations in terms of alternative variables. This variables emerge from the Ashtekar's formalism for gravity

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CS02 (2008-2009)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Louisana and Mississippi collected in 2008-2009 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American...

Emergent gravity from vanishing energy-momentum tensor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carone, Christopher D.; Erlich, Joshua [High Energy Theory Group, Department of Physics, College of William and Mary,Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795 (United States); Vaman, Diana [Department of Physics, University of Virginia,Box 400714, Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States)

2017-03-27

A constraint of vanishing energy-momentum tensor is motivated by a variety of perspectives on quantum gravity. We demonstrate in a concrete example how this constraint leads to a metric-independent theory in which quantum gravity emerges as a nonperturbative artifact of regularization-scale physics. We analyze a scalar theory similar to the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) theory with vanishing gauge fields, with the DBI Lagrangian modulated by a scalar potential. In the limit of a large number of scalars, we explicitly demonstrate the existence of a composite massless spin-2 graviton in the spectrum that couples to matter as in Einstein gravity. We comment on the cosmological constant problem and the generalization to theories with fermions and gauge fields.

Emergent gravity from vanishing energy-momentum tensor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carone, Christopher D.; Erlich, Joshua; Vaman, Diana

2017-01-01

A constraint of vanishing energy-momentum tensor is motivated by a variety of perspectives on quantum gravity. We demonstrate in a concrete example how this constraint leads to a metric-independent theory in which quantum gravity emerges as a nonperturbative artifact of regularization-scale physics. We analyze a scalar theory similar to the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) theory with vanishing gauge fields, with the DBI Lagrangian modulated by a scalar potential. In the limit of a large number of scalars, we explicitly demonstrate the existence of a composite massless spin-2 graviton in the spectrum that couples to matter as in Einstein gravity. We comment on the cosmological constant problem and the generalization to theories with fermions and gauge fields.

Feynman propagator for spin foam quantum gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Oriti, Daniele

2005-03-25

We link the notion causality with the orientation of the spin foam 2-complex. We show that all current spin foam models are orientation independent. Using the technology of evolution kernels for quantum fields on Lie groups, we construct a generalized version of spin foam models, introducing an extra proper time variable. We prove that different ranges of integration for this variable lead to different classes of spin foam models: the usual ones, interpreted as the quantum gravity analogue of the Hadamard function of quantum field theory (QFT) or as inner products between quantum gravity states; and a new class of causal models, the quantum gravity analogue of the Feynman propagator in QFT, nontrivial function of the orientation data, and implying a notion of "timeless ordering".

Proceeding of the workshop on quantum gravity and topology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oda, Ichiro

1991-10-01

The workshop on Quantum Gravity and Topology was held at INS on February 21-23, 1991. Several introductory lectures and more than 15 talks were delivered for about 100 participants. The main subjects discussed were i) Topological quantum field theories and topological gravity ii) Low dimensional and four dimensional gravity iii) Topology change iv) Superstring theories etc. (J.P.N.)

Inversion of Gravity and Magnetic Field Data for Tyrrhena Patera

Science.gov (United States)

Milbury, C.; Schubert, G.; Raymond, C. A.; Smrekar, S. E.

2011-01-01

Tyrrhena Patera is located to the southeast/northeast of the Isidis/Hellas impact basin. It was geologically active into the Late Amazonian, although the main edifice was formed in the Noachian(approximately 3.7-4.0 Ga). Tyrrhena Patera and the surrounding area contain gravity and magnetic anomalies that appear to be correlated. The results presented here are for the anomalies 1a and 1b (closest to Tyrrhena Patera), however other anomalies in this region have been modeled and will be presented at the conference.The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) free-air gravity signature of Tyrrhena Patera has been studied by Kiefer, who inferred the existence of an extinct magma chamber below it. The magnetic signature has been mapped by Lillis R. J. et al., who compared electron reflectometer data, analogous to the total magnetic field, for Syrtis Major and Tyrrhena Patera and argued for demagnetization of both volcanoes.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for EN07 (2012-2013)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Maine and Canada collected in 2012 and 2013 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AS03 (2010-2012)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2010 and 2012 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum...

Cosmological dynamics of mimetic gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Dutta, Jibitesh; Khyllep, Wompherdeiki; Saridakis, Emmanuel N.; Tamanini, Nicola; Vagnozzi, Sunny

2018-02-01

We present a detailed investigation of the dynamical behavior of mimetic gravity with a general potential for the mimetic scalar field. Performing a phase-space and stability analysis, we show that the scenario at hand can successfully describe the thermal history of the universe, namely the successive sequence of radiation, matter, and dark-energy eras. Additionally, at late times the universe can either approach a de Sitter solution, or a scaling accelerated attractor where the dark-matter and dark-energy density parameters are of the same order, thus offering an alleviation of the cosmic coincidence problem. Applying our general analysis to various specific potential choices, including the power-law and the exponential ones, we show that mimetic gravity can be brought into good agreement with the observed behavior of the universe. Moreover, with an inverse square potential we find that mimetic gravity offers an appealing unified cosmological scenario where both dark energy and dark matter are characterized by a single scalar field, and where the cosmic coincidence problem is alleviated.

New 'phase' of quantum gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Charles H-T

2006-12-15

The emergence of loop quantum gravity over the past two decades has stimulated a great resurgence of interest in unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics. Among a number of appealing features of this approach is the intuitive picture of quantum geometry using spin networks and powerful mathematical tools from gauge field theory. However, the present form of loop quantum gravity suffers from a quantum ambiguity, owing to the presence of a free (Barbero-Immirzi) parameter. Following the recent progress on conformal decomposition of gravitational fields, we present a new phase space for general relativity. In addition to spin-gauge symmetry, the new phase space also incorporates conformal symmetry making the description parameter free. The Barbero-Immirzi ambiguity is shown to occur only if the conformal symmetry is gauge fixed prior to quantization. By withholding its full symmetries, the new phase space offers a promising platform for the future development of loop quantum gravity. This paper aims to provide an exposition, at a reduced technical level, of the above theoretical advances and their background developments. Further details are referred to cited references.

Low-scale gravity mediation in warped extra dimension and collider ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

We propose a new scenario of gravity-mediated supersymmetry breaking (gravity mediation) in a supersymmetric Randall-Sundrum model, where the gravity mediation takes place at a low scale due to the warped metric. We investigate collider phenomenology involving the hidden sector field, and find a possibility that the ...

Gravity wave astronomy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinheiro, R.

1979-01-01

The properties and production of gravitational radiation are described. The prospects for their detection are considered including the Weber apparatus and gravity-wave telescopes. Possibilities of gravity-wave astronomy are noted

Bridging the gap between the deep Earth and lithospheric gravity field

Science.gov (United States)

Root, B. C.; Ebbing, J.; Martinec, Z.; van der Wal, W.

2017-12-01

Global gravity field data obtained by dedicated satellite missions can be used to study the density distribution of the lithosphere. The gravitational signal from the deep Earth is usually removed by high-pass filtering of the data. However, this will also remove any long-wavelength signal of the lithosphere. Furthermore, it is still unclear what value for the truncation limit is best suited. An alternative is to forward model the deep situated mass anomalies and subtract the gravitational signal from the observed data. This requires knowledge of the mantle mass anomalies, dynamic topography, and CMB topography. Global tomography provides the VS distribution in the mantle, which is related to the density distribution in the mantle. There are difficulties in constructing a density model from this data. Tomography relies on regularisation which smoothens the mantle anomalies. Also, the VS anomalies need to be converted to density anomalies with uncertain conversion factors. We study the observed reduction in magnitude of the density anomalies due to the regularisation of the global tomography models. The reduced magnitude of the anomalies cannot be recovered by increasing the conversion factor from VS-to-density transformation. The reduction of the tomographic results seems to resemble the effect of a spatial Gaussian filter. By determining the spectral difference between tomographic and gravimetric models a reverse filter can be constructed to reproduce correct density variations in the complete mantle. The long-wavelengths of the global tomography models are less affected by the regularisation and can fix the value of the conversion factor. However, the low degree gravity signals are also dominated by the D" region. Therefore, different approaches are used to determine the effect of this region on the gravity field. The density anomalies in the mantle, as well as the effect of CMB undulations, are forward modelled into their gravitational potential field, such that

Cineradiographic Analysis of Mouse Postural Response to Alteration of Gravity and Jerk (Gravity Deceleration Rate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katsuya Hasegawa

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The ability to maintain the body relative to the external environment is important for adaptation to altered gravity. However, the physiological limits for adaptation or the disruption of body orientation are not known. In this study, we analyzed postural changes in mice upon exposure to various low gravities. Male C57BL6/J mice (n = 6 were exposed to various gravity-deceleration conditions by customized parabolic flight-maneuvers targeting the partial-gravity levels of 0.60, 0.30, 0.15 and μ g (<0.001 g. Video recordings of postural responses were analyzed frame-by-frame by high-definition cineradiography and with exact instantaneous values of gravity and jerk. As a result, the coordinated extension of the neck, spine and hindlimbs was observed during the initial phase of gravity deceleration. Joint angles widened to 120%–200% of the reference g level, and the magnitude of the thoracic-curvature stretching was correlated with gravity and jerk, i.e., the gravity deceleration rate. A certain range of jerk facilitated mouse skeletal stretching efficiently, and a jerk of −0.3~−0.4 j (g/s induced the maximum extension of the thoracic-curvature. The postural response of animals to low gravity may undergo differential regulation by gravity and jerk.

