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The central topic of this thesis is two dimensional Quantum Gravity and its properties. The term Quantum Gravity itself is ambiguous as there are many proposals for its correct formulation and none of them have been verified experimentally. In this thesis we consider a number of closely related approaches to two dimensional quantum gravity that share the property that they may be formulated in terms of random graphs. In one such approach known as Causal Dynamical Triangulations, numerical computations suggest an interesting phenomenon in which the effective spacetime dimension is reduced in t he UV. In this thesis we first address whether such a dynamical reduction in the number of dimensions may be understood in a simplified model. vVe introduce a continuum limit where t his simplified model exhibits a reduction in the effective dimension of spacetime in the UV, in addition to having rich cross-over behaviour. In the second part of this thesis we consider an approach closely related to causal dynamical triangu lation; namely dynamical triangulation. Although this theory is less well-behaved than causal dynamical triangulation) it is known how to couple it to matter) t herefore allowing for potentially multiple boundary states to appear in the theory. We address t he conjecture of Seiberg and Shih which states that all these boundary states are degenerate and may be constructed from a single principal boundary state. By use of the random graph formulation of the theory we compute the higher genus amplitudes with a single boundary and find that they violate the Seiberg-Shih conjecture. Finally we discuss whether this result prevents the replacement of boundary states by local operators as proposed by Seiberg.

The objective of this thesis is to understand more about the role of inertia in the Earth’s dynamo. Studies of 2.5D and 3D dynamo models have reported finding dynamo action increasingly difficult to maintain as the strength of inertia measured by the Rossby number, Ro, is increased, (see for example, Fearn and Morrison (2001) or Christensen et al (1999)). Fearn and Rahman (2004b) considered a non-linear mean-field a2-type dynamo model and investigated the effect inertia has on solutions. In their axisymmetric model, the effects of a non-axisymmetric flow are introduced to the problem via the so-called a-effect, which generates poloidal magnetic field through twisting the toroidal field lines. In the a2-type model, this effect also generates toroidal field from poloidal field. Fearn and Rahman (2004b) found that, as the strength of the inertia, Ro was increased, dynamo action was enabled to occur more easily. The non-axisymmetric generation process (i.e. the a-effect) is unaffected by Ro. In the 2.5D/3D models the dynamo process is driven through internal convection. Increasing the strength of inertia, as considered by Fearn and Morrison (2001) and Christensen et al (1999), reveals that dynamo action shuts off if Ro becomes too large. In the 2.5D/3D models, inertia affects convection as well as the dynamo equilibration process. Due to the complexity of the 2.5D/3D models, varying a single parameter e.g. Rossby number, influences the overall dynamo process in a number of different ways making it difficult to understand the different physical mechanisms acting to equilibrate the dynamo. This led to our present studies of non-linear aw and a2w-type dynamo models. These models are intermediate to the a2-type model and the 2.5D/3D models as we include a buoyancy driving, but instead of it being dynamically determined as in the hydrodynamic model, we choose to prescribe it, in an effort to further disentangle the complex processes in the dynamo mechanism and the role inertia plays.

