English

Hamiltonian structure of Horava gravity

High Energy Physics - Theory 2012-01-17 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

The Hamiltonian formulation of Horava gravity is derived. In a closed universe the Hamiltonian is a sum of generators of gauge symmetries, the foliation-preserving diffeomorphisms, and vanishes on shell. The scalar constraint is second class, except for a global, first-class part that generates time reparametrizations. A reduced phase space formulation is given in which the local part of the scalar constraint is solved formally for the lapse as a function of the 3 metric and its conjugate momentum. In the infrared limit the scalar constraint is linear in the square root of the lapse. For asymptotically flat boundary conditions the Hamiltonian is a sum of bulk constraints plus a boundary term that gives the total energy. This energy expression is identical to the one for Einstein-aether theory which, for static spherically symmetric solutions, is the usual Arnowitt-Deser-Misner energy of general relativity with a rescaled Newton constant.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1106.2131,
  title  = {Hamiltonian structure of Horava gravity},
  author = {William Donnelly and Ted Jacobson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1106.2131},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

8 pages, no figures. v2: added references, corrected minor typographical errors. v3: matches PRD version

R2 v1 2026-06-21T18:20:42.177Z