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In Cosmology and in Fundamental Physics there is a crucial question like: where the elusive substance that we call Dark Matter is hidden in the Universe and what is it made of?, that, even after 40 years from the Vera Rubin seminal discovery does not have a proper answer. Actually, the more we have investigated, the more this issue has become strongly entangled with aspects that go beyond the established Quantum Physics, the Standard Model of Elementary particles and the General Relativity and related to processes like the Inflation, the accelerated expansion of the Universe and High Energy Phenomena around compact objects. Even Quantum Gravity and very exotic DM particle candidates may play a role in framing the Dark Matter mystery that seems to be accomplice of new unknown Physics. Observations and experiments have clearly indicated that the above phenomenon cannot be considered as already theoretically framed, as hoped for decades. The Special Topic to which this review belongs wants to penetrate this newly realized mystery from different angles, including that of a contamination of different fields of Physics apparently unrelated. We show with the works of this ST that this contamination is able to guide us into the required new Physics. This review wants to provide a good number of these "paths or contamination" beyond/among the three worlds above; in most of the cases, the results presented here open a direct link with the multi-scale dark matter phenomenon, enlightening some of its important aspects. Also in the remaining cases, possible interesting contacts emerges., Comment: 64 pages 16 Figures. In print on Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, for the Research Topic: "When Planck, Einstein and Vera Rubin Meet. Dark Matter: What is it ? Where is it?"

Quantum and classical physical states are represented in a unified way when they are described by symplectic tomography. Therefore this representation allows us to study directly the necessary conditions for a classical universe to emerge from a quantum state. In the previous study on the de Sitter universe this was done by comparing the classical limit of the quantum tomograms with the tomograms resulting from the classical cosmological equations. In this paper we first review these results and extend them to all the de Sitter models. We show further that these tomograms can be obtained directly from transposing the Wheeler-De Witt equation to the tomographic variables. Subsequently, because the classic limits of the quantum tomograms are identified with their asymptotic expressions, we found the necessary conditions to extend the previous results by taking the tomograms of the WKB solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation with a any potential. Furthermore in the previous works we found that the de Sitter models undergo the quantum-to-classical transition when the cosmological constant decays to its present value, we discuss at the end how far we can extend this result to more general models. In the conclusions, after discussing any improvements and developments of the results of this work, we sketch a phenomenological approach from which to extract information about the initial states of the universe., Comment: Submitted to International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics

The importance of the tomographic approach is that either in quantum mechanics as in classical mechanics the state of a physical system is expressed with the same family of functions, the tomograms. The extension of this procedure to quantum cosmology is straightforward. But instead of using the tomographic representation, we use tomograms to analyze the properties of the quantum and classical universes, starting from the wave functions in quantum cosmology and the phase space distribution in classical cosmology. In this paper we resume the properties of the tomographic approach introduced in previous papers. Then we study and discuss the properties of the initial conditions introduced by Hartle and Hawking and by Vilenkin and Linde and we study their classical transition. It results that a possible reason for the quantum to classical transition is the decay of the cosmological constant from the Planck scale to the present one. So that the Cosmological Constant Problem becomes a crucial topic in study of the evolution of the universe., Comment: Submitted to International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics (IJGMMP)

Archimedes is a feasibility study of a future experiment to ascertain the interaction of vacuum fluctuations with gravity. The experiment should measure the force that the earth's gravitational field exerts on a Casimir cavity by using a small force detector. Here we analyse the main parameters of the experiment and we present its conceptual scheme, which overcomes in principle the most critical problems., Comment: 3 pages, MG14 Conference

Archimedes is an INFN-funded pathfinder experiment aimed at verifying the feasibility of measuring the interaction of vacuum fluctuations with gravity. The final experiment will measure the force exerted by the gravitational field on a Casimir cavity whose vacuum energy is modulated with a superconductive transition, by using a balance as a small force detector. Archimedes is a two-year project devoted to test the most critical experimental aspects, in particular the balance resonance frequency and quality factor, the thermal modulation efficiency and the superconductive sample realization., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures

