Related papers: Towards a Background Independent Quantum Gravity i…
We study the canonical description of the axisymmetric vacuum in 2+1 dimensional gravity, treating Einstein's gravity as a Chern Simons gauge theory on a manifold with the restriction that the dreibein is invertible. Our treatment is in the…
Group theory indicates the existence of a $SO(8) X SO(7) \subset SO(16)$ invariant self-duality equation for a 3-form in 16 dimensions. It is a signal for interesting topological field theories, especially on 8-dimensional manifolds with…
We give a linearized but otherwise complete supersymmetric action for ${\cal N}=(4,0)$ supergravity in six dimensions, using a Kaluza-Klein-type $5+1$ split of coordinates and fields. We provide in particular a significantly simplified…
We study 2d gravity coupled to $c,1$ matter through canonical quantization of a free scalar field, with background charge, coupled to gravity. Various features of the theory can be more easily understood in the canonical approach, like…
In these short notes, we compute non-perturbatively the time-dependent quantum gravity amplitudes for a four-dimensional spherically symmetric space-time with space-like and time-like boundaries. We solve the 4D classical and quantum…
The main obstacle in attempts to construct a consistent quantum gravity is the absence of independent flat time. This can in principle be cured by going out to higher dimensions. The modern paradigm assumes that the fundamental theory of…
Kaluza-Klein reduction of conformally flat spaces is considered for arbitrary dimensions. The corresponding equations are particularly elegant for the reduction from four to three dimensions. Assuming circular symmetry leads to explicit…
For spacetimes with the topology $\IR\!\times\!T^2$, the action of (2+1)-dimensional gravity with negative cosmological constant $\La$ is written uniquely in terms of the time-independent traces of holonomies around two intersecting…
The construction of self-dual vortex solutions to the Chern-Simons-Higgs model (with a suitable eighth-order potential) coupled to Einstein gravity in (2 + 1) dimensions is reconsidered. We show that the self-duality condition may be…
We discuss some classical and quantum properties of 2d gravity models involving metric and a scalar field. Different models are parametrized in terms of a scalar potential. We show that a general Liouville-type model with exponential…
We start with the Hamiltonian formulation of the first order action of pure gravity with a full $\mathfrak{sl}(2,\mathbb C)$ internal gauge symmetry. We make a partial gauge-fixing which reduces $\mathfrak{sl}(2,\mathbb C)$ to its…
We consider supergravity in twelve dimension, whose dimensional reduction yields eleven-dimensional, IIA, and IIB supergravities. This also provides the effective field theory of F-theory. We must take one direction as a compact circle, so…
The dimensional reduction of the bosonic sector of five-dimensional minimal supergravity to a Lorentzian four-dimensional spacetime leads to a theory with a massless axion and a dilaton coupled to gravity and two U(1) gauge fields and the…
Using MacDowell-Mansouri theory, in this work, we investigate a superfield description of the self-dual supergravity a la Ashtekar. We find that in order to reproduce previous results on supersymmetric Ashtekar formalism, it is necessary to…
Discrete approaches to gravity, both classical and quantum, are reviewed briefly, with emphasis on the method using piecewise-linear spaces. Models of 3-dimensional quantum gravity involving 6j-symbols are then described, and progress in…
We investigate the possibility of extending the Ashtekar theory to eight dimensions. Our approach relies on two notions: the octonionic structure and the MacDowell-Mansouri formalism generalized to a spacetime of signature 1+7. The key…
Just as for non-abelian gauge theories at strong coupling, discrete lattice methods are a natural tool in the study of non-perturbative quantum gravity. They have to reflect the fact that the geometric degrees of freedom are dynamical, and…
We generalise Wesson's procedure, whereby vacuum $(4+1)-$dimensional field equations give rise to $(3+1)-$dimensional equations with sources, to arbitrary dimensions. We then employ this generalisation to relate the usual…
We analyse the STU sectors of the four-dimensional maximal gauged supergravities with gauge groups ${\rm SO(8)}$, ${\rm SO(6)}\ltimes\mathbb{R}^{12}$ and $[{\rm SO(6)}\times{\rm SO(2)}]\ltimes\mathbb{R}^{12}$, and construct new domain-wall…
A canonical quantization of two-dimensional gravity minimally coupled to real scalar and spinor Majorana fields is presented. The physical state space of the theory is completely described and calculations are also made of the average value…