The symplectic potential for leaky boundaries
Abstract
Charges associated with gauge symmetries are defined on boundaries of spacetimes. But these constructions typically involve divergent quantities when considering asymptotic boundaries. Different prescriptions exist to address this problem, based on ambiguities in the definition of the symplectic potential. We propose a method well suited to leaky boundaries, which describe spacetimes than can exchange matter or radiation with their environment. The main advantage of this approach is that it relies only on the bulk Lagrangian and it is not tied to a specific choice of boundary conditions. The prescription is applied to four dimensional Einstein-Hilbert gravity in the partial Bondi gauge. This leads to a finite symplectic potential for unconstrained boundary data and reveals two new corner symplectic pairs associated with the relaxation of the gauge.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2408.13203,
title = {The symplectic potential for leaky boundaries},
author = {Robert McNees and Céline Zwikel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.13203},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
34 pages; A Mathematica notebook with an extended expression is included as an ancillary file; v2: minor corrections