Black holes in loop quantum gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Perez, Alejandro

2017-12-01

This is a review of results on black hole physics in the context of loop quantum gravity. The key feature underlying these results is the discreteness of geometric quantities at the Planck scale predicted by this approach to quantum gravity. Quantum discreteness follows directly from the canonical quantization prescription when applied to the action of general relativity that is suitable for the coupling of gravity with gauge fields, and especially with fermions. Planckian discreteness and causal considerations provide the basic structure for the understanding of the thermal properties of black holes close to equilibrium. Discreteness also provides a fresh new look at more (at the moment) speculative issues, such as those concerning the fate of information in black hole evaporation. The hypothesis of discreteness leads, also, to interesting phenomenology with possible observational consequences. The theory of loop quantum gravity is a developing program; this review reports its achievements and open questions in a pedagogical manner, with an emphasis on quantum aspects of black hole physics.

TeV gravity in four dimensions?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calmet, Xavier; Hsu, Stephen D.H.

2008-01-01

We describe a model in which the fundamental scale M * of the theory which unifies gravity and quantum mechanics is in the TeV range, but without requiring additional spacetime dimensions. The weakness of gravity at low energies is due to a large vacuum expectation of a dilaton like field. The model requires a small dimensionless parameter (the self-coupling of the dilaton) but no fine-tuning. We discuss in detail the dynamical assumptions about non-perturbative quantum gravity required within the model. We observe that M * could be quite small, less than a TeV, and that the model could lead to copious strong coupling effects at the LHC. However, semiclassical black holes will not be produced

Venus spherical harmonic gravity model to degree and order 60

Science.gov (United States)

Konopliv, Alex S.; Sjogren, William L.

1994-01-01

The Magellan and Pioneer Venus Orbiter radiometric tracking data sets have been combined to produce a 60th degree and order spherical harmonic gravity field. The Magellan data include the high-precision X-band gravity tracking from September 1992 to May 1993 and post-aerobraking data up to January 5, 1994. Gravity models are presented from the application of Kaula's power rule for Venus and an alternative a priori method using surface accelerations. Results are given as vertical gravity acceleration at the reference surface, geoid, vertical Bouguer, and vertical isostatic maps with errors for the vertical gravity and geoid maps included. Correlation of the gravity with topography for the different models is also discussed.

Mercury's gravity field, tidal Love number k2, and spin axis orientation revealed with MESSENGER radio tracking data

Science.gov (United States)

Verma, A. K.; Margot, J. L.

2015-12-01

We are conducting an independent analysis of two-way Doppler and two-way range radio tracking data from the MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around Mercury from 2011 to 2015. Our goals are to estimate Mercury's gravity field and to obtain independent estimates of the tidal Love number k2 and spin axis orientation. Our gravity field solution reproduces existing values with high fidelity, and prospects for recovery of the other quantities are excellent. The tidal Love number k2 provides powerful constraints on interior models of Mercury, including the mechanical properties of the mantle and the possibility of a solid FeS layer at the top of the core. Current gravity analyses cannot rule out a wide range of values (k2=43-0.50) and a variety of plausible interior models. We are seeking an independent estimate of tidal Love number k2 with improved errors to further constrain these models. Existing gravity-based solutions for Mercury's spin axis orientation differ from those of Earth-based radar and topography-based solutions. This difference may indicate an error in one of the determinations, or a real difference between the orientations about which the gravity field and the crust rotate, which can exist in a variety of plausible configuration. Securing an independent estimate of the spin axis orientation is vital because this quantity has a profound impact on the determination of the moment of inertia and interior models. We have derived a spherical harmonic solution of the gravity field to degree and order 40 as well as estimates of the tidal Love number k2 and spin axis orientation.

On the Classical Coupling between Gravity and Electromagnetism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Becker

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Coupling between electromagnetism and gravity, manifested as the distorted Coulomb field of a charge distribution in a gravitational field, has never been observed. A physical system consisting of an electron in a charged shell provides a coupling that is orders of magnitude stronger than for any previously-considered system. A shell voltage of one megavolt is required to establish a gravitationally-induced electromagnetic force equal in magnitude to the force of gravity on an electron. The experimental feasibility of detecting these forces on an electron is discussed. The effect establishes a relation between Einstein’s energy-mass equivalence and the coupling between electromagnetism and gravity.

Unitarity problems in 3D gravity theories

Science.gov (United States)

Alkac, Gokhan; Basanisi, Luca; Kilicarslan, Ercan; Tekin, Bayram

2017-07-01

We revisit the problem of the bulk-boundary unitarity clash in 2 +1 -dimensional gravity theories, which has been an obstacle in providing a viable dual two-dimensional conformal field theory for bulk gravity in anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. Chiral gravity, which is a particular limit of cosmological topologically massive gravity (TMG), suffers from perturbative log-modes with negative energies inducing a nonunitary logarithmic boundary field theory. We show here that any f (R ) extension of TMG does not improve the situation. We also study the perturbative modes in the metric formulation of minimal massive gravity—originally constructed in a first-order formulation—and find that the massive mode has again negative energy except in the chiral limit. We comment on this issue and also discuss a possible solution to the problem of negative-energy modes. In any of these theories, the infinitesimal dangerous deformations might not be integrable to full solutions; this suggests a linearization instability of AdS spacetime in the direction of the perturbative log-modes.

Alternative Hamiltonian representation for gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosas-RodrIguez, R [Instituto de Fisica, Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Apdo. Postal J-48, 72570, Puebla, Pue. (Mexico)

2007-11-15

By using a Hamiltonian formalism for fields wider than the canonical one, we write the Einstein vacuum field equations in terms of alternative variables. This variables emerge from the Ashtekar's formalism for gravity.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for ES05 (2015-2016)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Florida and the Atlantic Ocean collected in two surveys, FL15-1 and FL15-2. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AS04 (2015-2016)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2015 and 2016 over 2 surveys, AK15 and AK16. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American...

Development of a new generation gravity map of Antarctica: ADGRAV Antarctic Digital Gravity Synthesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. A. Arko

1999-06-01

Full Text Available The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF has agreed to support the development of a new generation gravity map of Antarctica (ADGRAV - Antarctic Digital Gravity Synthesis, funding the development of a web based access tool. The goal of this project is the creation of an on-line Antarctic gravity database which will facilitate access to improved high resolution satellite gravity models, in conjunction with shipboard, airborne, and land based gravity measurements for the continental regions. This database will complement parallel projects underway to develop new continental bedrock (BEDMAP and magnetic (ADMAP maps of Antarctica.

Critical behaviors of gravity under quantum perturbations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZHANG Hongsheng

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Phase transition and critical phenomenon is a very interesting topic in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Gravity is believed to have deep and inherent relation to thermodynamics. Near the critical point,the perturbation becomes significant. Thus for ordinary matter (governed by interactions besides gravity the critical behavior will become very different if we ignore the perturbations around the critical point,such as mean field theory. We find that the critical exponents for RN-AdS spacetime keep the same values even when we consider the full quantum perturbations. This indicates a key difference between gravity and ordinary thermodynamic system.

Correcting GRACE gravity fields for ocean tide effects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Per; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

2002-01-01

[1] The GRACE mission will be launch in early 2002 and will map the Earth's gravity fields and its variations with unprecedented accuracy during its 5-year lifetime. Unless ocean tide signals and their load upon the solid earth are removed from the GRACE data, their long period aliases obscure more...... tide model if altimetry corrected for inverted barometer effects was used in its derivation. To study the temporal characteristics of the ocean tidal constituents when sampled by GRACE, approximate alias frequencies were derived assuming a sampling of half a sidereal day. Those results show...

Effective Einsteinian gravity from Poincare gauge field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baekler, P.; Mielke, E.W.

