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=
4
+
(1)
This is called the Einstein-Hilbert Action. The stands for the Ricci scalar. The quantity
represents the determinant of the metric tensor.
(2)
The metric formalism results if we assume at the outset that the connection by default is
the Levi-Civita connection which is compatible with the metric. We vary (1) only with
respect to the metric in this case. The Levi-Civita connection is given by
=
1
2
) (3)
Here and in the previous equation, the repeated indices are summed. In the case of the
Einstein-Hilbert action given in (1), it can be proved [4] that the metric and the Palatini
formalism lead to the same field equations, which can be shown (after a variational
calculation) to be as given below
2009PH10739-4
1
2
=
8
(4)
Here,
= det
1/2
4
(5)
the metric and Palatini formalisms, give radically different equations of motion. As we
shall argue, consistency with our first result described below requires that (5) be varied
in the Palatini formalism. Varying (5) in the Palatini approach results in the following
equations of motion [5] (after varying with respect to the metric)
(6)
(7)
Here,
and
respectively. The variation with respect to the connection yields the following
equation
=
1
2
) (8)
On the other hand, varying (5) in the metric formalism yields the following mess
=
1
2
+ 2
+
The other quantities need not be defined as they are not used in the subsequent
discussion.
2009PH10739-5
Our work on the quantum version of B-I electrodynamics and gravity uses some new
tools which are briefly summarized here.
The Faddeev Popov [12] method uses the path integral formalism to remove redundant
infinities while performing the integral. The procedure is as follows:
The generating functional for a Quantum Field theory that is gauge invariant is given by
=
(9)
Here is the action evaluated along a particular path in the space of the gauge field.
Since the action is gauge invariant, the generating functional above involves sums over
fields that are related to each other by gauge transformations. This over counting results
in infinities. The way to fix this is to insert unity in the form:
= (
)) (10)
Here,
) (
))
in the generating functional, we get
=
)(
)) (11)
Thus the integral over the group space only contributes an overall multiplicative
constant and hence can be ignored. The correct expression is therefore,
=
)(
)) (12)
This
in this
case and hence can be taken out of the integral.
Another tool that is subsequently required is the Vielbien (or Tetrad) formalism for the
gravitational field. In the usual formulation of gravity, the dynamical field is taken to be
2009PH10739-6
the metric
.
We have used here the Palatini formalism that considers these quantities to be
independent. An equivalent approach to gravity would be the introduction of the Tetrad
fields
[13,14] which have both a spacetime index and an internal index . They are
defined to satisfy the following relation
(13)
Here
is the Minkowski metric. This equation is then inverted to obtain the following
equation which is also used as a general definition of the Cotetrad fields
(14)
The internal indices of the Tetrad transform in such a way that the tensor
is left
invariant. As we know, the set of all such transformations is precisely the Lorentz Group
SO(3,1). Hence, in a particular coordinate system, we treat gravity as a gauge theory
with the gauge group SO(3,1). The transformation is given by
() =
()
() (15)
Here,
(16)
where,
are the structure constants of the SO(3,1) group. Once we have the field
strength
(17)
2009PH10739-7
Finally, we review a theorem from control theory. This result is very important for the
subsequent discussion with regard to the proof of the Ostrogradsky instability.
Consider the following system of differential equations
= () (18)
Here, represents an n-dimensional vector, while () is a scalar point function. The
dot represents a time derivative. Without losing generality, we can assume that = 0 is
the equilibrium point of the system [6]. We now state the result. The proof can be looked
up in [6].
Chaetevs Theorem [6] Let = 0 be an equilibrium point for (1). Let be a
continuously differentiable function such that 0 = 0 and
0
> 0 for some
with
arbitrarily small |
0
|. For > 0, let
> 0} (19)
With defined as in (10), suppose that
2
+
1
,
2
,
2
(
1
,
2
, ) (20)
Here, the choice of canonical coordinates is as follows [3]:
1
= ,
1
=
2
= ,
2
=
(21)
An approach to proving the instability of a system was already carried out in [7], in the
context of charged solitons. The ideas presented below are a combination of the steps
taken in that paper together with the result quoted above.
Now, we come to the crux of the result. Phase space translations are canonical
transformations [8]. Therefore, by a suitable canonical transformation, the Hamiltonian
can be thrown into the following form:
, =
1
2
+ , (22)
Here, (, ) is a function that contains no linear terms. Therefore, in a neighborhood
of the origin, the first term dominates. Now, if we choose the Chaetevs function as
, =
1
2
, we get for the derivative of this function along the solution trajectories
=
1
2
+
1
=
1
2
+ (, ) (23)
Again, the function , is dominated by the first term in a neighborhood of the origin.
Therefore, in a small neighborhood around the origin, the conditions of Chaetevs
theorem are satisfied so that this theory is unstable at the origin. Finally, by a suitable
translation, we can reach the same conclusion at any point of the trajectory. Hence, we
conclude that such a theory is unstable everywhere.
