Non-metricity Tensor Research Articles

Spatially covariant gravity with nonmetricity

Scalar fields play an important role in constructing modified gravity theories. In the case of a single scalar field with timelike gradient, the corresponding Lagrangian in the unitary gauge takes the form of spatially covariant gravity (SCG), which is proved useful in analyzing and extending the generally covariant theories. In this work, we apply the SCG method to the scalar-nonmetricity theory, of which the Lagrangian is built of the nonmetricity tensor and a scalar field. We derive the 3+1 decomposition of the geometric quantities and especially covariant derivatives of the scalar field up to the third order in the presence of a nonvanishing nonmetricity tensor. By fixing the unitary gauge, the resulting Lagrangian takes the form of a SCG with nonmetricity, in which all the ingredients are spatial tensors. We then exhaust the scalar monomials of SCG with nonmetricity up to d=3\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$d=3$$\\end{document} with d the total number of derivatives. Since the disformation tensor plays as an auxiliary variable, we take the Lagrangian with d=2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$d=2$$\\end{document} as an example to show that after solving the disformation tensor, we can get an effective SCG theory for the metric variables but with modified coefficients. Our results provides a novel approach to extending the scalar-nonmetricity theory.

The equivalence principle as a Noether symmetry

The equivalence principle is considered in the framework of metric-affine gravity. We show that it naturally emerges as a Noether symmetry starting from a general non-metric theory. In particular, we discuss the Einstein equivalence principle and the strong equivalence principle showing their relations with the non-metricity tensor. Possible violations are also discussed pointing out the role of non-metricity in this debate.

Internal symmetry in Poincarè gauge gravity

We find a large internal symmetry within 4-dimensional Poincarè gauge theory.In the Riemann-Cartan geometry of Poincaré gauge theory the field equation and geodesics are invariant under projective transformation, just as in affine geometry. However, in the Riemann-Cartan case the torsion and nonmetricity tensors change. By generalizing the Riemann-Cartan geometry to allow both torsion and nonmetricity while maintaining local Lorentz symmetry the difference of the antisymmetric part of the nonmetricity Q and the torsion T is a projectively invariant linear combination S = T - Q with the same symmetry as torsion. The structure equations may be written entirely in terms of S and the corresponding Riemann-Cartan curvature. The new description of the geometry has manifest projective and Lorentz symmetries, and vanishing nonmetricity.Torsion, S and Q lie in the vector space of vector-valued 2-forms. Within the extended geometry we define rotations with axis in the direction of S. These rotate both torsion and nonmetricity while leaving S invariant. In n dimensions and (p, q) signature this gives a large internal symmetry. The four dimensional case acquires SO(11,9) or Spin(11,9) internal symmetry, sufficient for the Standard Model.The most general action up to linearity in second derivatives of the solder form includes combinations quadratic in torsion and nonmetricity, torsion-nonmetricity couplings, and the Einstein-Hilbert action. Imposing projective invariance reduces this to dependence on S and curvature alone. The new internal symmetry decouples from gravity in agreement with the Coleman-Mandula theorem.

Stability of power law cosmological model in f(Q) gravity

In the present study, we have described the accelerated cosmological models of the universe in f( Q) gravity. In f( Q) gravity, the gravitational field equations are modified by a function of the non-metricity tensor, which characterizes the deviation of the affine connection from the metric compatibility condition. We have considered two different forms of f( Q) gravity as f( Q) = β + α Q( n + 1) and f( Q) = β Q + α Q n to explain the dynamics of the expanding universe. We have discussed the dynamics of the universe through graphical representation by considering the power law ( a = kt m ). The free parameters of the models are fitted with the latest observational data set of observational Hubble data, consisting of 57 points, using statistical analysis based on the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. The best-fit values for the model’s parameter are estimated as H0 = 67.3 ± 1.1, m = 1.0213 ± 0.0071, and k = 65.4 ± 1.1. The parameters of the derived model, like energy density, isotropic pressure, EoS (Equation of state) parameter, and jerk parameter, are discussed. We have described the energy conditions to explain the viability of the considered models. We have also verified the stability of the derived model through perturbation analysis.

Metric-affine gravity: Nonmetricity of space as dark matter/energy ?