We examine three-dimensional metric deformations based on a tetrad transformation through the action the matrices of scalar fields. We describe by this approach to deformation the results obtained by Coll et al. in [1], where it is stated that any three--dimensional metric was locally obtained as a deformation of a constant curvature metric parameterized by a 2--form.To this aim, we construct the corresponding deforming matrices and provide their classification according to the properties of the scalar $\sigma$ and of the vector $\mathbf{s}$ used in [1] to deform the initial metric. The resulting causal structure of the deformed geometries is examined, too.Finally we apply our results to a spherically symmetric three geometry and to a space sector of Kerr metric., Comment: 22 pages, 6 Tables

Archimedes is a feasibility study to a future experiment to ascertain the interaction of vacuum fluctuations with gravity. The future experiment should measure the force that the Earth's gravitational field exerts on a Casimir cavity by using a balance as the small force detector. The Archimedes experiment analyses the important parameters in view of the final measurement and experimentally explores solutions to the most critical problems., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

Starting from a quantization relation for primordial extremal black holes with electric and magnetic charges, it is shown that their entropy is quantized. Furthermore the energy levels spacing for such black holes is derived as a function of the level number $n$, appearing in the quantization relation. Some interesting cosmological consequences are presented for small values of $n$. By producing a mismatch between the mass and the charge the black hole temperature is derived and its behavior investigated. Finally extending the quantum relation to Schwarzschild black holes their temperature is found to be in agreement with the Hawking temperature and a simple interpretation of the microscopic degrees of freedom of the black holes is given., Comment: 11 pages, accepted for publication on Modern Physics Letters A

In the present paper we consider a theory of gravity in which not only curvature but also torsion is explicitly present in the Lagrangian, both with their own coupling constant. In particular, we discuss the couplings to Dirac fields and spin fluids: in the case of Dirac fields, we discuss how in our approach, the Dirac self-interactions depend on the coupling constant as a parameter that may even make these non-linearities manifest at subatomic scales, showing different applications according to the value of the parameter we have assigned; in the case of spin fluids, we discuss FLRW cosmological models arising from the proposed theory., Comment: 21 pages

The Cardy-Verlinde formula is analyzed in the contest of the gravitational collapse. Starting from the holographic principle, we show how the equations for a homogeneous and isotropic gravitational collapse describe the formation of the black hole entropy. Some comments on the role of the entangled entropy and the connection with the c-theorem are made.

In the case of gauge theories, which are ruled by an infinite-dimensional invariance group, various choices of antisymmetric bilinear maps on field functionals are indeed available. This paper proves first that, within this broad framework, the Peierls map (not yet the bracket) is a member of a larger family. At that stage, restriction to gauge-invariant functionals of the fields, with the associated Ward identities and geometric structure of the space of histories, make it possible to prove that the new map is indeed a Poisson bracket in the simple but relevant case of Maxwell theory. The building blocks are available for gauge theories only: vector fields that leave the action functional invariant; the invertible gauge-field operator, and the Green function of the ghost operator., Comment: 10 pages

In the space-of-histories approach to gauge fields and their quantization, the Maxwell, Yang--Mills and gravitational field are well known to share the property of being type-I theories, i.e. Lie brackets of the vector fields which leave the action functional invariant are linear combinations of such vector fields, with coefficients of linear combination given by structure constants. The corresponding gauge-field operator in the functional integral for the in-out amplitude is an invertible second-order differential operator. For such an operator, we consider advanced and retarded Green functions giving rise to a Peierls bracket among group-invariant functionals. Our Peierls bracket is a Poisson bracket on the space of all group-invariant functionals in two cases only: either the gauge-fixing is arbitrary but the gauge fields lie on the dynamical sub-space; or the gauge-fixing is a linear functional of gauge fields, which are generic points of the space of histories. In both cases, the resulting Peierls bracket is proved to be gauge-invariant by exploiting the manifestly covariant formalism. Moreover, on quantization, a gauge-invariant Moyal bracket is defined that reduces to i hbar times the Peierls bracket to lowest order in hbar., Comment: 14 pages, Latex

