Description
Chair: Hector Puerta Ramisa
We introduce the Higgs mechanism for the self-dual spin connection (also known as the Ashtekar connection), using the Pleba\'{n}ski formulation of gravity. We develop our formalism within the framework of the chiral action and derive the equations of motion of the theory. One particular test model is explored: since anisotropy is an intrinsic property of the theory, a modified version of the...
While understanding the consequences of quantising gravity remains an ongoing challenge, valuable insights have been gained by considering models in lower dimensions. In particular, I shall focus on Einstein gravity in 2+1d, which is known to be related to Chern-Simons theories, with a gauge group dependent on the sign of the cosmological constant. Unlike in 3+1d where gravitational waves are...
Multi-metric gravity is the umbrella term for a class of modified gravitational theories, motivated by a number of problems at the interface between gravity and particle physics, that extend general relativity (GR) via the inclusion of additional interacting massive spin-2 fields beyond the single massless graviton of GR. Nonlinearly, the extra interactions manifest as a framework where...
