English

Topologically Massive Gravity at the Chiral Point is Not Unitary

High Energy Physics - Theory 2011-02-07 v2

Abstract

A recent paper [arXiv:0801.4566] claims that topologically massive gravity contains only chiral boundary excitations at a particular value of the Chern-Simons coupling. On the other hand, propagating bulk degrees of freedom were found even at the chiral point in [arXiv:0803.3998]. The two references use very different methods, making comparison of their respective claims difficult. In this letter, we use the method of [arXiv:0801.4566] to construct a tower of propagating bulk states satisfying standard AdS boundary conditions. Our states have finite norm, with sign opposite to that of right-moving boundary excitations. Our results thus agree with [arXiv:0803.3998] and disagree with [arXiv:0801.4566].

Cite

@article{arxiv.0807.4703,
  title  = {Topologically Massive Gravity at the Chiral Point is Not Unitary},
  author = {Gaston Giribet and Matthew Kleban and Massimo Porrati},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0807.4703},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

10 pages. v2 equations corrected, discussion added

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:05:33.187Z