English

Gravity as Gauge Theory Squared: A Ghost Story

High Energy Physics - Theory 2020-06-04 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

The Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) transformations and equations of motion of a gravity-two-form-dilaton system are derived from the product of two Yang-Mills theories in a BRST covariant form, to linear approximation. The inclusion of ghost fields facilitates the separation of the graviton and dilaton. The gravitational gauge fixing term is uniquely determined by those of the Yang-Mills factors which can be freely chosen. Moreover, the resulting gravity-two-form-dilaton Lagrangian is anti-BRST invariant and the BRST and anti-BRST charges anti commute as a direct consequence of the formalism.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1807.02486,
  title  = {Gravity as Gauge Theory Squared: A Ghost Story},
  author = {A. Anastasiou and L. Borsten and M. J. Duff and S. Nagy and M. Zoccali},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.02486},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Updated to match published version. Minor clarifications/corrections made

R2 v1 2026-06-23T02:53:10.158Z