Gravitational Theories with Torsion

Abstract

We give a complete formulation of Poincare gauge theory, starting from the fibre bundle formulation to the resultant Riemann-Cartan spacetime. We also introduce several diverse gravity theories descendent from the Poincare gauge theory. Especially, the cosmological effect of the simple scalar-torsion (0^+) mode in Poincare gauge theory of gravity is studied. In the theory, we treat the geometric effect of torsion as an effective quantity, which behaves like dark energy and study the effective equation of state (EoS) of the model. We construct the extra dimension theory of teleparallel gravity by using differential forms. In particular, we discuss the Kaluza-Klein and braneworld scenarios by direct dimensional reduction and specifying the shape of fibre. The FLRW cosmological scenario of the braneworld theory in teleparallel gravity demonstrates its equivalence to general relativity (GR) in the field equations, namely they possess the same Friedmann equation.