A possibility of using a metric-affine theory to consider dark matter and dark energy through the properties of nonmetricity is discussed. In the framework of proposed metric-affine theory, the gravity field is described by the standard Einstein tensor, which depends only on the metric tensor and its derivatives. The nonmetricity and torsion are considered as property of space–time, which is source gravity that can be interpreted as a specific (maybe dark) form of matter and energy. This form of matter and energy, which are described by nonmetricity and torsion tensors, are sources of ”metric” gravity. For the observers, these non-metric properties are manifested as the specific properties of perfect (or non-perfect) fluid interacting with metric gravity only. The proposed metric-affine theory cannot be considered as standard theory of metric-affine gravity. The suggested theory is the metric theory of gravity and the affine theory of a specific (dark) form of matter and energy. The stress–energy tensor of this specific matter and energy is described by the non-metric part of the generalized (metric-affine) Einstein tensor. The specific matter and energy manifest itself as specific perfect or non-perfect fluid (and its energy), which interacts with standard matter only through gravity. The non-metric part is described as a stress–energy tensor, which is supposed to be considered as a candidate for the role of a stress–energy tensor of dark matter/energy. The article discusses a potential possibility to assume that nonmetricity simulates dark matter/energy by introducing a new source term of gravity into general relativity.

Stability analysis of f(Q) gravity models using dynamical systems

In recent years, the modified theory of gravity known as [Formula: see text] gravity has drawn interest as a potential alternative to general relativity. According to this theory, the gravitational force is determined by a function of the so-called “non-metricity” tensor [Formula: see text], which expresses how far a particle space-time is from the metric geometry. In contrast to general relativity, which describes the gravitational field using the curvature tensor, [Formula: see text] gravity builds a theory of gravity using the non-metricity tensor. For this class of theories, dynamical system analysis of the background and perturbation equations has been carried out in this work to determine how various models behave cosmologically. Here, the critical points are determined for two [Formula: see text] models from the literature: the power law, [Formula: see text], and the logarithmic, [Formula: see text] models. The stability behavior and corresponding cosmology are displayed for each critical point. For the power law model, we achieve a matter-dominated saddle point with the right matter perturbation growth rate. For the logarithmic model, we get a saddle point dominated by the geometric component of the [Formula: see text] model with perturbations in the decomposition of matter. For both models, we later achieved a stable and accelerating Universe with constant matter perturbations.

Correction to Lagrangian for bouncing cosmologies in f(Q) gravity

Symmetric teleparallel gravity offers to reformulate the gravitational formalism without the presence of curvature and torsion with the help of non-metricity tensors. Interestingly, Symmetric teleparallel gravity can be formulated equivalently to teleparallel gravity or general relativity for an appropriate setup. In this study, our aim lies in exploring the bouncing cosmologies as an alternative to the initial singularity of the Universe in the background of modified symmetric teleparallel gravity. To explore this, we adopt the reconstruction technique to present the possible reconstructed Lagrangian for various cosmological bouncing solutions in a flat Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker spacetime with a perfect fluid matter distribution. We study the reconstructed gravitational Lagrangians, which are capable of reproducing analytical or semianalytical solutions for symmetric bounce, super-bounce, oscillatory bounce, matter bounce, and exponential bouncing model settings. Further, we examine the dark energy profiles of the models using reconstructed Lagrangians. In addition, we found that an additional term arises in each reconstructed Lagrangian compared to general relativity (GR). That extra term corrected the background GR to present bouncing cosmology in modified gravity. These newly motivated cosmological models may have an effect on gravitational phenomena at other cosmological scales.

Polarized gravitational waves in the parity violating scalar-nonmetricity theory

There has been increasing interest in investigating the possible parity violating features in the gravity theory and on the cosmological scales. In this work, we consider a class of scalar-nonmetricity theory, of which the Lagrangian is polynomial built of the nonmetricity tensor and a scalar field. The nonmetricity tensor is coupled with the scalar field through its first order derivative. Besides the monomials that are quadratic order in the nonmetricity tensor, we also construct monomials that are cubic order in the nonmetricity tensor in both the parity preserving and violating cases. These monomials act as the non-canonical (i.e., non-quadratic) kinetic terms for the spacetime metric, and will change the behavior in the propagation of the gravitational waves. We find that the gravitational waves are generally polarized, which present both the amplitude and velocity birefringence features due to the parity violation of the theory. Due to the term proportional to 1/k in the phase velocities, one of the two polarization modes suffers from the gradient instability on large scales.

New black hole solutions with a dynamical traceless nonmetricity tensor in Metric-Affine Gravity

In the framework of Metric-Affine Gravity, the existing correspondence between the Einstein tensor and the energy-momentum tensor of matter provided by General Relativity is extended towards a post-Riemannian description in terms of the torsion and nonmetricity fields, which are sourced by the spin, dilation and shear currents of matter. In this work, we focus on the dynamical role of the traceless part of the nonmetricity tensor and its intrinsic connection with shears, defining a model which encloses a new black hole solution endowed with shear charges. We show that the extension in the presence of dynamical torsion and Weyl vector leads to the broadest family of static and spherically symmetric black hole solutions with spin, dilation and shear charges in Metric-Affine Gravity so far.