1985-10-01

The Poincare gauge theory of gravity should apply in the microphysical domain. Here we investigate its implications for macrophysics. Weakly self double dual Riemann-Cartan curvature is assumed throughout. It is shown that the metrical background is then determined by Einstein's field equations with the Belinfante-Rosenfeld symmetrized energy-momentum current amended by spin squared terms. Moreover, the effective cosmological constant can be reconciled with the empirical data by absorbing the corresponding constant curvature part into the dynamical torsion of recently found exact solutions. Macroscopically this extra torsion remains undetectable. (author)

Cosmological tests of modified gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Koyama, Kazuya

2016-04-01

We review recent progress in the construction of modified gravity models as alternatives to dark energy as well as the development of cosmological tests of gravity. Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) has been tested accurately within the local universe i.e. the Solar System, but this leaves the possibility open that it is not a good description of gravity at the largest scales in the Universe. This being said, the standard model of cosmology assumes GR on all scales. In 1998, astronomers made the surprising discovery that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, not slowing down. This late-time acceleration of the Universe has become the most challenging problem in theoretical physics. Within the framework of GR, the acceleration would originate from an unknown dark energy. Alternatively, it could be that there is no dark energy and GR itself is in error on cosmological scales. In this review, we first give an overview of recent developments in modified gravity theories including f(R) gravity, braneworld gravity, Horndeski theory and massive/bigravity theory. We then focus on common properties these models share, such as screening mechanisms they use to evade the stringent Solar System tests. Once armed with a theoretical knowledge of modified gravity models, we move on to discuss how we can test modifications of gravity on cosmological scales. We present tests of gravity using linear cosmological perturbations and review the latest constraints on deviations from the standard [Formula: see text]CDM model. Since screening mechanisms leave distinct signatures in the non-linear structure formation, we also review novel astrophysical tests of gravity using clusters, dwarf galaxies and stars. The last decade has seen a number of new constraints placed on gravity from astrophysical to cosmological scales. Thanks to on-going and future surveys, cosmological tests of gravity will enjoy another, possibly even more, exciting ten years.

Gravity signatures of terrane accretion

Science.gov (United States)

Franco, Heather; Abbott, Dallas

1999-01-01

In modern collisional environments, accreted terranes are bracketed by forearc gravity lows, a gravitational feature which results from the abandonment of the original trench and the initiation of a new trench seaward of the accreted terrane. The size and shape of the gravity low depends on the type of accreted feature and the strength of the formerly subducting plate. Along the Central American trench, the accretion of Gorgona Island caused a seaward trench jump of 48 to 66 km. The relict trench axes show up as gravity lows behind the trench with minimum values of -78 mgal (N of Gorgona) and -49 mgal (S of Gorgona) respectively. These forearc gravity lows have little or no topographic expression. The active trench immediately seaward of these forearc gravity lows has minimum gravity values of -59 mgal (N of Gorgona) and -58 mgal (S of Gorgona), respectively. In the north, the active trench has a less pronounced gravity low than the sediment covered forearc. In the Mariana arc, two Cretaceous seamounts have been accreted to the Eocene arc. The northern seamount is most likely a large block, the southern seamount may be a thrust slice. These more recent accretion events have produced modest forearc topographic and gravity lows in comparison with the topographic and gravity lows within the active trench. However, the minimum values of the Mariana forearc gravity lows are modest only by comparison to the Mariana Trench (-216 mgal); their absolute values are more negative than at Gorgona Island (-145 to -146 mgal). We speculate that the forearc gravity lows and seaward trench jumps near Gorgona Island were produced by the accretion of a hotspot island from a strong plate. The Mariana gravity lows and seaward trench jumps (or thrust slices) were the result of breaking a relatively weak plate close to the seamount edifice. These gravity lows resulting from accretion events should be preserved in older accreted terranes.

Mapping the earth's magnetic and gravity fields from space Current status and future prospects

Science.gov (United States)

Settle, M.; Taranik, J. V.

1983-01-01

The principal magnetic fields encountered by earth orbiting spacecraft include the main (core) field, external fields produced by electrical currents within the ionosphere and magnetosphere, and the crustal (anomaly) field generated by variations in the magnetization of the outermost portions of the earth. The first orbital field measurements which proved to be of use for global studies of crustal magnetization were obtained by a series of three satellites launched and operated from 1965 to 1971. Each of the satellites, known as a Polar Orbiting Geophysical Observatory (POGO), carried a rubidium vapor magnetometer. Attention is also given to Magsat launched in 1979, the scalar anomaly field derived from the Magsat measurements, satellite tracking studies in connection with gravity field surveys, radar altimetry, the belt of positive free air gravity anomalies situated along the edge of the Pacific Ocean basin, future technological capabilities, and information concerning data availability.

Global gravity and the geodynamic model of the Earth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nedoma, J.

1988-01-01

Plate tectonic hypotheses require the formation of a new oceanic lithosphere at mid-oceanic ridges and imply the further modification and continued evolution towards the continental type of lithosphere in the regions of island arcs and orogenic belts. All these phenomena observed on the Earths's surface are results of all geodynamic processes passing through the Earth's interior. Since geodynamic processes change through the geological epochs, the gravity field also changes during the same geological periods. Thus, the paper is concerned with physical relationships between the global gravity field and the geodynamic processes as well as all geophysical fields affected by the geodynamic processes inside the Earth. The aim of this paper is to analyse the inner and outer gravity field of the Earth during the evolution of the Earth in the course of the geological epochs, and to build the generalized theory of the global gravity field of the Earth from the point of view of the global and local geodynamic processes taking place within the Earth's interior. (author)

Shallow-earth rheology from glacial isostasy and satellite gravity : A sensitivity analysis for GOCE

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schotman, H.H.A.

2008-01-01

In recent years, satellite gravity missions have been launched that probe the earth's long- to mediumwavelength (1000 - 500 km) gravity field. The upcoming ESA satellite gravity mission GOCE is predicted to measure the gravity field with an accuracy of a few centimeters at spatial scales of 100 km.

On the covariant formalism of the effective field theory of gravity and leading order corrections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Codello, Alessandro; Jain, Rajeev Kumar

2016-01-01

We construct the covariant effective field theory of gravity as an expansion in inverse powers of the Planck mass, identifying the leading and next-to-leading quantum corrections. We determine the form of the effective action for the cases of pure gravity with cosmological constant as well as gravity coupled to matter. By means of heat kernel methods we renormalize and compute the leading quantum corrections to quadratic order in a curvature expansion. The final effective action in our covariant formalism is generally non-local and can be readily used to understand the phenomenology on different spacetimes. In particular, we point out that on curved backgrounds the observable leading quantum gravitational effects are less suppressed than on Minkowski spacetime. (paper)

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CS07 (2014 & 2016)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Texas collected in 2014 & 2016 over 3 surveys,TX14-2, TX16-1 and TX16-2. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of...

A Model of Gravity Vector Measurement Noise for Estimating Accelerometer Bias in Gravity Disturbance Compensation.

Science.gov (United States)

Tie, Junbo; Cao, Juliang; Chang, Lubing; Cai, Shaokun; Wu, Meiping; Lian, Junxiang

2018-03-16

Compensation of gravity disturbance can improve the precision of inertial navigation, but the effect of compensation will decrease due to the accelerometer bias, and estimation of the accelerometer bias is a crucial issue in gravity disturbance compensation. This paper first investigates the effect of accelerometer bias on gravity disturbance compensation, and the situation in which the accelerometer bias should be estimated is established. The accelerometer bias is estimated from the gravity vector measurement, and a model of measurement noise in gravity vector measurement is built. Based on this model, accelerometer bias is separated from the gravity vector measurement error by the method of least squares. Horizontal gravity disturbances are calculated through EGM2008 spherical harmonic model to build the simulation scene, and the simulation results indicate that precise estimations of the accelerometer bias can be obtained with the proposed method.

A Model of Gravity Vector Measurement Noise for Estimating Accelerometer Bias in Gravity Disturbance Compensation

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Juliang; Cai, Shaokun; Wu, Meiping; Lian, Junxiang

2018-01-01

Compensation of gravity disturbance can improve the precision of inertial navigation, but the effect of compensation will decrease due to the accelerometer bias, and estimation of the accelerometer bias is a crucial issue in gravity disturbance compensation. This paper first investigates the effect of accelerometer bias on gravity disturbance compensation, and the situation in which the accelerometer bias should be estimated is established. The accelerometer bias is estimated from the gravity vector measurement, and a model of measurement noise in gravity vector measurement is built. Based on this model, accelerometer bias is separated from the gravity vector measurement error by the method of least squares. Horizontal gravity disturbances are calculated through EGM2008 spherical harmonic model to build the simulation scene, and the simulation results indicate that precise estimations of the accelerometer bias can be obtained with the proposed method. PMID:29547552

The gravity field of the Red Sea and East Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Makris, Jannis; Henke, Christian H.; Egloff, Frank; Akamaluk, Thomas

1991-11-01

Reevaluation of all gravity data from the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and East Africa permitted the compilation of a new Bouguer anomaly map. The intensity of the gravity field and its regional pattern correlate closely with the topographic features of the region. The maximum Bouguer values (> + 100 mGal) are located over the median troughs of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Dense juvenile oceanic crust in these rifts and intruding magmas in stretched continental areas produce excess mass responsible for the anomaly highs. In the Red Sea the orientation of the gravity highs is NW-SE in the south, turning to NE-SW in the north, almost parallel to the Aqaba-Dead Sea strike. This pattern reveals that the present basin axis is not identical with that which formed the Tertiary coastal margins and the pre-Red Sea zones of crustal weakness. In the Gulf of Aden, new oceanic crust along the Tadjura Trench and its eastward extension is also expressed in the Bouguer anomaly map by gravity highs and a sharp bending of the isolines. A maximum of approx. +150 mGal is located over the central section of the Sheba Ridge. Bouguer gravity values over the East African and Yemen Plateaus are of the order of -180 to -240 mGal, indicating significant crustal thickening. On the Somali Plateau, the Marda Fault also has a strong gravity signature that can be traced towards Somalia. By constraining crustal thickness and structure with seismic data and density values from the velocity distribution by means of the Nafe-Drake and Birch relationships, we computed density models for the crust and upper mantle. The crustal thickness is of the order of 40 km beneath the plateaus and only 5 to 6 km at the oceanized parts in the central and southern portions of the Red Sea median trough. The flanks of the southern Red Sea and the corresponding Arabian side are underlain by 12 to 16 km thick stretched continental type crust. Oceanization offshore Sudan and Egypt is asymmetrical. The continental crust

DNAG Gravity Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Decade of North American Geology (DNAG) gravity grid values, spaced at 6 km, were used to produce the Gravity Anomaly Map of North America (1987; scale...

