The Case for Nonlocal Modifications of Gravity

Abstract

The huge amounts of undetected and exotic dark matter and dark energy needed to make general relativity work on large scales argue that we should investigate modifications of gravity. The only stable, metric-based and invariant alternative to general relativity is $f(R)$ models. These models can explain primordial inflation, but they cannot dispense with either dark matter or dark energy. I advocate nonlocal modifications of gravity, not as new fundamental theories but rather as the gravitational vacuum polarization engendered by infrared quanta produced during primordial inflation. I also discuss some of the many objections which have been raised to this idea.