I review some interesting features of massive gravity in two maximally symmetric backgrounds: Anti de Sitter space and Minkowski space. While massive gravity in AdS can be seen as a spontaneously broken, UV safe theory, no such interpretation exists yet in the flatspace case. Here, I point out the problems encountered in trying to find such completion, and possible mechanisms to overcome them. ...

In quantum gravity interpretations, the role of spaceand time-related concepts is debated. Some argue that these concepts are not needed to describe physical reality at the Planck scale. Others object that an operational definition of magnitudes cannot get rid of spatiotemporal notions. We propose a “conceptual test” to assess if the mathematical content of a quantum gravity theory refers to so...

The aim of these lectures is to give an introduction to several topics which lie at the intersection of string theory, gravity theory and gravity phenomenology. One successively reviews: (i) the “membrane” approach to the dissipative dynamics of classical black holes, (ii) the current experimental tests of gravity, and their theoretical interpretation, (iii) some aspects of the string-inspired ...

The continuous wavelet transform has been used with much success in the analysis of non-stationary time series. It has been used much less frequently in the interpretation of magnetic or gravity data, although several approaches have been tried. A simple method of obtaining location and depth estimates of gravity and magnetic field sources is suggested here. For gravity data the method uses wav...

A formulation of Einstein gravity, analogous to that for gauge theory arising from the Chalmers-Siegel action, leads to a perturbation theory about an asymmetric weak coupling limit that treats positive and negative helicities differently. We find power counting rules for amplitudes that suggest the theory could find a natural interpretation in terms of a twistor-string theory for gravity with ...

[1] Changes in gravity due to volcanic loading of the crust are influenced by topography. We investigate the relative importance of topography and self-gravitation in the interpretation of gravity changes. It is shown that modeling of gravity changes can be more precise with the introduction of topographic relief, although it is neglected self-gravitation of the medium. This paper exploits this...