Lobo, F. S. N., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2013). Semiclassical geons as solitonic black hole remnants. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 011–10pp.
Abstract: We find that the end state of black hole evaporation could be represented by non-singular and without event horizon stable solitonic remnants with masses of the order the Planck scale and up to similar to 16 units of charge. Though these objects are locally indistinguishable from spherically symmetric, massive electric (or magnetic) charges, they turn out to be sourceless geons containing a wormhole generated by the electromagnetic field. Our results are obtained by interpreting semiclassical corrections to Einstein's theory in the first-order (Palatini) formalism, which yields second-order equations and avoids the instabilities of the usual (metric) formulation of quadratic gravity. We also discuss the potential relevance of these solutions for primordial black holes and the dark matter problem.
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Guendelman, E. I., Olmo, G. J., Rubiera-Garcia, D., & Vasihoun, M. (2013). Nonsingular electrovacuum solutions with dynamically generated cosmological constant. Phys. Lett. B, 726(4-5), 870–875.
Abstract: We consider static spherically symmetric configurations in a Palatini extension of General Relativity including R-2 and Ricci-squared terms, which is known to replace the central singularity by a wormhole in the electrovacuum case. We modify the matter sector of the theory by adding to the usual Maxwell term a nonlinear electromagnetic extension which is known to implement a confinement mechanism in flat space. One feature of the resulting theory is that the nonlinear electric field leads to a dynamically generated cosmological constant. We show that with this matter source the solutions of the model are asymptotically de Sitter and possess a wormhole topology. We discuss in some detail the conditions that guarantee the absence of singularities and of traversable wormholes.
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Capozziello, S., Harko, T., Koivisto, T. S., Lobo, F. S. N., & Olmo, G. J. (2013). Galactic rotation curves in hybrid metric-Palatini gravity. Astropart Phys., 50-52, 65–75.
Abstract: Generally, the dynamics of test particles around galaxies, as well as the corresponding mass deficit, is explained by postulating the existence of a hypothetical dark matter. In fact, the behavior of the rotation curves shows the existence of a constant velocity region, near the baryonic matter distribution, followed by a quick decay at large distances. In this work, we consider the possibility that the behavior of the rotational velocities of test particles gravitating around galaxies can be explained within the framework of the recently proposed hybrid metric-Palatini gravitational theory. The latter is constructed by modifying the metric Einstein-Hilbert action with an f(R) term in the Palatini formalism. It was shown that the theory unifies local constraints and the late-time cosmic acceleration, even if the scalar field is very light. In the intermediate galactic scale, we show explicitly that in the hybrid metric-Palatini model the tangential velocity can be explicitly obtained as a function of the scalar field of the equivalent scalar-tensor description. The model predictions are compared model with a small sample of rotation curves of low surface brightness galaxies, respectively, and a good agreement between the theoretical rotation Curves and the observational data is found. The possibility of constraining the form of the scalar field and the parameters of the model by using the stellar velocity dispersions is also analyzed. Furthermore, the Doppler velocity shifts are also obtained in terms of the scalar field. All the physical and geometrical quantities and the numerical parameters in the hybrid metric-Palatini model can be expressed in terms of observable/measurable parameters, such as the tangential velocity, the baryonic mass of the galaxy, the Doppler frequency shifts, and the stellar dispersion velocity, respectively. Therefore, the obtained results open the possibility of testing the hybrid metric-Palatini gravitational models at the galactic or extra-galactic scale by using direct astronomical and astrophysical observations.
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Lobo, F. S. N., Martinez-Asencio, J., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2014). Planck scale physics and topology change through an exactly solvable model. Phys. Lett. B, 731, 163–167.
Abstract: We consider the collapse of a charged radiation fluid in a Planck-suppressed quadratic extension of General Relativity (GR) formulated A la Palatini. We obtain exact analytical solutions that extend the charged Vaidya-type solution of GR, which allows to explore in detail new physics at the Planck scale. Starting from Minkowski space, we find that the collapsing fluid generates wormholes supported by the electric field. We discuss the relevance of our findings in relation to the quantum foam structure of space-time and the meaning of curvature divergences in this theory.
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Capozziello, S., Harko, T., Lobo, F. S. N., Olmo, G. J., & Vignolo, S. (2014). The Cauchy problem in hybrid metric-Palatini f(X)-gravity. Int. J. Geom. Methods Mod. Phys., 11(5), 1450042–12pp.
Abstract: The well-formulation and the well-posedness of the Cauchy problem are discussed for hybrid metric-Palatini gravity, a recently proposed modified gravitational theory consisting of adding to the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian an f(R)-term constructed a la Palatini. The theory can be recast as a scalar-tensor one predicting the existence of a light long-range scalar field that evades the local Solar System tests and is able to modify galactic and cosmological dynamics, leading to the late-time cosmic acceleration. In this work, adopting generalized harmonic coordinates, we show that the initial value problem can always be well-formulated and, furthermore, can be well-posed depending on the adopted matter sources.
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Mendoza, S., & Olmo, G. J. (2015). Astrophysical constraints and insights on extended relativistic gravity. Astrophys. Space Sci., 357(2), 133–6pp.
Abstract: We give precise details to support that observations of gravitational lensing at scales of individual, groups and clusters of galaxies can be understood in terms of nonNewtonian gravitational interactions with a relativistic structure compatible with the Einstein Equivalence Principle. This result is derived on very general grounds without knowing the underlying structure of the gravitational field equations. As such, any developed gravitational theory built to deal with these astrophysical scales needs to reproduce the obtained results of this article.
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Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2015). Brane-world and loop cosmology from a gravity-matter coupling perspective. Phys. Lett. B, 740, 73–79.
Abstract: We show that the effective brane-world and the loop quantum cosmology background expansion histories can be reproduced from a modified gravity perspective in terms of an f (R) gravity action plus a g(R) term non-minimally coupled with the matter Lagrangian. The reconstruction algorithm that we provide depends on a free function of the matter density that must be specified in each case and allows to obtain analytical solutions always. In the simplest cases, the function f (R) is quadratic in the Ricci scalar, R, whereas g(R) is linear. Our approach is compared with recent results in the literature. We show that working in the Palatini formalism there is no need to impose any constraint that keeps the equations second order, which is a key requirement for the successful implementation of the reconstruction algorithm.
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Beltran Jimenez, J., Heisenberg, L., & Olmo, G. J. (2014). Infrared lessons for ultraviolet gravity: the case of massive gravity and Born-lnfeld. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 11(11), 004–26pp.
Abstract: We generalize the ultraviolet sector of gravitation via a Born-Infeld action using lessons from massive gravity. The theory contains all of the elementary symmetric polynomials and is treated in the Palatini formalism. We show how the connection can be solved algebraically to be the Levi-Civita connection of an effective metric. The non-linearity of the algebraic equations yields several branches, one of which always reduces to General Relativity at low curvatures. We explore in detail a minimal version of the theory, for which we study solutions in the presence of a perfect fluid with special attention to the cosmological evolution. In vacuum we recover Ricci-flat solutions, but also an additional physical solution corresponding to an Einstein space. The existence of two physical branches remains for non-vacuum solutions and, in addition, the branch that connects to the Einstein space in vacuum is not very sensitive to the specific value of the energy density. For the branch that connects to the General Relativity limit we generically find three behaviours for the Hubble function depending on the equation of state of the fluid, namely: either there is a maximum value for the energy density that connects continuously with vacuum, or the energy density can be arbitrarily large but the Hubble function saturates and remains constant at high energy densities, or the energy density is unbounded and the Hubble function grows faster than in General Relativity. The second case is particularly interesting because it could offer an interesting inflationary epoch even in the presence of a dust component. Finally, we discuss the possibility of avoiding certain types of singularities within the minimal model.
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Bazeia, D., Losano, L., Menezes, R., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2015). Thick brane in f(R) gravity with Palatini dynamics. Eur. Phys. J. C, 75, 569–10pp.
Abstract: This work deals with modified gravity in five dimensional spacetime. We study a thick Palatini f(R) brane, that is, a braneworld scenario described by an anti-de Sitter warped geometry with a single extra dimension of infinite extent, sourced by real scalar field under the Palatini approach, where the metric and the connection are regarded as independent degrees of freedom. We consider a first-order framework which we use to provide exact solutions for the scalar field and warp factor. We also investigate a perturbative scenario such that the Palatini approach is implemented through a Lagrangian f(R)=R+ϵR^n, where the small parameter ϵ controls the deviation from the standard thick brane case.
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Lobo, F. S. N., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2015). Crystal clear lessons on the microstructure of spacetime and modified gravity. Phys. Rev. D, 91(12), 124001–7pp.
Abstract: We argue that a microscopic structure for spacetime such as that expected in a quantum foam scenario, in which microscopic wormholes and other topological structures should play a relevant role, might lead to an effective metric-affine geometry at larger scales. This idea is supported by the role that microscopic defects play in crystalline structures. With an explicit model, we show that wormhole formation is possible in a metric-affine scenario, where the wormhole and the matter fields play a role analogous to that of defects in crystals. Such wormholes also arise in Born-Infeld gravity, which is favored by an analogy with the estimated mass of a point defect in condensed matter systems. We also point out that in metric-affine geometries, Einstein's equations with an effective cosmological constant appear as an attractor in the vacuum limit for a vast family of theories of gravity. This illustrates how lessons from solid state physics can be useful in unveiling the properties of the microcosmos and defining new avenues for modified theories of gravity.
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