Decoherence in quantum gravity: issues and critiques

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anastopoulos, C [Department of Physics, University of Patras, 26500 Patras (Greece); Hu, B L [Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-4111 (United States)

2007-05-15

An increasing number of papers have appeared in recent years on decoherence in quantum gravity at the Planck energy. We discuss the meaning of decoherence in quantum gravity starting from the common notion that quantum gravity is a theory for the microscopic structures of spacetime, and invoking some generic features of quantum decoherence from the open systems viewpoint. We dwell on a range of issues bearing on this process including the relation between statistical and quantum, noise from effective field theory, the meaning of stochasticity, the origin of non-unitarity and the nature of nonlocality in this and related contexts. To expound these issues we critique on two representative theories: One claims that decoherence in quantum gravity scale leads to the violation of CPT symmetry at sub-Planckian energy which is used to explain today's particle phenomenology. The other uses this process in place with the Brownian motion model to prove that spacetime foam behaves like a thermal bath. A companion paper will deal with intrinsic and fundamental decoherence which also bear on issues in classical and quantum gravity.

Decoherence in quantum gravity: issues and critiques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anastopoulos, C; Hu, B L

2007-01-01

An increasing number of papers have appeared in recent years on decoherence in quantum gravity at the Planck energy. We discuss the meaning of decoherence in quantum gravity starting from the common notion that quantum gravity is a theory for the microscopic structures of spacetime, and invoking some generic features of quantum decoherence from the open systems viewpoint. We dwell on a range of issues bearing on this process including the relation between statistical and quantum, noise from effective field theory, the meaning of stochasticity, the origin of non-unitarity and the nature of nonlocality in this and related contexts. To expound these issues we critique on two representative theories: One claims that decoherence in quantum gravity scale leads to the violation of CPT symmetry at sub-Planckian energy which is used to explain today's particle phenomenology. The other uses this process in place with the Brownian motion model to prove that spacetime foam behaves like a thermal bath. A companion paper will deal with intrinsic and fundamental decoherence which also bear on issues in classical and quantum gravity

Effective spacetime understanding emergence in effective field theory and quantum gravity

CERN Document Server

Crowther, Karen

2016-01-01

This book discusses the notion that quantum gravity may represent the "breakdown" of spacetime at extremely high energy scales. If spacetime does not exist at the fundamental level, then it has to be considered "emergent", in other words an effective structure, valid at low energy scales. The author develops a conception of emergence appropriate to effective theories in physics, and shows how it applies (or could apply) in various approaches to quantum gravity, including condensed matter approaches, discrete approaches, and loop quantum gravity.

Gravity and low-frequency geodynamics

CERN Document Server

Teisseyre, Roman

1989-01-01

This fourth volume in the series Physics and Evolution of the Earth's Interior, provides a comprehensive review of the geophysical and geodetical aspects related to gravity and low-frequency geodynamics. Such aspects include the Earth's gravity field, geoid shape theory, and low-frequency phenomena like rotation, oscillations and tides.Global-scale phenomena are treated as a response to source excitation in spherical Earth models consisting of several shells: lithosphere, mantle, core and sometimes also the inner solid core. The effect of gravitation and rotation on the Earth's shape is anal

Clear evidence of a continuum theory of 4D Euclidean simplicial quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Egawa, H.S.; Horata, S.; Yukawa, T.

2002-01-01

Four-dimensional (4D) simplicial quantum gravity coupled to both scalar fields (N X ) and gauge fields (N A ) has been studied using Monte-Carlo simulations. The matter dependence of the string susceptibility exponent γ (4) is estimated. Furthermore, we compare our numerical results with Background-Metric-Independent (BMI) formulation conjectured to describe the quantum field theory of gravity in 4D. The numerical results suggest that the 4D simplicial quantum gravity is related to the conformal gravity in 4D. Therefore, we propose a phase structure in detail with adding both scalar and gauge fields and discuss the possibility and the property of a continuum theory of 4D Euclidean simplicial quantum gravity

BOOK REVIEW: Canonical Gravity and Applications: Cosmology, Black Holes, and Quantum Gravity Canonical Gravity and Applications: Cosmology, Black Holes, and Quantum Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Husain, Viqar

2012-03-01

Research on quantum gravity from a non-perturbative 'quantization of geometry' perspective has been the focus of much research in the past two decades, due to the Ashtekar-Barbero Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity. This approach provides an SU(2) gauge field as the canonical configuration variable; the analogy with Yang-Mills theory at the kinematical level opened up some research space to reformulate the old Wheeler-DeWitt program into what is now known as loop quantum gravity (LQG). The author is known for his work in the LQG approach to cosmology, which was the first application of this formalism that provided the possibility of exploring physical questions. Therefore the flavour of the book is naturally informed by this history. The book is based on a set of graduate-level lectures designed to impart a working knowledge of the canonical approach to gravitation. It is more of a textbook than a treatise, unlike three other recent books in this area by Kiefer [1], Rovelli [2] and Thiemann [3]. The style and choice of topics of these authors are quite different; Kiefer's book provides a broad overview of the path integral and canonical quantization methods from a historical perspective, whereas Rovelli's book focuses on philosophical and formalistic aspects of the problems of time and observables, and gives a development of spin-foam ideas. Thiemann's is much more a mathematical physics book, focusing entirely on the theory of representing constraint operators on a Hilbert space and charting a mathematical trajectory toward a physical Hilbert space for quantum gravity. The significant difference from these books is that Bojowald covers mainly classical topics until the very last chapter, which contains the only discussion of quantization. In its coverage of classical gravity, the book has some content overlap with Poisson's book [4], and with Ryan and Shepley's older work on relativistic cosmology [5]; for instance the contents of chapter five of the

Les Houches lectures on large N field theories and gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maldacena, J.

2002-01-01

We describe the holographic correspondence between field theories and string/M theory, focusing on the relation between compactifications of string/M theory on Anti-de Sitter spaces and conformal field theories. We review the background for this correspondence and discuss its motivations and the evidence for its correctness. We describe the main results that have been derived from the correspondence in the regime that the field theory is approximated by classical or semiclassical gravity. We focus on the case of the N = 4 supersymmetric gauge theory in four dimensions. (authors)

One-loop renormalization of a gravity-scalar system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, I.Y. [Philander Smith College, Department of Applied Mathematics, Little Rock, AR (United States)

2017-05-15

Extending the renormalizability proposal of the physical sector of 4D Einstein gravity, we have recently proposed renormalizability of the 3D physical sector of gravity-matter systems. The main goal of the present work is to conduct systematic one-loop renormalization of a gravity-matter system by applying our foliation-based quantization scheme. In this work we explicitly carry out renormalization of a gravity-scalar system with a Higgs-type potential. With the fluctuation part of the scalar field gauged away, the system becomes renormalizable through a metric field redefinition. We use dimensional regularization throughout. One of the salient aspects of our analysis is how the graviton propagator acquires the ''mass'' term. One-loop calculations lead to renormalization of the cosmological and Newton constants. We discuss other implications of our results as well: time-varying vacuum energy density and masses of the elementary particles as well as the potential relevance of Neumann boundary condition for black hole information. (orig.)

One-loop renormalization of a gravity-scalar system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, I.Y.

2017-01-01

Extending the renormalizability proposal of the physical sector of 4D Einstein gravity, we have recently proposed renormalizability of the 3D physical sector of gravity-matter systems. The main goal of the present work is to conduct systematic one-loop renormalization of a gravity-matter system by applying our foliation-based quantization scheme. In this work we explicitly carry out renormalization of a gravity-scalar system with a Higgs-type potential. With the fluctuation part of the scalar field gauged away, the system becomes renormalizable through a metric field redefinition. We use dimensional regularization throughout. One of the salient aspects of our analysis is how the graviton propagator acquires the ''mass'' term. One-loop calculations lead to renormalization of the cosmological and Newton constants. We discuss other implications of our results as well: time-varying vacuum energy density and masses of the elementary particles as well as the potential relevance of Neumann boundary condition for black hole information. (orig.)

One-loop renormalization of a gravity-scalar system

Science.gov (United States)

Park, I. Y.