The recent observational data in cosmology seem to indicate that the universe is currently expanding in an accelerated way. This unexpected conclusion can be explained assuming the presence of a non-vanishing yet extremely fine tuned cosmological constant, or invoking the existence of an exotic source of energy, dark energy, which is not observed in laboratory experiments yet seems to dominate the energy budget of the Universe. On the other hand, it may be that these observations are just signalling the fact that Einstein's General Relativity is not the correct description of gravity when we consider distances of the order of the present horizon of the universe. In order to study if the latter explanation is correct, we have to formulate new theories of the gravitational interaction, and see if they admit cosmological solutions which fit the observational data in a satisfactory way. Quite generally, modifying General Relativity introduces new degrees of freedom, which are responsible for the different large distance behaviour. On one hand, often these new degrees of freedom have negative kinetic energy, which implies that the theory is plagued by ghost instabilities. On the other hand, for a modified gravity theory to be phenomenologically viable it is necessary that the extra degrees of freedom are efficiently screened on terrestrial and astrophysical scales. One of the known mechanisms which can screen the extra degrees of freedom is the Vainshtein mechanism, which involves derivative self-interaction terms for these degrees of freedom. In this thesis, we consider two different models, the Cascading DGP and the dRGT massive gravity, which are candidates for viable models to modify gravity at very large distances. Regarding the Cascading DGP model, we consider the minimal (6D) set-up and we perform a perturbative analysis at first order of the behaviour of the gravitational field and of the branes position around background solutions where pure tension is localized on the 4D brane. We consider a specific realization of this set-up where the 5D brane can be considered thin with respect to the 4D one. We show that the thin limit of the 4D brane inside the (already thin) 5D brane is well defined, at least for the configurations that we consider, and confirm that the gravitational field on the 4D brane is finite for a general choice of the energymomentum tensor. We also confirm that there exists a critical tension which separates background configurations which possess a ghost among the perturbation modes, and background configurations which are ghost-free. We find a value for the critical tension which is different from the value which has been obtained in the literature; we comment on the difference between these two results, and perform a numeric calculation in a particular case where the exact solution is known to support the validity of our analysis. Regarding the dRGT massive gravity, we consider the static and spherically symmetric solutions of these theories, and we investigate the effectiveness of the Vainshtein screening mechanism. We focus on the branch of solutions in which the Vainshtein mechanism can occur, and we truncate the analysis to scales below the gravitational Compton wavelength, and consider the weak field limit for the gravitational potentials, while keeping all non-linearities of the mode which is involved in the screening. We determine analytically the number and properties of local solutions which exist asymptotically on large scales, and of local (inner) solutions which exist on small scales. Moreover, we analyze in detail in which cases the solutions match in an intermediate region. We show that asymptotically flat solutions connect only to inner configurations displaying the Vainshtein mechanism, while non asymptotically flat solutions can connect both with inner solutions which display the Vainshtein mechanism, or with solutions which display a self-shielding behaviour of the gravitational field. We show furthermore that there are some regions in the parameter space of the theory where global solutions do not exist, and characterize precisely in which regions the Vainshtein mechanism takes place.

Einstein’s General Relativity has been our best theory of gravity for nearly a century, yet we know it cannot be the final word. In this thesis, we consider modifications to General Relativity, motivated by both high and low energy physics. In the quantum realm, we focus on Horava gravity, a theory which breaks Lorentz invariance in order to obtain good ultraviolet physics by adding higher spatial derivatives to the action (improving propagator behaviour in loops) but not temporal (avoiding Ostrogradski ghosts). By using the Stückelberg trick, we demonstrate the necessity of introducing a Lorentz violating scale into the theory, far below the Planck scale, to evade strong coupling concerns. Using this formalism we then show explicitly that Horava gravity breaks the Weak Equivalence Principle, for which there are very strict experimental bounds. Moving on to considering matter in such theories, we construct DiffF(M) invariant actions for both scalar and gauge fields at a classical level, before demonstrating that they are only consistent with the Equivalence Principle in the case that they reduce to their covariant form. This motivates us to consider the size of Lorentz violating effects induced by loop corrections of Horava gravity coupled to a Lorentz invariant matter sector. Our analysis reveals potential light cone fine tuning problems, in addition to evidence that troublesome higher order time derivatives may be generated. At low energies, we demonstrate a class of theories which modify gravity to solve the cosmological constant problem. The mechanism involves a composite metric with the square root of its determinant a total derivative or topological invariant, thus ensuring pieces of the action proportional to the volume element do not contribute to the dynamics. After demonstrating general properties of the proposal, we work through a specific example, demonstrating freedom from Ostrogradski ghosts at quadratic order (in the action) on maximally symmetric backgrounds. We go on to demonstrate sufficient conditions for a theory in this class to share a solution space equal to that of Einstein’s equations plus a cosmological constant, before determining the cosmology these extra solutions may have when present.

