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In this paper, we review the effective field theory of modified gravity in which the Lagrangian involves three-dimensional geometric quantities appearing in the 3+1 decomposition of spacetime. On the flat isotropic cosmological background, we expand a general action up to second-order in the perturbations of geometric scalars, by taking into account spatial derivatives higher than two. Our analysis covers a wide range of gravitational theories - including Horndeski theory/its recent generalizations and the projectable/nonprojectable versions of Hořava-Lifshitz gravity. We derive the equations of motion for linear cosmological perturbations and apply them to the calculations of inflationary power spectra as well as the dark energy dynamics in Galileon theories. We also show that our general results conveniently recover stability conditions of Hořava-Lifshitz gravity already derived in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose the holographic principle as a dynamical cutoff for any quantum theory of gravity, incorporating ideas of effective field theory. This is done by viewing the holographic bound as a limit on the number of degrees of freedom that can be turned on before the geometrical picture of gravity loses applicability. We illustrate the proposal by revisiting the problem of defining a measure for homogeneous and isotropic space-times coupled to a scalar field and conclude by discussing the implications to the single scalar field inflationary model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asymptotic behavior of the scattering amplitude for two scalar particles by scalar, vector and tensor exchanges at high energy and fixed momentum transfers is reconsidered in quantum field theory. In the framework of the quasipotential approach and the modified perturbation theory a systematic scheme of finding the leading eikonal scattering amplitudes and its corrections are developed and constructed. The connection between the solutions obtained by quasipotential and functional approaches is also discussed. The first correction to leading eikonal amplitude is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a brief review of the linearized gravity in de Sitter (dS) four-dimensional space and ambient flat five-dimensional notations, the linearized field equation is written in terms of the Casimir operators of dS group. It is shown that the field equation is gauge invariant under some special gauge transformations. Because of this gauge freedom, a gauge-fixing parameter c is inserted in the field equation. It is shown that the solution to the field equation can be written as the multiplication of a generalized symmetric rank-2 polarization tensor and a massless minimally coupled scalar field in ambient space notations. The graviton two-point function has been thoroughly calculated, which is dS-invariant and free of any divergences. This two-point function has been expressed in terms of the intrinsic dS coordinates, from its ambient space counterpart, which is clearly dS-invariant and free of any divergences again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent analysis suggests that the classical dynamics of a tachyon on an unstable D-brane is described by a scalar Born–Infeld type action with a runaway potential. The classical configurations in this theory at late time are in one to one correspondence with the configuration of a system of noninteracting (incoherent), nonrotating dust. We discuss some aspects of canonical quantization of this field theory coupled to gravity, and explore, following an earlier work on this subject, the possibility of using the scalar field (tachyon) as the definition of time in quantum cosmology. At late "time" we can identify a subsector in which the scalar field decouples from gravity and we recover the usual Wheeler–de Witt equation of quantum gravity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]