A number of scenarios have been proposed for the origin of the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that are found in the centres of most galaxies. Many such scenarios predict a high-redshift population of massive black holes (MBHs), with masses in the range 100 to 100000 times that of the Sun. When the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is finally operational, it is likely that it will detect on the order of 100 of these MBH binaries as they merge. The differences between proposed population models produce appreciable effects in the portion of the population which is detectable by LISA, so it is likely that the LISA observations will allow us to place constraints on them. However, gravitational wave detectors such as LISA will not be able to detect all such mergers nor assign precise black hole parameters to the merger, due to weak gravitational wave signal strengths. This paper explores LISA's ability to distinguish between several MBH population models. In this way, we go beyond predicting a LISA observed population and consider the extent to which LISA observations could inform astrophysical modellers. The errors in LISA parameter estimation are applied with a direct method which generates random sample parameters for each source in a population realisation. We consider how the distinguishability varies depending on the choice of source parameters (1 or 2 parameters chosen from masses, redshift or spins) used to characterise the model distributions, with confidence levels determined by 1 and 2-dimensional tests based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.

We investigate a Friedmann universe filled with a tachyon scalar field, which behaves as dustlike matter in the past, while it is able to accelerate the expansion rate of the universe at late times. The comparison with type Ia supernovae (SNIa) data allows for evolutions driving the universe into a Big Brake. Some of the evolutions leading to a Big Brake exhibit a large variation of the equation of state parameter at low redshifts which is potentially observable with future data though hardly detectable with present SNIa data. The soft Big Brake singularity occurs at finite values of the scale factor, vanishing energy density and Hubble parameter, but diverging deceleration and infinite pressure. We show that the geodesics can be continued through the Big Brake and that our model universe will recollapse eventually in a Big Crunch. Although the time to the Big Brake strongly depends on the present values of the tachyonic field and its time derivative, the time from the Big Brake to the Big Crunch represents an invariant timescale for all field parameters allowed by SNIa.

In string models with "brane supersymmetry breaking" exponential potentials emerge at (closed-string) tree level but are not accompanied by tachyons. Potentials of this type have long been a source of embarrassment in flat space, but can have interesting implications for Cosmology. For instance, in ten dimensions the logarithmic slope |V'/V| lies precisely at a "critical" value where the Lucchin--Matarrese attractor disappears while the scalar field is \emph{forced} to climb up the potential when it emerges from the Big Bang. This type of behavior is in principle perturbative in the string coupling, persists after compactification, could have trapped scalar fields inside potential wells as a result of the cosmological evolution and could have also injected the inflationary phase of our Universe.

We summarize, simplify and extend recent work showing that small deviations from exact thermality in Hawking radiation, first uncovered by Kraus and Wilczek, have the capacity to carry off the maximum information content of a black hole. This goes a considerable way toward resolving a long-standing "information-loss paradox".

We consider the production of primordial micro black holes (MBH) remnants in the early universe. These objects induce the universe to be in a matter-dominated era before the onset of inflation. Effects of such an epoch on the CMB power spectrum are discussed and computed both analytically and numerically. By comparison with the latest observational data from the WMAP collaboration, we find that our model is able to explain the quadrupole anomaly of the CMB power spectrum.

In the context of the so-called Gauss-Bonnet gravity, where the gravitational action includes function of the Gauss-Bonnet invariant, we study cosmological solutions, especially the well-known $\Lambda$CDM model. It is shown that the dark energy contribution and even the inflationary epoch can be explained in the frame of this kind of theories with no need of any other kind of component. Other cosmological solutions are constructed and the rich properties that this kind of theories provide are explored.

We solve analytically the Schr\"odinger equation for the N-dimensional inverse square potential in quantum mechanics with a minimal length in terms of Heun's functions. We apply our results to the problem of a dipole in a cosmic string background. We find that a bound state exists only if the angle between the dipole moment and the string is larger than {\pi}/4. We compare our results with recent conflicting conclusions in the literature. The minimal length may be interpreted as a radius of the cosmic string.

Isolated and Dynamical horizons are used to generate boundary conditions upon the lapse and shift vectors. Numerous results involving the Hamiltonian of General relativity are derived, including a self-contained derivation of the Hamiltonian equations of general relativity using both a direct 'brute force' method of directly computing Lie derivatives, as well as the standard Hamil- tonian approach. Conclusions are compared to numerous examples, including the Kerr, Schwarzschild-De Sitter, McVittie, and Vaiyda spacetimes.