Σχεδόν τέσσερις δεκαετίες πριν, η μαθηματική αναλογία μεταξύ των νόμων της μηχανικής των μελανών οπών και των νόμων της θερμοδυναμικής έδωσε ισχυρά επιχειρήματα στους Bekenstein και Hawking να υποθέσουν ότι, αν τα κβαντικά φαινόμενα λαμβάνονται υπόψη, οι μελανές οπές θα πρέπει να θεωρηθούν ως θερμοδυναμικά συστήματα, που χαρακτηρίζονται από θερμοκρασία και την εντροπία τους. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, ότι η εντροπία των μελανών οπών είναι S = A / 4, όπου Α είναι η περιοχή του ορίζοντα γεγονότων. Ακόμη και σήμερα, υπάρχουν δύο σημαντικά ερωτήματα σχετικά με τους βαθμούς ελευθερίας: α) ποιοι είναι οι βαθμοί ελευθερίας υπεύθυνοι για την εντροπία των μελανών οπών; β) που βρίσκονται αυτοί οι βαθμοί ελευθερίας; Πριν από τριάντα χρόνια, η απάντηση και στα δύο παραπάνω ερωτήματα ήταν: "Δεν γνωρίζουμε" Σήμερα, αντίθετα, το πρόβλημα είναι ότι, υπάρχουν πάρα πολλές απαντήσεις για τα παραπάνω ερωτήματα. Σε εργασία αυτή, μελετώ την παραγωγή των Bekenstein-Hawking φόρμουλα για την εντροπίας των μελανών οπών στην κβαντική θεωρία της βαρύτητας. Ειδικότερα, επικεντρώνομαι στις υποθέσεις, τη μεθοδολογία και τα αποτελέσματα κάθε προσέγγισης. Πρώτα, μελετώ την παραγωγή της Bekenstein-Hawking φόρμουλα σε μεθόδους που δεν βασίζονται σε μια θεμελιώδη θεωρία της κβαντικής βαρύτητας, όπως η στατιστική μηχανική προέλευση της εντροπίας μιας περιστρεφόμενης, φορτισμένη μελανής οπής, η μέθοδος του ολοκληρώματος διαδρομών στο πλαίσιο της Ευκλείδεια κβαντική βαρύτητα και τη μέθοδος του κανονικού συνόλου για τις μελανές οπές σε μια σφαιρική κοιλότητα στο πλαίσιο της Ευκλείδεια κβαντικής βαρύτητας. Τα τελευταία είκοσι χρόνια περίπου, oι αποδείξεις γίνονται στα πλαίσια θεμελιωδών θεωριών της κβαντικής βαρύτητας. Εδώ, θα δούμε την απόδειξη στα πλαίσια της σύμμορφης θεωρίας πεδίου του ορίζοντα, της επαγόμενης βαρύτητας, της κβαντικής βαρύτητας των βρόγχων και της θεωρίας των χορδών. / Almost four decades ago, the mathematical analogy between the laws of black hole mechanics and the laws of thermodynamics gave strong arguments to Bekenstein and Hawking to assume that, if quantum effects are taken into account, black holes should be viewed as thermodynamic systems, characterized by temperature and entropy. In particular, that the black hole entropy is S=A/4, where A is the area of the event horizon. Even today, there are two important questions about the degrees of freedom: a) which are the degrees of freedom responsible for the black hole entropy? b) Where are the degrees of freedom localized? Thirty years ago, the answer to both questions above was: "we do not know". Today, by contrast, the problem is that, there are too many answers for the questions above. In this thesis, I study the derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking formula for the black hole entropy in quantum gravity theories. In particular, I focus on the hypotheses, the methodology and the results of each approach. First, I consider the derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking formula in methods which are not based on a fundamental theory of quantum gravity such as, the statistical mechanical origin of the entropy of a rotating, charged black hole, the path integral method in the Euclidean quantum gravity framework and the canonical ensemble method for black holes in a spherical cavity in the Euclidean quantum gravity framework. Then, I consider the derivations of the black hole entropy which are made in the framework of candidate quantum gravity theories such as, the horizon conformal field theory, the induced gravity theory, loop quantum gravity and string theory.