2017-05-01

Extending the renormalizability proposal of the physical sector of 4D Einstein gravity, we have recently proposed renormalizability of the 3D physical sector of gravity-matter systems. The main goal of the present work is to conduct systematic one-loop renormalization of a gravity-matter system by applying our foliation-based quantization scheme. In this work we explicitly carry out renormalization of a gravity-scalar system with a Higgs-type potential. With the fluctuation part of the scalar field gauged away, the system becomes renormalizable through a metric field redefinition. We use dimensional regularization throughout. One of the salient aspects of our analysis is how the graviton propagator acquires the "mass" term. One-loop calculations lead to renormalization of the cosmological and Newton constants. We discuss other implications of our results as well: time-varying vacuum energy density and masses of the elementary particles as well as the potential relevance of Neumann boundary condition for black hole information.

Measuring Gravity in International Trade Flows

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Young Song

2004-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is two-fold. One is to clarify the concept of gravity in international trade flows. The other is to measure the strength of gravity in international trade flows in a way that is consistent with a well-defined concept of gravity. This paper shows that the widely accepted belief that specialization is the source of gravity is not well grounded on theory. We propose to define gravity in international trade as the force that makes the market shares of an exporting country constant in all importing countries, regardless of their sizes. In a stochastic context, we should interpret it as implying that the strength of gravity increases i as the correlation between market shares and market sizes gets weaker and ii as the variance of market shares gets smaller. We estimate an empirical gravity equation thoroughly based on this definition of gravity. We find that a strong degree of gravity exists in most bilateral trade, regardless of income levels of countries, and in trade of most manThe purpose of this paper is two-fold. One is to clarify the concept of gravity in international trade flows. The other is to measure the strength of gravity in international trade flows in a way that is consistent with a well-defined concept of gravity. This paper shows that the widely accepted belief that specialization is the source of gravity is not well grounded on theory. We propose to define gravity in international trade as the force that makes the market shares of an exporting country constant in all importing countries, regardless of their sizes. In a stochastic context, we should interpret it as implying that the strength of gravity increases i as the correlation between market shares and market sizes gets weaker and ii as the variance of market shares gets smaller. We estimate an empirical gravity equation thoroughly based on this definition of gravity. We find that a strong degree of gravity exists in most bilateral trade, regardless of

Source Parameter Inversion for Recent Great Earthquakes from a Decade-long Observation of Global Gravity Fields

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Shin-Chan; Riva, Ricccardo; Sauber, Jeanne; Okal, Emile

2013-01-01

We quantify gravity changes after great earthquakes present within the 10 year long time series of monthly Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) gravity fields. Using spherical harmonic normal-mode formulation, the respective source parameters of moment tensor and double-couple were estimated. For the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, the gravity data indicate a composite moment of 1.2x10(exp 23)Nm with a dip of 10deg, in agreement with the estimate obtained at ultralong seismic periods. For the 2010 Maule earthquake, the GRACE solutions range from 2.0 to 2.7x10(exp 22)Nm for dips of 12deg-24deg and centroid depths within the lower crust. For the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, the estimated scalar moments range from 4.1 to 6.1x10(exp 22)Nm, with dips of 9deg-19deg and centroid depths within the lower crust. For the 2012 Indian Ocean strike-slip earthquakes, the gravity data delineate a composite moment of 1.9x10(exp 22)Nm regardless of the centroid depth, comparing favorably with the total moment of the main ruptures and aftershocks. The smallest event we successfully analyzed with GRACE was the 2007 Bengkulu earthquake with M(sub 0) approx. 5.0x10(exp 21)Nm. We found that the gravity data constrain the focal mechanism with the centroid only within the upper and lower crustal layers for thrust events. Deeper sources (i.e., in the upper mantle) could not reproduce the gravity observation as the larger rigidity and bulk modulus at mantle depths inhibit the interior from changing its volume, thus reducing the negative gravity component. Focal mechanisms and seismic moments obtained in this study represent the behavior of the sources on temporal and spatial scales exceeding the seismic and geodetic spectrum.

Global height datum unification: a new approach in gravity potential space

Science.gov (United States)

Ardalan, A. A.; Safari, A.

2005-12-01

The problem of “global height datum unification” is solved in the gravity potential space based on: (1) high-resolution local gravity field modeling, (2) geocentric coordinates of the reference benchmark, and (3) a known value of the geoid’s potential. The high-resolution local gravity field model is derived based on a solution of the fixed-free two-boundary-value problem of the Earth’s gravity field using (a) potential difference values (from precise leveling), (b) modulus of the gravity vector (from gravimetry), (c) astronomical longitude and latitude (from geodetic astronomy and/or combination of (GNSS) Global Navigation Satellite System observations with total station measurements), (d) and satellite altimetry. Knowing the height of the reference benchmark in the national height system and its geocentric GNSS coordinates, and using the derived high-resolution local gravity field model, the gravity potential value of the zero point of the height system is computed. The difference between the derived gravity potential value of the zero point of the height system and the geoid’s potential value is computed. This potential difference gives the offset of the zero point of the height system from geoid in the “potential space”, which is transferred into “geometry space” using the transformation formula derived in this paper. The method was applied to the computation of the offset of the zero point of the Iranian height datum from the geoid’s potential value W 0=62636855.8 m2/s2. According to the geometry space computations, the height datum of Iran is 0.09 m below the geoid.

GEODYNAMIC WAVES AND GRAVITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. V. Vikulin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available  Gravity phenomena related to the Earth movements in the Solar System and through the Galaxy are reviewed. Such movements are manifested by geological processes on the Earth and correlate with geophysical fields of the Earth. It is concluded that geodynamic processes and the gravity phenomena (including those of cosmic nature are related.  The state of the geomedium composed of blocks is determined by stresses with force moment and by slow rotational waves that are considered as a new type of movements [Vikulin, 2008, 2010]. It is shown that the geomedium has typical rheid properties [Carey, 1954], specifically an ability to flow while being in the solid state [Leonov, 2008]. Within the framework of the rotational model with a symmetric stress tensor, which is developed by the authors [Vikulin, Ivanchin, 1998; Vikulin et al., 2012a, 2013], such movement of the geomedium may explain the energy-saturated state of the geomedium and a possibility of its movements in the form of vortex geological structures [Lee, 1928]. The article discusses the gravity wave detection method based on the concept of interactions between gravity waves and crustal blocks [Braginsky et al., 1985]. It is concluded that gravity waves can be recorded by the proposed technique that detects slow rotational waves. It is shown that geo-gravitational movements can be described by both the concept of potential with account of gravitational energy of bodies [Kondratyev, 2003] and the nonlinear physical acoustics [Gurbatov et al., 2008]. Based on the combined description of geophysical and gravitational wave movements, the authors suggest a hypothesis about the nature of spin, i.e. own moment as a demonstration of the space-time ‘vortex’ properties.  

Quantum fields in the non-perturbative regime. Yang-Mills theory and gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eichhorn, Astrid

2011-09-06

In this thesis we study candidates for fundamental quantum field theories, namely non-Abelian gauge theories and asymptotically safe quantum gravity. Whereas the first ones have a stronglyinteracting low-energy limit, the second one enters a non-perturbative regime at high energies. Thus, we apply a tool suited to the study of quantum field theories beyond the perturbative regime, namely the Functional Renormalisation Group. In a first part, we concentrate on the physical properties of non-Abelian gauge theories at low energies. Focussing on the vacuum properties of the theory, we present an evaluation of the full effective potential for the field strength invariant F{sub {mu}}{sub {nu}}F{sup {mu}}{sup {nu}} from non-perturbative gauge correlation functions and find a non-trivial minimum corresponding to the existence of a dimension four gluon condensate in the vacuum. We also relate the infrared asymptotic form of the {beta} function of the running background-gauge coupling to the asymptotic behavior of Landau-gauge gluon and ghost propagators and derive an upper bound on their scaling exponents. We then consider the theory at finite temperature and study the nature of the confinement phase transition in d = 3+1 dimensions in various non-Abelian gauge theories. For SU(N) with N= 3,..,12 and Sp(2) we find a first-order phase transition in agreement with general expectations. Moreover our study suggests that the phase transition in E(7) Yang-Mills theory also is of first order. Our studies shed light on the question which property of a gauge group determines the order of the phase transition. In a second part we consider asymptotically safe quantum gravity. Here, we focus on the Faddeev-Popov ghost sector of the theory, to study its properties in the context of an interacting UV regime. We investigate several truncations, which all lend support to the conjecture that gravity may be asymptotically safe. In a first truncation, we study the ghost anomalous dimension

Black hole solutions in mimetic Born-Infeld gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Che-Yu; Bouhmadi-López, Mariam; Chen, Pisin

2018-01-01

The vacuum, static, and spherically symmetric solutions in the mimetic Born-Infeld gravity are studied. The mimetic Born-Infeld gravity is a reformulation of the Eddington-inspired-Born-Infeld (EiBI) model under the mimetic approach. Due to the mimetic field, the theory contains non-trivial vacuum solutions different from those in Einstein gravity. We find that with the existence of the mimetic field, the spacelike singularity inside a Schwarzschild black hole could be altered to a lightlike singularity, even though the curvature invariants still diverge at the singularity. Furthermore, in this case, the maximal proper time for a timelike radially-infalling observer to reach the singularity is found to be infinite.