A momentum representation treatment of the hydrogen atom problem with a generalized uncertainty relation,which leads to a minimal length ({\Delta}X_{i})_{min}=ℏ√(3{\beta}+{\beta}′), is presented. We show that the distance squared operator can be factorized in the case {\beta}′=2{\beta}. We analytically solve the s-wave bound-state equation. The leading correction to the energy spectrum caused by the minimal length depends on √{\beta}. An upper bound for the minimal length is found to be about 10⁻⁹ fm.

We establish a black hole uniqueness theorem for Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetime, also called Kottler spacetime, which satisfies Einstein's field equations of general relativity with positive cosmological constant. Our result concerns the class of static vacuum spacetimes with compact spacelike slices and regular maximal level set of the lapse function. We provide a characterization of the interior domain of communication of the Kottler spacetime, which surrounds an inner horizon and is surrounded by a cosmological horizon. The proposed proof combines arguments from the theory of partial differential equations and differential geometry, and is centered on a detailed study of a possibly singular foliation. We also apply our technique in the Riemannian setting, and establish the validity of the so-called Besse conjecture.

Exact nonstatic spherically symmetric black-hole solution of the higher dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills equations for a null dust with Yang-Mills gauge charge are obtained by employing Wu-Yang \textit{ansatz}, namely, HD-EYM Vaidya solution. It is interesting to note that gravitational contribution of YM gauge charge for this ansatz is indeed opposite (attractive rather than repulsive) that of Maxwell charge. It turns out that the gravitational collapse of null dust with YM gauge charge admit strong curvature shell focusing naked singularities violating cosmic censorship. However, there is significant shrinkage of the initial data space for a naked singularity of the HD-Vaidya collapse due to presence of YM gauge charge. The effect of YM gauge charge on structure and location of the apparent and event horizons is also discussed.

We present the first analytical superposition of a charged black hole with an annular disk of extremal dust. In order to obtain the solutions, we first solve the Einstein-Maxwell field equations for sources that represent disk-like configurations of matter in confomastatic spacetimes by assuming a functional dependence between the metric function, the electric potential and an auxiliary function, which is taken as a solution of the Laplace equation. We then employ the Lord Kelvin Inversion Method applied to models of finite extension in order to obtain annular disks. The structures obtained extend to infinity, but their total masses are finite and all the energy conditions are satisfied. Finally, we observe that the extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole can be embedded into the center of the disks by adding a boundary term in the inversion.

Transverse Diffeomorphism (TDiff) theories are well-motivated theories of gravity from the quantum perspective, which are based upon a gauge symmetry principle. The main contribution of this work is to firmly establish a correspondence between TransverseDiff and the better-known scalar-tensor gravity --- in its more general form ---, a relation which is completely analogous to that between unimodular gravity and General Relativity. We then comment on observational aspects of TDiff. In connection with this proof, we derive a very general rule that determines under what conditions the procedure of fixing a gauge symmetry can be equivalently applied before the variational principle leading to the equations of motion, as opposed to the standard procedure, which takes place afterwards; this rule applies to gauge-fixing terms without derivatives.

We construct three families of general magnetostatic axisymmetric exact solutions of Einstein-Maxwell equations in spherical coordinates, prolate, and oblates. The solutions obtained are then presented in the system of generalized spheroidal coordinates which is a generalization of the previous systems. The method used to build such solutions is the well-known complex potential formalism proposed by Ernst, using as seed solutions vacuum solutions of the Einstein field equations. The constructed solutions are asymptotically flat and regular on the axis of symmetry. We show explicitly some particular solutions among them a Erez-Rosen type solution and a Morgan-Morgan type solution, which we interpret as the exterior gravitational field of a finite dislike source immersed in a magnetic field. From them we also construct using the well known ``displace, cut and reflect'' method exact solutions representing relativistic thin disks of infinite extension. We analyze the motion of electrically charged test particles around these fields for circular equatorial orbits and we discuss their stability against radial perturbations. For Morgan-Morgan type fields we find that inside of disk the presence of magnetic field provides the possibility of to find relativist charged particles moving in both prograde and retrograde direction.

