Lecture: Alternative Theories of Gravity
Andrzej Sitarz, spring semester 2021/22
Einstein’s theory of general relativity describes how gravity works. It has been confirmed by many
experiments and observations and has a deep geometrical sense. Yet all the time we try to find some
modifications and better versions of the theory that not only better match the picture of other fundamental
interactions but also explain some experimental data like dark matter and dark energy.
In this lecture we shall review some theories that were proposed as a replacement (or extension)
of general relativity and discuss their theoretical significance as well as
how they fit to the observational and experimental data.
The main topics of the lecture:
- Historical theories of gravity (review) and Einstein's theory.
- Other metric theories (with additional fields).
- Teleparallel Gravity.
- Einstein-Cartan theory.
- Bimetric theory.
- Other (non)metric theories: Scalar-Tensor, Einstein-Aether, TeVeS, f(R), higher-order theories, Horava-Lifschitz, Galileons, Ghost Condensates, Kaluza-Klein, Randall-Sundrum, DGP, etc.
- Observation tests and falsification.
- Quantum gravity: different approaches.
Full subject description sheet (in Polish).
Full
subject description sheet (in English).
USOS page (in Polish)
USOS page (in English)