English

Gravity from AKSZ-Manin theories in two, three, and four dimensions

High Energy Physics - Theory 2025-06-13 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We show that various dynamical gauge theories in two, three and four dimensions, obtained as Manin deformations of topological Alexandrov-Kontsevich-Schwarz-Zaboronsky (AKSZ) theories, are equivalent to gravitational theories. Since gravity is topological in two and three dimension, this equivalence requires a diffeomorphism breaking background source term. In four dimensions, however, the MacDowell-Mansouri formulation of Einstein gravity with a cosmological constant is obtained identically via the Manin deformation of a particular AKSZ theory.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2410.10755,
  title  = {Gravity from AKSZ-Manin theories in two, three, and four dimensions},
  author = {Leron Borsten and Dimitri Kanakaris and Hyungrok Kim},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.10755},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

17 pages. Published version with references and related commentary added. Minor typos corrected