11 papers
The limits of lattice inflation: a cautionary tale
Will Barker, Benjamin Gladwyn, Sebastian Zell
Cosmological lattice simulations have become important tools for studying non-perturbative dynamics in the early Universe. Many widely used codes, however, approximate the gravitat…
Spectrum of pure gravity: full Hamiltonian analysis
Will Barker, Dražen Glavan
We perform a full Hamiltonian constraint analysis of pure Ricci-scalar-squared () gravity to clarify recent controversies regarding its particle spectrum. While it is well est…
Alleviating the Hubble tension with Torsion Condensation (TorC)
Sinah Legner, Will Handley, Will Barker +1
Constraints on the cosmological parameters of Torsion Condensation (TorC) are investigated using Planck 2018 Cosmic Microwave Background data. TorC is a case of Poincaré gauge the…
Fast Poisson brackets and constraint algebras in canonical gravity
Will Barker
In the study of alternative or extended theories of gravity, Dirac's Hamiltonian constraint algorithm is invaluable for enumerating the propagating modes and gauge symmetries. For…
Can metric-affine gravity be saved?
Will Barker, Carlo Marzo, Alessandro Santoni
Like general relativity, metric-affine gravity should be a viable effective quantum theory, otherwise it is a mathematical curiosity without physical application. Assuming a pertur…
Higher spin Lagrangians from higher derivative diffeomorphisms
Will Barker, Dario Francia, Carlo Marzo +1
The covariant description of massless particles of arbitrary spin typically employs symmetric tensors of rank and rests on a local symmetry carried by symmetric tensor paramete…