Vector stability in quadratic metric-affine theories

In this work we study the stability of the four vector irreducible pieces of the torsion and the nonmetricity tensors in the general quadratic metric-affine Lagrangian in 4 dimensions. The goal will be to elucidate under which conditions the spin-1 modes associated to such vectors can propagate in a safe way, together with the graviton. This highly constrains the theory reducing the parameter space of the quadratic curvature part from 16 to 5 parameters. We also study the sub-case of Weyl-Cartan gravity, proving that the stability of the vector sector is only compatible with an Einstein-Proca theory for the Weyl vector.

Black hole solutions in scalar-tensor symmetric teleparallel gravity

Symmetric teleparallel gravity is constructed with a nonzero nonmetricity tensor while both torsion and curvature are vanishing. In this framework, we find exact scalarised spherically symmetric static solutions in scalar-tensor theories built with a nonminimal coupling between the nonmetricity scalar and a scalar field. It turns out that the Bocharova-Bronnikov-Melnikov-Bekenstein solution has a symmetric teleparallel analogue (in addition to the recently found metric teleparallel analogue), while some other of these solutions describe scalarised black hole configurations that are not known in the Riemannian or metric teleparallel scalar-tensor case. To aid the analysis we also derive no-hair theorems for the theory. Since the symmetric teleparallel scalar-tensor models also include f(Q) gravity, we shortly discuss this case and further prove a theorem which says that by imposing that the metric functions are the reciprocal of each other (grr = 1/gtt ), the f(Q) gravity theory reduces to the symmetric teleparallel equivalent of general relativity (plus a cosmological constant), and the metric takes the (Anti)de-Sitter-Schwarzschild form.

Radiatively stable ghost and tachyon freedom in metric affine gravity

We report the existence of a ghost- and tachyon-free sector in metric affine theories of gravity, that is invariant under diffeomorphism and a particular Abelian symmetry. In contrast with many studied cases in the literature, the constraints for unitarity and causality are granted by nonaccidental symmetries and do not ask for further tuning, whose fate under renormalization would be unclear. Unsurprisingly, the minimal model is massless. We find that a mechanism to provide mass is accommodated by a simple Stueckelberg extension of metric affine gravity involving the nonmetricity tensor. A nontrivial result is that also such an extension describes a ghost- and tachyon-free dynamic stabilized by the same Abelian symmetry. The resulting spectrum of the collective rank-3, rank-2, and rank-0 Lagrangian is investigated with the operators recently computed in the literature.

Braneworlds in f(Q) gravity

We propose a braneworld scenario in a modified symmetric teleparallel gravitational theory, where the dynamics for the gravitational field is encoded in the nonmetricity tensor rather than in the curvature. Assuming a single real scalar field with a sine-Gordon self-interaction, the generalized quadratic nonmetricity invariant $\mathbb{Q}$ controls the brane width while keeping the shape of the energy density. By considering power corrections of the invariant $\mathbb{Q}$ in the gravitational Lagrangian, the sine-Gordon potential is modified exhibiting new barriers and false vacuum. As a result, the domain wall brane obtains an inner structure, and it undergoes a splitting process. In addition, we also propose a non-minimal coupling between a bulk fermion field and the nonmetricity invariant $\mathbb{Q}$. Such geometric coupling leads to a massless chiral fermion bound to the 3-brane and a stable tower of non-localized massive states.

Possible consistent model of parity violations in the symmetric teleparallel gravity

Many parity violating gravity models suffer from the ghost instability problem. In this paper, we consider a symmetric teleparallel gravity model that extends the general relativity equivalent model by several parity violating interactions between the gravitational field and a scalar field. These interactions exclude higher derivatives and are quadratic in the nonmetricity tensor. Through investigations on the linear cosmological perturbations, our results show that, in general, this model suffers from the difficulty caused by the existence of ghost mode in the vector perturbations. However, in cases where a special condition is imposed on the coefficients of these parity violating interactions, this model can be ghost free.

Plebański-Demiański solutions with dynamical torsion and nonmetricity fields

We construct Plebański-Demiański stationary and axisymmetric solutions with two expanding and double principal null directions in the framework of Metric-Affine gauge theory of gravity. Starting from the new improved form of the metric with vanishing cosmological constant recently achieved by Podolský and Vrátný, we extend this form in the presence of a cosmological constant and derive the conditions under which the physical sources of the torsion and nonmetricity tensors provide dynamical contributions preserving it in Weyl-Cartan geometry. The resulting black hole configurations are characterised by the mass, orbital angular momentum, acceleration, NUT parameter, cosmological constant and electromagnetic charges of the Riemannian sector of the theory, as well as by the spin and dilation charges of the torsion and nonmetricity fields. The former is subject to a constraint representing a decoupling limit with the parameters responsible of axial symmetry, beyond which the geometry of the space-time is expected to be corrected.

