English

Homogeneous Nonrelativistic Geometries as Coset Spaces

High Energy Physics - Theory 2018-08-08 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

We generalize the coset procedure of homogeneous spacetimes in (pseudo-)Riemannian geometry to non-Lorentzian geometries. These are manifolds endowed with nowhere vanishing invertible vielbeins that transform under local non-Lorentzian tangent space transformations. In particular, we focus on nonrelativistic symmetry algebras that give rise to (torsional) Newton-Cartan geometries, for which we demonstrate how the Newton-Cartan metric complex is determined by degenerate co- and contravariant symmetric bilinear forms on the coset. In specific cases, we also show the connection of the resulting nonrelativistic coset spacetimes to pseudo-Riemannian cosets via In\"on\"u-Wigner contraction of relativistic algebras as well as null reduction. Our construction is of use for example when considering limits of the AdS/CFT correspondence in which nonrelativistic spacetimes appear as gravitational backgrounds for nonrelativistic string or gravity theories.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1712.03980,
  title  = {Homogeneous Nonrelativistic Geometries as Coset Spaces},
  author = {Kevin T. Grosvenor and Jelle Hartong and Cynthia Keeler and Niels A. Obers},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.03980},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

33 pages; v2: references added, typos corrected, two footnotes combined and augmented, journal version