skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Testing unimodular gravity

Abstract

We consider models of gravitation that are based on unimodular general coordinate transformations (GCT). These transformations include only those which do not change the determinant of the metric. We treat the determinant as a separate field which transforms as a scalar under unimodular GCT. We consider a class of such theories. In general, these theories do not transform covariantly under the full GCT. We characterize the violation of general coordinate invariance by introducing a new parameter. We show that the theory is consistent with observations for a wide range of this parameter. This parameter may serve as a test for possible violations of general coordinate invariance. We also consider the cosmic evolution within the framework of these models. We show that in general we do not obtain consistent cosmological solutions if we assume the standard cosmological constant or the standard form of non-relativistic matter. We propose a suitable generalization which is consistent with cosmology. We fit the resulting model to the high redshift supernova data. We find that we can obtain a good fit to this data even if include only a single component, either cosmological constant or non-relativistic matter.

Authors:
;  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Department of Physics, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur 208 016 (India)
  2. Institute of Physics, Sachivalaya Marg, Bhubaneswar 751 005 (India)
  3. Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Govindpura, Bhopal 462 023 (India)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22279978
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 2012; Journal Issue: 05; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 1475-7516
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; ASTROPHYSICS; COORDINATES; COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT; COSMOLOGY; GRAVITATION; MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS; METRICS; RED SHIFT; RELATIVISTIC RANGE; SCALARS; TRANSFORMATIONS

Citation Formats

Jain, Pankaj, Karmakar, Purnendu, Mitra, Subhadip, Panda, Sukanta, and Singh, Naveen K., E-mail: pkjain@iitk.ac.in, E-mail: purnendu@iitk.ac.in, E-mail: smitra@iopb.res.in, E-mail: sukanta@iiserbhopal.ac.in, E-mail: naveenks@prl.res.in. Testing unimodular gravity. United States: N. p., 2012. Web. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2012/05/020.
Jain, Pankaj, Karmakar, Purnendu, Mitra, Subhadip, Panda, Sukanta, & Singh, Naveen K., E-mail: pkjain@iitk.ac.in, E-mail: purnendu@iitk.ac.in, E-mail: smitra@iopb.res.in, E-mail: sukanta@iiserbhopal.ac.in, E-mail: naveenks@prl.res.in. Testing unimodular gravity. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2012/05/020
Jain, Pankaj, Karmakar, Purnendu, Mitra, Subhadip, Panda, Sukanta, and Singh, Naveen K., E-mail: pkjain@iitk.ac.in, E-mail: purnendu@iitk.ac.in, E-mail: smitra@iopb.res.in, E-mail: sukanta@iiserbhopal.ac.in, E-mail: naveenks@prl.res.in. 2012. "Testing unimodular gravity". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2012/05/020.
@article{osti_22279978,
title = {Testing unimodular gravity},
author = {Jain, Pankaj and Karmakar, Purnendu and Mitra, Subhadip and Panda, Sukanta and Singh, Naveen K., E-mail: pkjain@iitk.ac.in, E-mail: purnendu@iitk.ac.in, E-mail: smitra@iopb.res.in, E-mail: sukanta@iiserbhopal.ac.in, E-mail: naveenks@prl.res.in},
abstractNote = {We consider models of gravitation that are based on unimodular general coordinate transformations (GCT). These transformations include only those which do not change the determinant of the metric. We treat the determinant as a separate field which transforms as a scalar under unimodular GCT. We consider a class of such theories. In general, these theories do not transform covariantly under the full GCT. We characterize the violation of general coordinate invariance by introducing a new parameter. We show that the theory is consistent with observations for a wide range of this parameter. This parameter may serve as a test for possible violations of general coordinate invariance. We also consider the cosmic evolution within the framework of these models. We show that in general we do not obtain consistent cosmological solutions if we assume the standard cosmological constant or the standard form of non-relativistic matter. We propose a suitable generalization which is consistent with cosmology. We fit the resulting model to the high redshift supernova data. We find that we can obtain a good fit to this data even if include only a single component, either cosmological constant or non-relativistic matter.},
doi = {10.1088/1475-7516/2012/05/020},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22279978}, journal = {Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics},
issn = {1475-7516},
number = 05,
volume = 2012,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2012},
month = {Tue May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2012}
}