Abstract: We investigate the scalar absorption spectrum of wormhole solutions constructed via the recently developed thin-shell formalism for Palatini f(R) gravity. Such wormholes come from the matching of two Reissner-Nordstrom spacetimes at a timelike hypersurface (shell), which, according to the junction conditions in Palatini f(R), can be stable and have either positive or negative energy density. In particular, we identified a new physically interesting configuration made out of two overcharged Reissner-Nordstrom spacetimes, whose absorption profile departs from that of black holes and other previously considered wormholes in the whole range of frequencies. Unlike in symmetric wormhole solutions, the asymmetry of the effective potential causes the dilution of the resonances associated to the quasibound states for the high -frequency regime. Therefore, slight asymmetries in wormhole space-times could have a dramatic impact on the observable features associated to resonant states.

Abstract: This work investigates the implications of very special relativity (VSR) on the calculation of vacuum polarization for fermions in the presence of Maxwell and Kalb-Ramond gauge fields in four-dimensional spacetime. We derive the SIM(2)-covariant gauge theory associated with an Abelian antisymmetric twotensor and its corresponding field strength. We demonstrate that the free VSR-Kalb-Ramond electrodynamics is equivalent to a massive scalar field with a single polarization. Furthermore, we determine an explicit expression for the effective action involving Maxwell and Kalb-Ramond fields due to fermionic vacuum polarization at one-loop order. The quantum corrections generate divergences free of nonlocal terms only in the VSR-Maxwell sector. At the same time, we observe UV/IR mixing divergences due to the entanglement of VSR-nonlocal effects with quantum higher-derivative terms for the Kalb-Ramond field. However, in the lower energy limit, the effective action can be renormalized like in the Lorentz invariant case.

Abstract: General Relativity has shown an outstanding observational success in the scales where it has been directly tested. However, modifications have been intensively explored in the regimes where it seems either incomplete or signals its own limit of validity. In particular, the breakdown of unitarity near the Planck scale strongly suggests that General Relativity needs to be modified at high energies and quantum gravity effects are expected to be important. This is related to the existence of spacetime singularities when the solutions of General Relativity are extrapolated to regimes where curvatures are large. In this sense, Born-Infeld inspired modifications of gravity have shown an extraordinary ability to regularise the gravitational dynamics, leading to non-singular cosmologies and regular black hole spacetimes in a very robust manner and without resorting to quantum gravity effects. This has boosted the interest in these theories in applications to stellar structure, compact objects, inflationary scenarios, cosmological singularities, and black hole and wormhole physics, among others. We review the motivations, various formulations, and main results achieved within these theories, including their observational viability, and provide an overview of current open problems and future research opportunities.