7 papers
Light propagation and intensity transport in metric-affine geometry
Antonio De Felice, Lavinia Heisenberg, Gonzalo J. Olmo +1
We study electromagnetic wave propagation in metric--affine geometries, where torsion and non-metricity may be present and the coupling between electromagnetism and spacetime is no…
Cosmology from asymptotically safe Proca theories
Carlos Pastor-Marcos, Lavinia Heisenberg, Álvaro Pastor-Gutiérrez +2
Effective field theories for cosmology offer a powerful framework to investigate the dynamics of space--time and address longstanding open puzzles. In this work, we initiate a prog…
Autoparallels and the Inverse Problem of the Calculus of Variations
Lavinia Heisenberg
We prove that autoparallel curves associated with a torsion-free but not necessarily metric-compatible affine connection can be derived from an action principle. We explicitly cons…
A Re-Examination Of Foundational Elements Of Cosmology
Lavinia Heisenberg
This paper undertakes a conceptual re-examination of several foundational elements of cosmology through the lens of spacetime symmetries. A new derivation of the Friedmann-Lemaître…
Neutron stars in gravity
Lavinia Heisenberg, Carlos Pastor-Marcos
We investigate the challenges of constructing neutron star (NS) solutions in gravity, highlighting the importance of treating the affine connection as an active, dy…
Counting Degrees of Freedom: A Method Applicable from Scalars to f(Q) Gravity and Beyond
Lavinia Heisenberg
We present a clear, step-by-step method for counting degrees of freedom and identifying constraints in general field theories. This approach, grounded in the works of Einstein, Hil…