Deep surveys indicate a bubbly structure of cosmological large scale which should be the result of evolution of primordial density perturbations. Several models have been proposed to explain origin and dynamics of such features but, till now, no exhaustive and fully consistent theory has been found. We discuss a model where cosmological black holes, deriving from primordial perturbations, are the seeds for large-scale-structure voids. We give details of dynamics and accretion of the system voids-cosmological black holes from the epochs $(z\simeq10^{3})$ till now finding that void of $40h^{-1}Mpc$ of diameter and under-density of -0.9 will fits the observations without conflicting with the homogeneity and isotropy of cosmic microwave background radiation., Comment: to appear in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We show how to write a set of brackets for the Langevin equation, describing the dissipative motion of a classical particle, subject to external random forces. The method does not rely on an action principle, and is based solely on the phenomenological description of the dissipative dynamics as given by the Langevin equation. The general expression for the brackets satisfied by the coordinates, as well as by the external random forces, at different times, is determined, and it turns out that they all satisfy the Jacobi identity. Upon quantization, these classical brackets are found to coincide with the commutation rules for the quantum Langevin equation, that have been obtained in the past, by appealing to microscopic conservative quantum models for the friction mechanism., Comment: Latex file, 8 pages, prepared for the Conference Spacetime and Fundamental Interactions: Quantum Aspects, Vietri sul Mare, Italy, 26-31 May 2003

A review is given of the Peierls bracket formalism in field theory, and of a new, recent application of this concept to the analysis of dissipative systems., Comment: 18 pages, plain Tex

Peierls brackets are part of the space-time approach to quantum field theory, and provide a Poisson bracket which, being defined for pairs of observables which are group invariant, is group invariant by construction. It is therefore well suited for combining the use of Poisson brackets and the full diffeomorphism group in general relativity. The present paper provides an introduction to the topic, with applications to gauge field theory., Comment: 11 pages, plain Tex

Peierls brackets are part of the space-time approach to quantum field theory, and provide a Poisson bracket which, being defined for pairs of observables which are group invariant, is group invariant by construction. It is therefore well suited for combining the use of Poisson brackets and the full diffeomorphism group in general relativity. The present paper provides an introduction to the topic, with applications to field theory and point Lagrangians., Comment: 17 pages, plain Tex

The news function providing some relevant information about angular distribution of gravitational radiation in axisymmetric black hole collisions at the speed of light had been evaluated in the literature by perturbation methods, after inverting second-order hyperbolic operators with variable coefficients in two independent variables. More recent work has related the appropriate Green function to the Riemann function for such a class of hyperbolic operators in two variables. The present paper obtains an improvement in the evaluation of the coefficients occurring in the second-order equation obeyed by the Riemann function, which might prove useful for numerical purposes. Eventually, we find under which conditions the original Green-function calculation reduces to finding solutions of an inhomogeneous second-order ordinary differential equation with a non-regular singular point., Comment: 13 pages, plain Tex

In this paper we propose a model for the formation of the cosmological voids. We show that cosmological voids can form directly after the collapse of extremely large wavelength perturbations into low-density black holes or cosmological black holes (CBH). Consequently the voids are formed by the comoving expansion of the matter that surrounds the collapsed perturbation. It follows that the universe evolves, in first approximation, according to the Einstein-Straus cosmological model. We discuss finally the possibility to detect the presence of these black holes through their weak and strong lensing effects and their influence on the cosmic background radiation., Comment: 14 pages, new completely revised version, to appear on GRG

The Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) equations are deeply intertwined with discrete spectral resolutions of an elliptic operator of Laplace type associated with the spacelike hypersurfaces which foliate the space-time manifold, and the non-linearities of the four-dimensional hyperbolic theory are mapped into the potential term occurring in this operator. The ADM equations are here re-expressed as a coupled first-order system for the induced metric and the trace-free part of the extrinsic-curvature tensor, and their formulation in terms of integral equations is studied., Comment: 9 pages, Latex

The Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) evolution equations for the induced metric and the extrinsic-curvature tensor of the spacelike surfaces which foliate the space-time manifold in canonical general relativity are a first-order system of quasi-linear partial differential equations, supplemented by the constraint equations. Such equations are here mapped into another first-order system. In particular, an evolution equation for the trace of the extrinsic-curvature tensor K is obtained whose solution is related to a discrete spectral resolution of a three-dimensional elliptic operator P of Laplace type. Interestingly, all nonlinearities of the original equations give rise to the potential term in P. An example of this construction is given in the case of a closed Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker universe. Eventually, the ADM equations are re-expressed as a coupled first-order system for the induced metric and the trace-free part of K. Such a system is written in a form which clarifies how a set of first-order differential operators and their inverses, jointly with spectral resolutions of operators of Laplace type, contribute to solving, at least in principle, the original ADM system., Comment: 10 pages, plain Tex. The final version contains new original calculations

The construction of conformally invariant gauge conditions for Maxwell and Einstein theories on a manifold M is found to involve two basic ingredients. First, covariant derivatives of a linear gauge (e.g. Lorenz or de Donder), completely contracted with the tensor field representing the metric on the vector bundle of the theory. Second, the addition of a compensating term, obtained by covariant differentiation of a suitable tensor field built from the geometric data of the problem. If the manifold M is endowed with an m-dimensional positive-definite metric g, the existence theorem for such a gauge in gravitational theory can be proved. If the metric g is Lorentzian, which corresponds to general relativity, some technical steps are harder, but one has again to solve integral equations on curved space-time to be able to impose such gauges., Comment: 6 pages, Revtex. Talk given at the Conference "Constrained Dynamics and Quantum Gravity, QG99", Villasimius (Sardinia, Italy), September 13-17, 1999

The quantum theory of a free particle in two dimensions with non-local boundary conditions on a circle is known to lead to surface and bulk states. Such a scheme is here generalized to the quantized Maxwell field, subject to mixed boundary conditions. If the Robin sector is modified by the addition of a pseudo-differential boundary operator, gauge-invariant boundary conditions are obtained at the price of dealing with gauge-field and ghost operators which become pseudo-differential. A good elliptic theory is then obtained if the kernel occurring in the boundary operator obeys certain summability conditions, and it leads to a peculiar form of the asymptotic expansion of the symbol. The cases of ghost operator of negative and positive order are studied within this framework., Comment: 17 pages, plain Tex

The Einstein theory of general relativity provides a peculiar example of classical field theory ruled by non-linear partial differential equations. A number of supplementary conditions (more frequently called gauge conditions) have also been considered in the literature. In the present paper, starting from the de Donder gauge, which is not conformally invariant but is the gravitational counterpart of the Lorenz gauge, we consider, led by geometric structures on vector bundles, a new family of gauges in general relativity, which involve fifth-order covariant derivatives of metric perturbations. A review of recent results by the authors is presented: restrictions on the general form of the metric on the vector bundle of symmetric rank-two tensor fields over space-time; admissibility of such gauges in the case of linearized theory about flat Euclidean space; generalization to a suitable class of curved Riemannian backgrounds, by solving an integral equation. Eventually, the applications to Euclidean quantum gravity are discussed., Comment: 8 pages, plain Tex. Talk prepared for the Conference: "Nonlinearity, integrability and all that (twenty years after needs '79)". Gallipoli, July 1 - July 10, 1999

For vacuum Maxwell theory in four dimensions, a supplementary condition exists (due to Eastwood and Singer) which is invariant under conformal rescalings of the metric, in agreement with the conformal symmetry of the Maxwell equations. Thus, starting from the de Donder gauge, which is not conformally invariant but is the gravitational counterpart of the Lorenz gauge, one can consider, led by formal analogy, a new family of gauges in general relativity, which involve fifth-order covariant derivatives of metric perturbations. The admissibility of such gauges in the classical theory is first proven in the cases of linearized theory about flat Euclidean space or flat Minkowski space-time. In the former, the general solution of the equation for the fulfillment of the gauge condition after infinitesimal diffeomorphisms involves a 3-harmonic 1-form and an inverse Fourier transform. In the latter, one needs instead the kernel of powers of the wave operator, and a contour integral. The analysis is also used to put restrictions on the dimensionless parameter occurring in the DeWitt supermetric, while the proof of admissibility is generalized to a suitable class of curved Riemannian backgrounds. Eventually, a non-local construction is obtained of the tensor field which makes it possible to achieve conformal invariance of the above gauges., Comment: 28 pages, plain Tex. In the revised version, sections 4 and 5 are completely new