2009PH10739-9
Now that we have shown that any higher derivative Lagrangian is unstable in the
Lyapunov sense, we can return to the question of modifying gravity to explain
accelerated expansion. In the literature, () modifications are discussed very
extensively, where is the Ricci scalar [3], [9]. It is claimed that no other non-trivial
modification can satisfy the constraints imposed by the result proved above [3].
However, Born-Infeld (B-I) Lagrangians are particularly attractive because of their
intriguing properties [10].
The B-I Lagrangian made its appearance with the modification of the electrodynamic
action by Born and Infeld. This was done to remove the infinite self energy of point
charges by introducing an upper bound on the magnitude of the electric field. It was
further pointed out that the B-I electromagnetic field propagates without birefringence
[10]. Analogous work has been carried out for the case of the gravitational field.
However, the cosmology discussed has been restricted to the case where the spatial
hyperspaces are flat [11]. We have extended these results to the case where the spatial
hyperspaces can be curved. Before proceeding further, we must mention here an
important consequence of the Ostrogradsky instability.
The Born Infeld action in (5) can only be varied in the Palatini approach: This
statement can be justified by referring to (2), (3) and (5). Suppose (5) is varied in the
metric formalism. Then as stated in the introduction, the connection is fixed as the Levi
Civita connection given in (3). In that case, the determinant in (5), can be expanded in
terms of the trace as follows (upto third order):
det
1 +
1
2
(
2
) (24)
where
=
1
2
2
and = 8
+
3
(25)
Therefore, if the metric is considered the sole dynamical quantity, the Lagrangian would
involve the second and higher derivatives of the metric. But this would result in an
unstable theory in accordance with the result proved above.
2009PH10739-10
However, in the Palatini case, only the first derivatives of the connection coefficients
appear in the expression for the Ricci tensor as can be seen from (2). Therefore, in this
case, there is no instability provided the action in (5) is varied by taking the metric and
connection as separate degrees of freedom and therefore, Born-Infeld Lagrangians are
also viable as alternative theories of gravity.
The FRW equations in Born Infeld Gravity: With the question of viability settled, we
can now set up and solve the FRW equations for B-I gravity. We generalize here the flat
space results of [11] to curved spatial hyper surfaces.
As usual, we assume that the universe is homogenous and isotropic. This results in the
following ansatz for the metric in comoving coordinates [2]
=
0
2
+
2
2
1
2
+
2
2
+ sin
2
2
(26)
Here, a(t) is the cosmic radius. Other symbols have their usual meanings. For the B-I
equations, we also need an ansatz for the auxiliary metric
00
=
2
and
=
2
(27)
Here,
represents the spatial components of the metric. Equation (27) together with
(8) then determines the non-zero connection coefficients as (here, U represents a time
derivative)
1
2
2
+
2
1
2
2
(28)
2
+
sin
2
(29)
1
2
= 1
2
sin
2
(30)
= sin cos
= cot (31)
=
1
(32)
2009PH10739-11
(33)
For use in (6), we also need the = 00 and 11 components of the Ricci tensor, which
are given by (as usual an apostrophe represents a time derivative)
00
= 3
1
+
2
6
2
3
(34)
11
=
1
1
2
2 +
2
2
+
2
+
+
2
2
+
+
2
+
1
2
(35)
Here =
,
1
=
,
2
=
For the matter distribution, we assume a perfect fluid with pressure and density . It
can further be shown that the fluid satisfies the equation of continuity. Finally, we can
write the following equations of motion using (6) and (7)
1
2
= 3
1
+
2
6
2
3
(36)
2
1 =
2
2
+
2
{2
+
2
+
+
2
2
+
+
2
+
1
2
}
(37)
= + (38)
= + (39)
The fluid also has an equation of state that is given by the following relation
= (40)
Finally, the continuity equation can be written as
= 31 + (41)
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We can immediately integrate (41) to yield the density as a function of radius
=
0
31+
(42)
Here, is a constant that determines the kind of fluid that is present in the universe. It
is 0 for matter, -1 for vacuum and -1/3 for radiation. The second derivatives can be
eliminated between (36) and (37). Moreover, (38) and (39) can be solved to give and
as a function of and hence as a function of () as follows
= +
0
31+
1
4
+
0
31+
1
4
(43)
=
+
0
31+
3
4
+
0
31+
1
4
(44)
After doing all the manipulations, we end up with the following first order equation for
=
2
+ 4
2
+ 2+2 +
2
1 2+
(
2
1)
3
2
2
+ 2+2 +
(45)
Here
=
31 +
4
+
+
1
+
=
31 +
4
3
+
1
+
Equation (45) is therefore the final result of our work for the first part of the thesis. It
gives an equation for the evolution of (). This can be used to discuss any differences
or similarities with the equation for the Hubble rate
1/2
(46)
Here, is a free parameter of the theory. Moreover,
is
the dual of the field strength.
In order to remove the square root, we introduce an auxiliary field after [15] as follows:
=
2
1 +
2
+
4
1
2
(47)
We observe that the field enters the Lagrangian without time derivatives and hence, it
has no independent dynamics. Its equations of motion are given by
2009PH10739-15
= 0 =
1
2
1 +
2
+
4
+
1
2
2
= 0 (48)
This fixes in terms of the original dynamical fields which when substituted in the
Lagrangian, gives the same equation as the original one.
The advantage of introducing this field is that on passing to the path integral, can be
taken to be independent of the other fields, since in the path integral, the action is not
stationary but acquires all values with same probability.
The Faddeev-Popov procedure is then used here, and consists of exploiting the gauge
invariance to factor out the infinite volume of the Gauge space as discussed in the
Theory section. For the Abelian case of electrodynamics, this throws in a factor that is
independent of the
and is not important for our approach. After doing all that, the
normal course is to insert an arbitrary field and averaging over all such fields. In our
approach, we choose as the extra auxiliary field which we have introduced in the
Lagrangian above. The argument for justifying this is given below:
Proof: The path integral (or the generating functional) is given by:
=
(49)
Since and
to get
=
(50)
Here,
] is the term arising out of neglecting the infinite volume element of the
gauge group space. For Abelian gauge theory, it is independent of
so that, if
= 0, then,
2
1 +
4
1
2
(51)
Finally, since as we said above, the auxiliary field is not dynamical, we can restrict to
variations of the Lagrangian such that
4
(52)
Hence, we have achieved our aim: we have removed the square root and brought the
Lagrangian to polynomial form in the
4
+
2
(53)
The effective action is given by
=
1
2
4
+
2
4
(54)
Assuming the vector fields go to zero at infinity, we can use integration by parts to
rewrite this as follows:
2009PH10739-17
=
1
2
4
+
2
4
=
1
2
4
+
2
4
(55)
Here, we would like to define a few symbols before proceeding further; we define
1
) = () and -1 for the cyclic
permutation.
is the usual permutation tensor defined for four indices. With these
definitions, the action above becomes
4
(56)
Renaming a few indices, and expanding, we get the integrand
1
4
+
1
4
(57)
We thus see that the effective action consists of two terms. One which is third order in
the field (the second term) and another which is fifth order in the field (the first term).
Writing the field in terms of its Fourier components, i.e.,
exp(
)
4
(58)
we get for the second term in the equation above :
2
exp(
1
+
2
+
3
)
4
4
(59)
The integration over the coordinates gives a delta function. Finally, finding the
functional derivatives [12] with respect to the (), we get the amplitude in
momentum space for this coupling to be (i.e., the Feynman Rule for this three-
field vertex)
2009PH10739-18
2
1
+
2
+
3
1
+
(60)
The permutations arise because the fields are indistinguishable. An important point of
difference from the Yang-Mills propagator is that the coupling amplitude is cubic in the
momentum while it is linear there; this in itself points to the intense self coupling that
occurs in our case.
Similarly the fifth order terms which occur in the first term can be handled using Fourier
Transformations to get:
1
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
5
+
5
+
(61)
The Quantisation of Born-Infeld Gravity:
Having disposed of the Electrodynamics case, we now come to the treatment of gravity.
Here, there is a natural way in which the square root in the Lagrangian can be removed.
This is achieved as stated in the theory section, by employing Tetrad fields. In terms of
the tetrads, as shown in [16], the Lagrangian for B-I gravity is given by
=
4
4
+
3
4
+
2
2!
4
2
3!
4
3
3
+2
+
4
det
(62)
Here, = = det
is
related to the reciprocal of the cosmological constant. We now present below the
arguments used in deriving the analogy to the Yang-Mills field.
2009PH10739-19
Analogy with the Yang-Mills field:
First we start with the observation that the cosmological constant is very small in value.
Thus only the leading order terms in in the Lagrangian above need to be taken into
account.
Moreover, since we are using the Palatini formalism, the Tetrad
are independent. Since the signature of gravity is contained in the derivatives of the
connection and not in the metric, we assume here that the
2
2!
4
2
(63)
where = det
can be
written in terms of the connection as
(64)
The product of the Tetrads can be decomposed as
=
1
4
(65)
Here,
is some tensor that depends on the metric. The only condition that should be
satisfied by this tensor is that
(66)
With this decomposition, the second term in the Lagrangian can be written as
2009PH10739-20
=
1
4
(67)
and hence, the Lagrangian can be thrown into the form
=
1
4
(68)
Thus, we see that the first term is exactly equivalent to the kinetic energy part of Yang
Mills field except with two indices instead of one as in conventional Y-M theory. One
main difference is that the gauge group here is non-compact (SO(3,1)) unlike Y-M which
has a compact gauge group (SU(2)). Moreover, as in Y-M, there is no mass term.
Feynman Rules for Quantized B-I gravity:
From the kinetic part, we can now directly get the propagator [12] for this theory to be
2
+
4
(69)
Note that
=
+ +
(70)
Here,
2
4
2
+
4
(71)
Using the analyticity of the path integral, we perform analytic continuation to imaginary
time and replace = . Also, we use Wick rotation of the contour along which (71) is
evaluated. Under these transformations, the integral in (71) is evaluated to
4
2
=
4
2
(72)
where, again by analytic continuation, we have replaced by . Here, is a positive
constant. Then,