Black hole solutions in mimetic Born-Infeld gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, Che-Yu [National Taiwan University, Department of Physics and Center for Theoretical Sciences, Taipei (China); LeCosPA, National Taiwan University, Taipei (China); Bouhmadi-Lopez, Mariam [University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Department of Theoretical Physics, Bilbao (Spain); IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao (Spain); Chen, Pisin [National Taiwan University, Department of Physics and Center for Theoretical Sciences, Taipei (China); LeCosPA, National Taiwan University, Taipei (China); Stanford University, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford, CA (United States)

2018-01-15

The vacuum, static, and spherically symmetric solutions in the mimetic Born-Infeld gravity are studied. The mimetic Born-Infeld gravity is a reformulation of the Eddington-inspired-Born-Infeld (EiBI) model under the mimetic approach. Due to the mimetic field, the theory contains non-trivial vacuum solutions different from those in Einstein gravity. We find that with the existence of the mimetic field, the spacelike singularity inside a Schwarzschild black hole could be altered to a lightlike singularity, even though the curvature invariants still diverge at the singularity. Furthermore, in this case, the maximal proper time for a timelike radially-infalling observer to reach the singularity is found to be infinite. (orig.)

Monthly gravity field solutions based on GRACE observations generated with the Celestial Mechanics Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Ulrich; Jäggi, Adrian; Beutler, Gerhard

2012-09-01

The main objective of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission consists of determining the temporal variations of the Earth's gravity field. These variations are captured by time series of gravity field models of limited resolution at, e.g., monthly intervals. We present a new time series of monthly models, which was computed with the so-called Celestial Mechanics Approach (CMA), developed at the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern (AIUB). The secular and seasonal variations in the monthly models are tested for statistical significance. Calibrated errors are derived from inter-annual variations. The time-variable signal can be extracted at least up to degree 60, but the gravity field coefficients of orders above 45 are heavily contaminated by noise. This is why a series of monthly models is computed up to a maximum degree of 60, but only a maximum order of 45. Spectral analysis of the residual time-variable signal shows a distinctive peak at a period of 160 days, which shows up in particular in the C20 spherical harmonic coefficient. Basic filter- and scaling-techniques are introduced to evaluate the monthly models. For this purpose, the variability over the oceans is investigated, which serves as a measure for the noisiness of the models. The models in selected regions show the expected seasonal and secular variations, which are in good agreement with the monthly models of the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). The results also reveal a few small outliers, illustrating the necessity for improved data screening. Our monthly models are available at the web page of the International Centre for Global Earth Models (ICGEM).

Preprocessing of gravity gradients at the GOCE high-level processing facility

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bouman, J.; Rispens, S.; Gruber, T.; Koop, R.; Schrama, E.; Visser, P.; Tscherning, C.C.; Veicherts, M.

2008-01-01

One of the products derived from the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) observations are the gravity gradients. These gravity gradients are provided in the gradiometer reference frame (GRF) and are calibrated in-flight using satellite shaking and star sensor data. To

The Refining Mechanism of Super Gravity on the Solidification Structure of Al-Cu Alloys

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuhou Yang

2016-12-01

Full Text Available There is far less study of the refining effect of super gravity fields on solidification structures of metals than of the effects of electrical currents, magnetic and ultrasonic fields. Moreover, the refining mechanisms of super gravity are far from clear. This study applied a super gravity field to Al-Cu alloys to investigate its effect on refining their structures and the mechanism of interaction. The experimental results showed that the solidification structure of Al-Cu alloys can be greatly refined by a super gravity field. The major refining effect was mainly achieved when super gravity was applied at the initial solidification stage; only slight refinement could be obtained towards the end of solidification. No refinement was obtained by the super gravity treatment on pure liquid or solid stages. The effectiveness of super gravity results from its promoting the multiplication of crystal nuclei, which we call “Heavy Crystal Rain”, thereby greatly strengthening the migration of crystal nuclei within the alloy. Increasing the solute Cu content can increase nucleation density and restrict the growth of crystals, which further increases the refining effect of super gravity. Within this paper, we also discuss the motile behavior of crystals in a field of super gravity.

Generalized string theory mapping relations between gravity and gauge theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bjerrum-Bohr, N.E.J.

2003-01-01

A previous study of the Kawai, Lewellen and Tye (KLT) relations between gravity and gauge theories, imposed by the relationship of closed and open strings, are here extended in the light of general relativity and Yang-Mills theory as effective field theories. We discuss the possibility of generalizing the traditional KLT mapping in this effective setting. A generalized mapping between the effective Lagrangians of gravity and Yang-Mills theory is presented, and the corresponding operator relations between gauge and gravity theories at the tree level are further explored. From this generalized mapping remarkable diagrammatic relations are found, linking diagrams in gravity and Yang-Mills theory, as well as diagrams in pure effective Yang-Mills theory. Also the possibility of a gravitational coupling to an antisymmetric field in the gravity scattering amplitude is considered, and shown to allow for mixed open-closed string solutions, i.e., closed heterotic strings

Quantum Gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giribet, G E

2005-01-01

Claus Kiefer presents his book, Quantum Gravity, with his hope that '[the] book will convince readers of [the] outstanding problem [of unification and quantum gravity] and encourage them to work on its solution'. With this aim, the author presents a clear exposition of the fundamental concepts of gravity and the steps towards the understanding of its quantum aspects. The main part of the text is dedicated to the analysis of standard topics in the formulation of general relativity. An analysis of the Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity and the canonical quantization of gravity is performed in detail. Chapters four, five and eight provide a pedagogical introduction to the basic concepts of gravitational physics. In particular, aspects such as the quantization of constrained systems, the role played by the quadratic constraint, the ADM decomposition, the Wheeler-de Witt equation and the problem of time are treated in an expert and concise way. Moreover, other specific topics, such as the minisuperspace approach and the feasibility of defining extrinsic times for certain models, are discussed as well. The ninth chapter of the book is dedicated to the quantum gravitational aspects of string theory. Here, a minimalistic but clear introduction to string theory is presented, and this is actually done with emphasis on gravity. It is worth mentioning that no hard (nor explicit) computations are presented, even though the exposition covers the main features of the topic. For instance, black hole statistical physics (within the framework of string theory) is developed in a pedagogical and concise way by means of heuristical arguments. As the author asserts in the epilogue, the hope of the book is to give 'some impressions from progress' made in the study of quantum gravity since its beginning, i.e., since the end of 1920s. In my opinion, Kiefer's book does actually achieve this goal and gives an extensive review of the subject. (book review)

Stochastic gravity: a primer with applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, B L; Verdaguer, E

2003-01-01

Stochastic semiclassical gravity of the 1990s is a theory naturally evolved from semiclassical gravity of the 1970s and 1980s. It improves on the semiclassical Einstein equation with source given by the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of quantum matter fields in curved spacetime by incorporating an additional source due to their fluctuations. In stochastic semiclassical gravity the main object of interest is the noise kernel, the vacuum expectation value of the (operator-valued) stress-energy bi-tensor, and the centrepiece is the (semiclassical) Einstein-Langevin equation. We describe this new theory via two approaches: the axiomatic and the functional. The axiomatic approach is useful to see the structure of the theory from the framework of semiclassical gravity, showing the link from the mean value of the energy-momentum tensor to their correlation functions. The functional approach uses the Feynman-Vernon influence functional and the Schwinger-Keldysh closed-time-path effective action methods which are convenient for computations. It also brings out the open system concepts and the statistical and stochastic contents of the theory such as dissipation, fluctuations, noise and decoherence. We then describe the applications of stochastic gravity to the backreaction problems in cosmology and black-hole physics. In the first problem, we study the backreaction of conformally coupled quantum fields in a weakly inhomogeneous cosmology. In the second problem, we study the backreaction of a thermal field in the gravitational background of a quasi-static black hole (enclosed in a box) and its fluctuations. These examples serve to illustrate closely the ideas and techniques presented in the first part. This topical review is intended as a first introduction providing readers with some basic ideas and working knowledge. Thus, we place more emphasis here on pedagogy than completeness. (Further discussions of ideas, issues and ongoing research topics can be found

Stochastic gravity: a primer with applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, B L [Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-4111 (United States); Verdaguer, E [Departament de Fisica Fonamental and CER en Astrofisica Fisica de Particules i Cosmologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona (Spain)

2003-03-21

Stochastic semiclassical gravity of the 1990s is a theory naturally evolved from semiclassical gravity of the 1970s and 1980s. It improves on the semiclassical Einstein equation with source given by the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of quantum matter fields in curved spacetime by incorporating an additional source due to their fluctuations. In stochastic semiclassical gravity the main object of interest is the noise kernel, the vacuum expectation value of the (operator-valued) stress-energy bi-tensor, and the centrepiece is the (semiclassical) Einstein-Langevin equation. We describe this new theory via two approaches: the axiomatic and the functional. The axiomatic approach is useful to see the structure of the theory from the framework of semiclassical gravity, showing the link from the mean value of the energy-momentum tensor to their correlation functions. The functional approach uses the Feynman-Vernon influence functional and the Schwinger-Keldysh closed-time-path effective action methods which are convenient for computations. It also brings out the open system concepts and the statistical and stochastic contents of the theory such as dissipation, fluctuations, noise and decoherence. We then describe the applications of stochastic gravity to the backreaction problems in cosmology and black-hole physics. In the first problem, we study the backreaction of conformally coupled quantum fields in a weakly inhomogeneous cosmology. In the second problem, we study the backreaction of a thermal field in the gravitational background of a quasi-static black hole (enclosed in a box) and its fluctuations. These examples serve to illustrate closely the ideas and techniques presented in the first part. This topical review is intended as a first introduction providing readers with some basic ideas and working knowledge. Thus, we place more emphasis here on pedagogy than completeness. (Further discussions of ideas, issues and ongoing research topics can be found

Nonsingular universe in massive gravity's rainbow

Science.gov (United States)

Hendi, S. H.; Momennia, M.; Eslam Panah, B.; Panahiyan, S.