We study the quantum field theory (QFT) of a free, real and massless scalar field on self-similar symmetric spacetimes, which are deformed by an abelian Drinfel'd twist constructed from a Killing and a homothetic Killing vector field. In contrast to deformations solely by Killing vector fields, such as the Moyal-Weyl Minkowski spacetime, the equation of motion and Green's operators are deformed. We show that there is a *-algebra isomorphism between the QFT on the deformed and the formal power series extension of the QFT on the undeformed spacetime. We study the convergent implementation of our deformations for toy-models. For these models it is found that there is a *-isomorphism between the deformed Weyl algebra and a reduced undeformed Weyl algebra, where certain strongly localized observables are excluded. Thus, our models realize the intuitive physical picture that noncommutative geometry prevents arbitrary localization in spacetime.

We discuss here the issue of regularity of initial data for dynamical spherically symmetric massless scalar field models in a spacetime. Generalizing the known solutions of Einstein equations given in this case by Wyman and Roberts, we examine the issue of regularity on a given spacelike surface, especially when the gradient of the field is spacelike. In particular, we isolate the class of models which would have necessarily a singularity at the center, and therefore these would be unsuitable for studying either gravitational collapse or dynamical evolutions in cosmology.

Classical particles in certain deformed relativistic symmetries scenarios relevant for non-commutative field theories exhibit a momentum space described by a group manifold. Starting with a formulation of phase space for such particles which allows for a generalization to include a group valued momenta we discuss quantization of the corresponding field theory. Focusing on the particular case of kappa-deformed phase space we construct the one-particle Hilbert space and show how curvature in momentum space leads to an ambiguity in the quantization procedure reminiscent of the ambiguities one finds when quantizing fields in curved space-times. The tools gathered in the discussion on quantization allow for a clear definition of the basic deformed field mode operators and two-point function for kappa-quantum fields.

We study counterterms (CT's), candidates for UV divergences in the four-dimensional N=8 supergravity. They have been constructed long ago in a Lorentz covariant on shell superspace and recently in the chiral light-cone (LC) superspace. We prove that all of these CT's are ruled out since they are not available in the real LC superspace. This implies the perturbative UV finiteness of d=4 N=8 supergravity under the assumption that supersymmetry and continuos E7 symmetry are anomaly-free. The proof, based on the chiral nature of CT's in the LC superspace, is a generalization of the perturbative F-term non-renormalization theorem for N=8 supergravity.

Several lines of evidence hint that quantum gravity at very small distances may be effectively two-dimensional. I summarize the evidence for such ``spontaneous dimensional reduction,'' and suggest an additional argument coming from the strong-coupling limit of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. If this description proves to be correct, it suggests a fascinating relationship between small-scale quantum spacetime and the behavior of cosmologies near an asymptotically silent singularity.

Resonant-mass gravitational waves detectors are reviewed from the concept of gravitational waves and its mathematical derivation, using Einstein's general relativity, to the present status of bars and spherical detectors, and their prospects for the future, which include dual detectors and spheres with non-resonant transducers. The review covers not only the technical aspects of detectors and the science that will be done, but also analyses the subject in a historic perspective, covering the various detection efforts over four decades, starting from Weber's pioneering work.

We obtain a black hole solution in the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory for the string cloud model in a five dimensional spacetime. We analyze the event horizons and naked singularities. Later, we compute the Hawking temperature $T_{\mathrm{H}}$, the specific heat $C$, the entropy $S$, and the Helmholtz free energy $F$ of the black hole. The entropy was computed using the Wald formulation. In addition, the quantum correction to the Wald's entropy is considered for the string cloud source. We mainly explore the thermodynamical global and local stability of the system with vanishing or non-vanishing cosmological constant. The global thermodynamic phase structure indicates that the Hawking-Page transition is achieved for this model. Further, we observe that there exist stable black holes with small radii and that these regions are enlarged when choosing small values of the string cloud density and of the Gauss-Bonnet parameter. Besides, the rate of evaporation for these black holes are studied, determining whether the evaporation time is finite or not. Then, we concentrate on the dynamical stability of the system, studying the effective potential for s-waves propagating on the string cloud background.