This paper studies the application of multimomentum maps to the constraint analysis of general relativity on null hypersurfaces. It is shown that, unlike the case of spacelike hypersurfaces, some constraints which are second class in the Hamiltonian formalism turn out to contribute to the multimomentum map. To recover the whole set of secondary constraints found in the Hamiltonian formalism, it is necessary to combine the multimomentum map with those particular Euler-Lagrange equations which are not of evolutionary type. The analysis is performed on the outgoing null cone only., Comment: 13 pages, plain Tex

The properties of multimomentum maps on null hypersurfaces, and their relation with the constraint analysis of General Relativity, are described. Unlike the case of spacelike hypersurfaces, some constraints which are second class in the Hamiltonian formalism turn out to contribute to the multimomentum map., Comment: 9 pages, Latex, to appear in Proceedings of the Second Conference on Constrained Dynamics and Quantum Gravity, Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy, 17-21 September 1996. Edited by V. de Alfaro et al

Recent work in the literature has shown that general relativity can be formulated in terms of a jet bundle which, in local coordinates, has five entries: local coordinates on Lorentzian space-time, tetrads, connection one-forms, multivelocities corresponding to the tetrads and multivelocities corresponding to the connection one-forms. The derivatives of the Lagrangian with respect to the latter class of multivelocities give rise to a set of multimomenta which naturally occur in the constraint equations. Interestingly, all the constraint equations of general relativity are linear in terms of this class of multimomenta. This construction has been then extended to complex general relativity, where Lorentzian space-time is replaced by a four-complex-dimensional complex-Riemannian manifold. One then finds a holomorphic theory where the familiar constraint equations are replaced by a set of equations linear in the holomorphic multimomenta, providing such multimomenta vanish on a family of two-complex-dimensional surfaces. In quantum gravity, the problem arises to quantize a real or a holomorphic theory on the extended space where the multimomenta can be defined., Comment: 5 pages, plain-tex

Previous work in the literature has studied the Hamiltonian structure of an R-squared model of gravity with torsion in a closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. Within the framework of Dirac's theory, torsion is found to lead to a second-class primary constraint linear in the momenta and a second-class secondary constraint quadratic in the momenta. This paper studies in detail the same problem at a Lagrangian level, i.e. working on the tangent bundle rather than on phase space. The corresponding analysis is motivated by a more general program, aiming to obtain a manifestly covariant, multisymplectic framework for the analysis of relativistic theories of gravitation regarded as constrained systems. After an application of the Gotay-Nester Lagrangian analysis, the paper deals with the generalized method, which has the advantage of being applicable to any system of differential equations in implicit form. Multiplication of the second-order Lagrange equations by a vector with zero eigenvalue for the Hessian matrix yields the so-called first-generation constraints. Remarkably, in the cosmological model here considered, if Lagrange equations are studied using second-order formalism, a second-generation constraint is found which is absent in first-order formalism. This happens since first- and second-order formalisms are inequivalent. There are, however, no {\it a priori} reasons for arguing that one of the two is incorrect. First- and second-generation constraints are used to derive physical predictions for the cosmological model., Comment: 22 pages, plain-tex, recently appearing in Nuovo Cimento B, volume 109, pages 1259-1273, December 1994

A recent analysis of real general relativity based on multisymplectic techniques has shown that boundary terms may occur in the constraint equations, unless some boundary conditions are imposed. This paper studies the corresponding form of such boundary terms in complex general relativity, where space-time is a four-complex-dimensional complex-Riemannian manifold. A complex Ricci-flat space-time is recovered providing some boundary conditions are imposed on two-complex-dimensional surfaces. One then finds that the holomorphic multimomenta should vanish on an arbitrary three-complex-dimensional surface, to avoid having restrictions at this surface on the spinor fields which express the invariance of the theory under holomorphic coordinate transformations. The Hamiltonian constraint of real general relativity is then replaced by a geometric structure linear in the holomorphic multimomenta, and a link with twistor theory is found. Moreover, a deep relation emerges between complex space-times which are not anti-self-dual and two-complex-dimensional surfaces which are not totally null., Comment: 12 pages, plain Tex, no figures, accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravity