Modified gravity and the cosmological constant problem

by Christos Charmousis

Thursday 24 Jan 2013, 16:00 → 18:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio G. Marconi)

We will discuss the large and small cosmological constant problem in the context of scalar-tensor theories in 4 dimensions. The theories at hand modify General Relativity and may have, as we will explain, self-tuning properties, which allow for a partial resolution of the cosmological constant problem. After reviewing the most general scalar tensor theory, first proposed by Horndeski in the early 70 s we shall define and then apply the self-tuning filter in order to reduce to a particular scalar-tensor theory with self tuning properties. This theory has very special geometric properties and is dubbed fab 4. We shall briefly discuss some of the generic properties and problems at hand.

Slides fab4roma.pdf