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Barrientos, E., Lobo, F. S. N., Mendoza, S., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2018). Metric-affine f(R,T) theories of gravity and their applications. Phys. Rev. D, 97(10), 104041–10pp.
Abstract: We study f (R, T) theories of gravity, where T is the trace of the energy-momentum tensor T-mu v, with independent metric and affine connection (metric-affine theories). We find that the resulting field equations share a close resemblance with their metric-affine f(R) relatives once an effective energy-momentum tensor is introduced. As a result, the metric field equations are second-order and no new propagating degrees of freedom arise as compared to GR, which contrasts with the metric formulation of these theories, where a dynamical scalar degree of freedom is present. Analogously to its metric counterpart, the field equations impose the nonconservation of the energy-momentum tensor, which implies nongeodesic motion arid consequently leads to the appearance of an extra force. The weak field limit leads to a modified Poisson equation formally identical to that found in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity. Furthermore, the coupling of these gravity theories to perfect fluids, electromagnetic, and scalar fields, and their potential applications arc discussed.
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Afonso, V. I., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2018). Mapping Ricci-based theories of gravity Into general relativity. Phys. Rev. D, 97(2), 021503–6pp.
Abstract: We show that the space of solutions of a wide class of Ricci-based metric-affine theories of gravity can be put into correspondence with the space of solutions of general relativity (GR). This allows us to use well-established methods and results from GR to explore new gravitational physics beyond it.
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Olmo, G. J., Rubiera-Garcia, D., & Sanchez-Puente, A. (2018). Accelerated observers and the notion of singular spacetime. Class. Quantum Gravity, 35(5), 055010–18pp.
Abstract: Geodesic completeness is typically regarded as a basic criterion to determine whether a given spacetime is regular or singular. However, the principle of general covariance does not privilege any family of observers over the others and, therefore, observers with arbitrary motions should be able to provide a complete physical description of the world. This suggests that in a regular spacetime, all physically acceptable observers should have complete paths. In this work we explore this idea by studying the motion of accelerated observers in spherically symmetric spacetimes and illustrate it by considering two geodesically complete black hole spacetimes recently described in the literature. We show that for bound and locally unbound accelerations, the paths of accelerated test particles are complete, providing further support to the regularity of such spacetimes.
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Menchon, C. C., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2017). Nonsingular black holes, wormholes, and de Sitter cores from anisotropic fluids. Phys. Rev. D, 96(10), 104028–16pp.
Abstract: We study Born-Infeld gravity coupled to an anisotropic fluid in a static, spherically symmetric background. The free function characterizing the fluid is selected on the following grounds: i) recovery of the Reissner-Nordstrom solution of General Relativity at large distances, ii) fulfillment of classical energy conditions, and iii) inclusion of models of nonlinear electrodynamics as particular examples. Four branches of solutions are obtained, depending on the signs of two parameters on the gravity and matter sectors. On each branch, we discuss in detail the modifications on the innermost region of the corresponding solutions, which provides a plethora of configurations, including nonsingular black holes and naked objects, wormholes, and de Sitter cores. The regular character of these configurations is discussed according to the completeness of geodesics and the behavior of curvature scalars.
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Delhom-Latorre, A., Olmo, G. J., & Ronco, M. (2018). Observable traces of non-metricity: New constraints on metric-affine gravity. Phys. Lett. B, 780, 294–299.
Abstract: Relaxing the Riemannian condition to incorporate geometric quantities such as torsion and non-metricity may allow to explore new physics associated with defects in a hypothetical space-time microstructure. Here we show that non-metricity produces observable effects in quantum fields in the form of 4-fermion contact interactions, thereby allowing us to constrain the scale of non-metricity to be greater than 1 TeV by using results on Bahbah scattering. Our analysis is carried out in the framework of a wide class of theories of gravity in the metric-affine approach. The bound obtained represents an improvement of several orders of magnitude to previous experimental constraints.
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