On tangent geometry and generalised continuum with defects

This paper introduces tools on fibre geometry towards the framework of mechanics of microstructured continuum. The material is modelled by an appropriate bundle for which the associated connection and metric are induced from the Euclidean space by a smooth transformation represented by a fibre morphism from the bundle to Euclidean space. Furthermore, the general kinematic structure of the theory includes macroscopic and microscopic fields in a multiscaled approach, including large transformation. Defects appear in this geometrical point of view by an induced curvature, torsion and non-metricity tensor in the induced geometry. Special attention is given to transport along a finite path in order to extend the standard infinitesimal analysis of torsion and curvature to a macroscopical point of view. Both theoretical and numerical analysis may be handled without additional difficulties. Accordingly, several examples of transformation involving the distribution of material defects are exhibited and analysed.

Inevitability of the Poisson Bracket Structure of the Relativistic Constraints

The purpose of this paper is to shed some fresh light on the long-standing conceptual question of the origin of the well-known Poisson bracket structure of the constraints that govern the canonical dynamics of generally relativistic field theories, i.e. geometrodynamics. This structure has long been known to be the same for a wide class of fields that inhabit the space-time, namely those with non-differential coupling to gravity. It has also been noticed that an identical bracket structure can be derived independently of any dynamical theory, by purely geometrical considerations in Lorentzian geometry. Here we attempt to provide the missing link between the dynamics and geometry, which we understand to be the reason for this structure to be of the specific kind. We achieve this by a careful analysis of the geometrodynamical approach, which allows us to derive the structure in question and understand it as a consistency requirement for any such theory. In order to stay close to the classical literature on the subject we stick to the metric formulation of general relativity, but the reasoning should carry over to any other formulation as long as the non-metricity tensor vanishes. The discussion section is devoted to derive some interesting consequences of the presented result in the context of reconstructing the Arnowitt–Deser–Misner (ADM) framework, thus providing a precise sense to the inevitability of the Einstein’s theory under minimal assumptions.

Models of holographic dark energy in f(Q) gravity

Present analysis dedicated to the dynamical investigation of models of holographic dark energy using FLRW cosmological model in the context of modified gravity in which Lagrangian be the arbitrary function of the trace of the non-metricity tensor Q say f ( Q ) gravity where the nonmetricity Q is responsible for the gravitational interaction. We govern the features of the derived cosmological model in view of the relation between cosmic time and redshift as t = 1 α k l o g 1 + 1 ( 1 + z ) α and discuss the evolution trajectories of the equation of state parameter and stability parameters in the evolving universe. The classification of the field equations toward f ( Q ) = Q + m Q n makes available that the model is purely accelerating corresponds to 0 ≤ q ≤ − 1 .

Observational constraints on cosmological solutions of f(Q) theories

Over the last years some interest has been gathered by $f(Q)$ theories, which are new candidates to replace Einstein's prescription for gravity. The non-metricity tensor $Q$ allows to put forward the assumption of a free torsionless connection and, consequently, new degrees of freedom in the action are taken into account. This work focuses on a class of $f(Q)$ theories, characterized by the presence of a general power-law term which adds up to the standard (linear in) $Q$ term in the action, and on new cosmological scenarios arising from them. Using the Markov chain Montecarlo method we carry out statistical tests relying upon background data such as Type Ia Supernovae luminosities and direct Hubble data (from cosmic clocks), along with Cosmic Microwave Background shift and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations data. This allows us to perform a multifaceted comparison between these new cosmologies and the (concordance) $\Lambda$CDM setup. We conclude that, at the current precision level, the best fits of our $f(Q)$ models correspond to values of their specific parameters which make them hardly distinguishable from our General Relativity "\'echantillon", that is $\Lambda$CDM.

Post-Newtonian limit of generalized symmetric teleparallel gravity

In this article we analyze the post-Newtonian approximation of a generalization of the symmetric teleparallel gravity with the help of the parameterized post-Newtonian (PPN) formalism. This class of theories is based on a free function of the five independent quadratic contractions of the non-metricity tensor. By calculating the PPN metric of these theories, we can restrict the Taylor coefficients of the free function with the help of the PPN parameters and their observational bounds. We find two families of theories whose PPN parameters are identical to those of general relativity, and thus in full agreement with observations. For three further families, we find that only the PPN parameters $\beta$ and $\gamma$ deviate, but can be brought arbitrarily close to their general relativity values by an appropriate choice of the Lagrangian, so that also these families contain candidate theories which agree with observations. The remaining theories either possess no well-defined solution of the post-Newtonian field equations, or possess a post-Newtonian limit which exceeds the form assumed in the PPN formalism.