English

Solution space of 2+1 gravity on ${\bf R} \times T^2$ in Witten's connection formulation

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2010-04-06 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We investigate the space M{\cal M} of classical solutions to Witten's formulation of 2+1 gravity on the manifold R×T2{\bf R} \times T^2. M{\cal M} is connected, unlike the spaces of classical solutions in the cases where T2T^2 is replaced by a higher genus surface. Although M{\cal M} is neither Hausdorff nor a manifold, removing from M{\cal M} a set of measure zero yields a manifold which is naturally viewed as the cotangent bundle over a non-Hausdorff base space~B{\cal B}. We discuss the relation of the various parts of M{\cal M} to spacetime metrics, and various possibilities of quantizing~M{\cal M}. There exist quantizations in which the exponentials of certain momentum operators, when operating on states whose support is entirely on the part of B{\cal B} corresponding to conventional spacetime metrics, give states whose support is entirely outside this part of~B{\cal B}. Similar results hold when the gauge group SO0(2,1){\rm SO}_0(2,1) is replaced by SU(1,1){\rm SU}(1,1).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9308018,
  title  = {Solution space of 2+1 gravity on ${\bf R} \times T^2$ in Witten's connection formulation},
  author = {Jorma Louko and Donald M. Marolf},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9308018},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

23 pages, REVTeX v3.0, SU-GP-93/7-6, CGPG-93/8-3. (Discussion on the gauge equivalence of degenerate and nondegenerate metrics extended.)