MG11 
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Abstract

Anisotropically Inflating Universes

We show that in theories of gravity that add quadratic curvature invariants to the Einstein-Hilbert action there exist expanding vacuum cosmologies with positive cosmological constant which do not approach the de Sitter universe. Exact solutions are found which inflate anisotropically. This behaviour is driven by the Ricci curvature invariant and has no counterpart in the general relativistic limit. These examples show that the cosmic no-hair theorem does not hold in these higher-order extensions of general relativity and raises new questions about the ubiquity of inflation in the very early universe and the thermodynamics of gravitational fields.

Spacetimes with constant curvature invariants

In this talk we will discuss spacetimes with constant scalar invariants (CSI spa cetimes). There are many examples of such spacetimes, among them spacetimes with vanishing curvature invariants and homogeneous spaces. Special emphasis will be put on a certain class of spacetimes to which all known inhomogeneous CSI space times belong. The role of this class of spacetimes will be discussed, as well as the mathematical and physical properties of the spacetimes belonging to this cl ass.