2017-06-01

One of the fundamental open questions in cosmology is whether we can regard the universe evolution without singularity like a Big Bang or a Big Rip. This challenging subject stimulates one to regard a nonsingular universe in the far past with an arbitrarily large vacuum energy. Considering the high energy regime in the cosmic history, it is believed that Einstein gravity should be corrected to an effective energy dependent theory which could be acquired by gravity's rainbow. On the other hand, employing massive gravity provided us with solutions to some of the long standing fundamental problems of cosmology such as cosmological constant problem and self acceleration of the universe. Considering these aspects of gravity's rainbow and massive gravity, in this paper, we initiate studying FRW cosmology in the massive gravity's rainbow formalism. At first, we show that although massive gravity modifies the FRW cosmology, but it does not itself remove the big bang singularity. Then, we generalize the massive gravity to the case of energy dependent spacetime and find that massive gravity's rainbow can remove the early universe singularity. We bring together all the essential conditions for having a nonsingular universe and the effects of both gravity's rainbow and massive gravity generalizations on such criteria are determined.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Airborne Gravity Data for AN01 (2009-2010)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2009-2010 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum...

Acceleration from Modified Gravity: Lessons from Worked Examples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, Wayne

2009-01-01

I examine how two specific examples of modified gravity explanations of cosmic acceleration help us understand some general problems confronting cosmological tests of gravity: how do we distinguish modified gravity from dark energy if they can be made formally equivalent? how do we parameterize deviations according to physical principles with sufficient generality, yet focus cosmological tests into areas that complement our existing knowledge of gravity? how do we treat the dynamics of modifications which necessarily involve non-linearities that preclude superposition of forces? The modified action f(R) and DGP braneworld models provide insight on these question as fully-worked examples whose expansion history, linear perturbation theory, and most recently, non-linear N-body and force-modification field dynamics of cosmological simulations are available for study.

On gravity a brief tour of a weighty subject

CERN Document Server

Zee, A

2018-01-01

Of the four fundamental forces of nature, gravity might be the least understood and yet the one with which we are most intimate. From the months each of us spent suspended in the womb anticipating birth to the moments when we wait for sleep to transport us to other realities, we are always aware of gravity. In On Gravity, physicist A. Zee combines profound depth with incisive accessibility to take us on an original and compelling tour of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Inspired by Einstein's audacious suggestion that spacetime could ripple, Zee begins with the stunning discovery of gravity waves. He goes on to explain how gravity can be understood in comparison to other classical field theories, presents the idea of curved spacetime and the action principle, and explores cutting-edge topics, including black holes and Hawking radiation. Zee travels as far as the theory reaches, leaving us with tantalizing hints of the utterly unknown, from the intransigence of quantum gravity to the mysteries of dark...

Interior Alaska Bouguer Gravity Anomaly

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — A 1 kilometer Complete Bouguer Anomaly gravity grid of interior Alaska. Only those grid cells within 10 kilometers of a gravity data point have gravity values....

Solid holography and massive gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alberte, Lasma; Baggioli, Matteo; Khmelnitsky, Andrei; Pujolàs, Oriol

2016-01-01

Momentum dissipation is an important ingredient in condensed matter physics that requires a translation breaking sector. In the bottom-up gauge/gravity duality, this implies that the gravity dual is massive. We start here a systematic analysis of holographic massive gravity (HMG) theories, which admit field theory dual interpretations and which, therefore, might store interesting condensed matter applications. We show that there are many phases of HMG that are fully consistent effective field theories and which have been left overlooked in the literature. The most important distinction between the different HMG phases is that they can be clearly separated into solids and fluids. This can be done both at the level of the unbroken spacetime symmetries as well as concerning the elastic properties of the dual materials. We extract the modulus of rigidity of the solid HMG black brane solutions and show how it relates to the graviton mass term. We also consider the implications of the different HMGs on the electric response. We show that the types of response that can be consistently described within this framework is much wider than what is captured by the narrow class of models mostly considered so far.

Solid holography and massive gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alberte, Lasma [Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics,Strada Costiera 11, 34151, Trieste (Italy); Baggioli, Matteo [Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE),The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona (Spain); Department of Physics, Institute for Condensed Matter Theory, University of Illinois,1110 W. Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States); Khmelnitsky, Andrei [Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, 34151, Trieste (Italy); Pujolàs, Oriol [Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE),The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona (Spain)

2016-02-17

Momentum dissipation is an important ingredient in condensed matter physics that requires a translation breaking sector. In the bottom-up gauge/gravity duality, this implies that the gravity dual is massive. We start here a systematic analysis of holographic massive gravity (HMG) theories, which admit field theory dual interpretations and which, therefore, might store interesting condensed matter applications. We show that there are many phases of HMG that are fully consistent effective field theories and which have been left overlooked in the literature. The most important distinction between the different HMG phases is that they can be clearly separated into solids and fluids. This can be done both at the level of the unbroken spacetime symmetries as well as concerning the elastic properties of the dual materials. We extract the modulus of rigidity of the solid HMG black brane solutions and show how it relates to the graviton mass term. We also consider the implications of the different HMGs on the electric response. We show that the types of response that can be consistently described within this framework is much wider than what is captured by the narrow class of models mostly considered so far.

Three-dimensional loop quantum gravity: towards a self-gravitating quantum field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noui, Karim

2007-01-01

In a companion paper, we have emphasized the role of the Drinfeld double DSU(2) in the context of three-dimensional Riemannian loop quantum gravity coupled to massive spinless point particles. We make use of this result to propose a model for a self-gravitating quantum field theory (massive spinless non-causal scalar field) in three-dimensional Riemannian space. We start by constructing the Fock space of the free self-gravitating field: the vacuum is the unique DSU(2) invariant state, one-particle states correspond to DSU(2) unitary irreducible simple representations and any multi-particles states are obtained as the symmetrized tensor product between simple representations. The associated quantum field is defined by the usual requirement of covariance under DSU(2). Then, we introduce a DSU(2)-invariant self-interacting potential (the obtained model is a group field theory) and explicitly compute the lowest order terms (in the self-interaction coupling constant λ) of the propagator and of the three-point function. Finally, we compute the lowest order quantum gravity corrections (in the Newton constant G) to the propagator and to the three-point function

Beyond Lovelock gravity: Higher derivative metric theories

Science.gov (United States)

Crisostomi, M.; Noui, K.; Charmousis, C.; Langlois, D.

2018-02-01

We consider theories describing the dynamics of a four-dimensional metric, whose Lagrangian is diffeomorphism invariant and depends at most on second derivatives of the metric. Imposing degeneracy conditions we find a set of Lagrangians that, apart form the Einstein-Hilbert one, are either trivial or contain more than 2 degrees of freedom. Among the partially degenerate theories, we recover Chern-Simons gravity, endowed with constraints whose structure suggests the presence of instabilities. Then, we enlarge the class of parity violating theories of gravity by introducing new "chiral scalar-tensor theories." Although they all raise the same concern as Chern-Simons gravity, they can nevertheless make sense as low energy effective field theories or, by restricting them to the unitary gauge (where the scalar field is uniform), as Lorentz breaking theories with a parity violating sector.

Towards combined global monthly gravity field solutions

Science.gov (United States)

Jaeggi, Adrian; Meyer, Ulrich; Beutler, Gerhard; Weigelt, Matthias; van Dam, Tonie; Mayer-Gürr, Torsten; Flury, Jakob; Flechtner, Frank; Dahle, Christoph; Lemoine, Jean-Michel; Bruinsma, Sean

2014-05-01

Currently, official GRACE Science Data System (SDS) monthly gravity field solutions are generated independently by the Centre for Space Research (CSR) and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). Additional GRACE SDS monthly fields are provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for validation and outside the SDS by a number of other institutions worldwide. Although the adopted background models and processing standards have been harmonized more and more by the various processing centers during the past years, notable differences still exist and the users are more or less left alone with a decision which model to choose for their individual applications. This procedure seriously limits the accessibility of these valuable data. Combinations are well established in the area of other space geodetic techniques, such as the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). Regularly comparing and combining space-geodetic products has tremendously increased the usefulness of the products in a wide range of disciplines and scientific applications. Therefore, we propose in a first step to mutually compare the large variety of available monthly GRACE gravity field solutions, e.g., by assessing the signal content over selected regions, by estimating the noise over the oceans, and by performing significance tests. We make the attempt to assign different solution characteristics to different processing strategies in order to identify subsets of solutions, which are based on similar processing strategies. Using these subsets we will in a second step explore ways to generate combined solutions, e.g., based on a weighted average of the individual solutions using empirical weights derived from pair-wise comparisons. We will also assess the quality of such a combined solution and discuss the potential benefits for the GRACE and GRACE-FO user community, but also address minimum processing

Fixed points of quantum gravity in extra dimensions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fischer, Peter; Litim, Daniel F.

