Theory HEP Seminar

f(T) Gravity and Cosmology

Emmanuel N. Saridakis

University of Athens

Torsion has been proved to be crucial in gauging gravity, which is in turn a necessary step towards its quantization. On the other hand, almost all the efforts in modifying gravity has been performed in the usual curvature-based framework. We investigate the case where one modifies gravity based on its simplest torsionalteleparallel formulation, namely the f(T) gravity paradigm, and its cosmological applications. In particular, we analyze the perturbations of the theory examining the growth history, we construct a cosmological bounce, and we use solar system observations in order to impose constraints on the f(T) forms. Additionally, we study the case where T is nonminimally coupled to a scalar field, that is the scenario of “teleparallel dark energy”. Finally we analyze the charged black hole solutions of the theory, performing a comparison between f(R) and f(T) modifications.