2006-01-01

We study quantum gravity in more than four dimensions with renormalisation group methods. We find a non-trivial ultraviolet fixed point in the Einstein-Hilbert action. The fixed point connects with the perturbative infrared domain through finite renormalisation group trajectories. We show that our results for fixed points and related scaling exponents are stable. If this picture persists at higher order, quantum gravity in the metric field is asymptotically safe. We discuss signatures of the gravitational fixed point in models with low scale quantum gravity and compact extra dimensions

Chiral fermions in asymptotically safe quantum gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Meibohm, J; Pawlowski, J M

2016-01-01

We study the consistency of dynamical fermionic matter with the asymptotic safety scenario of quantum gravity using the functional renormalisation group. Since this scenario suggests strongly coupled quantum gravity in the UV, one expects gravity-induced fermion self-interactions at energies of the Planck scale. These could lead to chiral symmetry breaking at very high energies and thus to large fermion masses in the IR. The present analysis which is based on the previous works (Christiansen et al., Phys Rev D 92:121501, 2015; Meibohm et al., Phys Rev D 93:084035, 2016), concludes that gravity-induced chiral symmetry breaking at the Planck scale is avoided for a general class of NJL-type models. We find strong evidence that this feature is independent of the number of fermion fields. This finding suggests that the phase diagram for these models is topologically stable under the influence of gravitational interactions.

Gravity field recovery in the framework of a Geodesy and Time Reference in Space (GETRIS)

Science.gov (United States)

Hauk, Markus; Schlicht, Anja; Pail, Roland; Murböck, Michael

2017-04-01

The study ;Geodesy and Time Reference in Space; (GETRIS), funded by European Space Agency (ESA), evaluates the potential and opportunities coming along with a global space-borne infrastructure for data transfer, clock synchronization and ranging. Gravity field recovery could be one of the first beneficiary applications of such an infrastructure. This paper analyzes and evaluates the two-way high-low satellite-to-satellite-tracking as a novel method and as a long-term perspective for the determination of the Earth's gravitational field, using it as a synergy of one-way high-low combined with low-low satellite-to-satellite-tracking, in order to generate adequate de-aliasing products. First planned as a constellation of geostationary satellites, it turned out, that an integration of European Union Global Navigation Satellite System (Galileo) satellites (equipped with inter-Galileo links) into a Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) constellation would extend the capability of such a mission constellation remarkably. We report about simulations of different Galileo and Low Earth Orbiter (LEO) satellite constellations, computed using time variable geophysical background models, to determine temporal changes in the Earth's gravitational field. Our work aims at an error analysis of this new satellite/instrument scenario by investigating the impact of different error sources. Compared to a low-low satellite-to-satellite-tracking mission, results show reduced temporal aliasing errors due to a more isotropic error behavior caused by an improved observation geometry, predominantly in near-radial direction within the inter-satellite-links, as well as the potential of an improved gravity recovery with higher spatial and temporal resolution. The major error contributors of temporal gravity retrieval are aliasing errors due to undersampling of high frequency signals (mainly atmosphere, ocean and ocean tides). In this context, we investigate adequate methods to reduce these errors. We

Mercury’s gravity field, tidal Love number k2, and spin axis orientation revealed with MESSENGER radio tracking data

Science.gov (United States)

Verma, Ashok Kumar; Margot, Jean-Luc

2015-11-01

We are conducting an independent analysis of two-way Doppler and two-way range radio tracking data from the MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around Mercury from 2011 to 2015. Our goals are to estimate Mercury’s gravity field and to obtain independent estimates of the tidal Love number k2 and spin axis orientation. Our gravity field solution reproduces existing values with high fidelity, and prospects for recovery of the other quantities are excellent.The tidal Love number k2 provides powerful constraints on interior models of Mercury, including the mechanical properties of the mantle and the possibility of a solid FeS layer at the top of the core. Current gravity analyses cannot rule out a wide range of values (k2=43-0.50) and a variety of plausible interior models. We are seeking an independent estimate of tidal Love number k2 with improved errors to further constrain these models.Existing gravity-based solutions for Mercury's spin axis orientation differ from those of Earth-based radar and topography-based solutions. This difference may indicate an error in one of the determinations, or a real difference between the orientations about which the gravity field and the crust rotate, which can exist in a variety of plausible configuration. Securing an independent estimate of the spin axis orientation is vital because this quantity has a profound impact on the determination of the moment of inertia and interior models.We have derived a spherical harmonic solution of the gravity field to degree and order 40 as well as estimates of the tidal Love number k2 and spin axis orientation

Counterterms in Gravity in the Light-Front Formulation and a D=2 Conformal-like Symmetry in Gravity

OpenAIRE

Bengtsson, Anders K. H.; Brink, Lars; Kim, Sung-Soo

2012-01-01

In this paper we discuss gravity in the light-front formulation (light-cone gauge) and show how possible counterterms arise. We find that Poincare invariance is not enough to find the three-point counterterms uniquely. Higher-spin fields can intrude and mimic three-point higher derivative gravity terms. To select the correct term we have to use the remaining reparametrization invariance that exists after the gauge choice. We finally sketch how the corresponding programme for N=8 Supergravity ...

Towards unification of terrestrial gravity data sets in Estonia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ellmann, Artu

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Gravity data in Estonia have been collected by different institutions over many decades. This study assesses the suitability of available gravity data for ensuring a 1 cm geoid modelling accuracy over Estonia and in the Baltic Sea region in general. The main focus of this study is on the determination and elimination of discrepancies between three nationwide datasets. It was detected that one tested historic gravity dataset contained inadmissible systematic biases with respect to other tested datasets. Possible ways of gravity data improvement are discussed. More specifically, new field observation campaigns and aspects of using their outcomes in subsequent regional geoid modelling are suggested.

Global Earth Structure Recovery from State-of-the-art Models of the Earth's Gravity Field and Additional Geophysical Information

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hamayun, H.

2014-01-01

Currently, a tremendous improvement is observed in the accuracy and spatial resolution of global Earth’s gravity field models. This improvement is achieved due to using various new data, including those from satellite gravimetry missions (CHAMP, GRACE, and GOCE); terrestrial and airborne gravity

Terrestrial Sagnac delay constraining modified gravity models

Science.gov (United States)

Karimov, R. Kh.; Izmailov, R. N.; Potapov, A. A.; Nandi, K. K.

2018-04-01

Modified gravity theories include f(R)-gravity models that are usually constrained by the cosmological evolutionary scenario. However, it has been recently shown that they can also be constrained by the signatures of accretion disk around constant Ricci curvature Kerr-f(R0) stellar sized black holes. Our aim here is to use another experimental fact, viz., the terrestrial Sagnac delay to constrain the parameters of specific f(R)-gravity prescriptions. We shall assume that a Kerr-f(R0) solution asymptotically describes Earth's weak gravity near its surface. In this spacetime, we shall study oppositely directed light beams from source/observer moving on non-geodesic and geodesic circular trajectories and calculate the time gap, when the beams re-unite. We obtain the exact time gap called Sagnac delay in both cases and expand it to show how the flat space value is corrected by the Ricci curvature, the mass and the spin of the gravitating source. Under the assumption that the magnitude of corrections are of the order of residual uncertainties in the delay measurement, we derive the allowed intervals for Ricci curvature. We conclude that the terrestrial Sagnac delay can be used to constrain the parameters of specific f(R) prescriptions. Despite using the weak field gravity near Earth's surface, it turns out that the model parameter ranges still remain the same as those obtained from the strong field accretion disk phenomenon.

Generalized Noether symmetry in f(T) gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohseni Sadjadi, H.

2012-01-01

We consider modified teleparallel gravity (f(T) gravity), as a framework to explain the present accelerated expansion of the universe. The matter component is assumed to be cold dark matter. To find the explicit form of the function f, we utilize generalized Noether theorem and use generalized vector fields as variational symmetries of the corresponding Lagrangian. We study the cosmological consequences of the obtained results.

Metastable gravity on classical defects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ringeval, Christophe; Rombouts, Jan-Willem

2005-01-01

We discuss the realization of metastable gravity on classical defects in infinite-volume extra dimensions. In dilatonic Einstein gravity, it is found that the existence of metastable gravity on the defect core requires violation of the dominant energy condition for codimension N c =2 defects. This is illustrated with a detailed analysis of a six-dimensional hyperstring minimally coupled to dilaton gravity. We present the general conditions under which a codimension N c >2 defect admits metastable modes, and find that they differ from lower codimensional models in that, under certain conditions, they do not require violation of energy conditions to support quasilocalized gravity