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We develop a method for relating the boundary effective action associated with an orbifold of the D+1 dimensional theory of a p-form field to D dimensional fluxed Chern-Simons type of terms. We apply the construction to derive from twelve…
We study the quantum mechanics of a system of topologically interacting particles in 2+1 dimensions, which is described by coupling the particles to a Chern-Simons gauge field of an inhomogeneous group. Analysis of the phase space shows…
Gravity in d dimensions is formulated as the gauge theory of local SO(2,d-1) gauge group. The Chern-Pontryagin index ${\cal P}_{2n}$ plays a crucial role in both gravity and gauge theories. ${\cal P}_{2n}(gravity)$ gives the gravitational…
In this paper we derive a differential identity for linearized gravity on the Kerr spacetime and more generally on vacuum spacetimes of Petrov type D. We show that a linear combination of second derivatives of the linearized Weyl tensor can…
The B-model approach of topological string theory leads to difference equations by quantizing algebraic mirror curves. It is known that these quantum mechanical systems are solved by the refined topological strings. Recently, it was pointed…
We study a connection between duality and topological field theories. First, 2d Kramers-Wannier duality is formulated as a simple 3d topological claim (more or less Poincar\'e duality), and a similar formulation is given for…
We examine the relations between observables in two- and three-dimensional quantum gravity by studying the coupling of topologically massive gravity to matter fields in non-trivial representations of the three-dimensional Lorentz group. We…
We do not yet know how to quantize gravity in 3+1 dimensions, but in lower dimensions we face the opposite problem: many of the approaches originally developed for (3+1)-dimensional gravity can be successfully implemented in 2+1 dimensions,…
We elucidate the interplay between gauge and supersymmetry anomalies in six-dimensional $N=1$ supergravity with generalized couplings between tensor and vector multiplets. We derive the structure of the five-dimensional supergravity…
In this work, we propose a topological quantum field theory phase for four-dimensional gravity. We show it is able to generate, not only General Relativity, but the whole family of Lovelock-Cartan theories of gravity. This is accomplished…
We identify an ambiguity in the Chern-Simons formulation of three-dimensional gravity with negative cosmological constant that originates in an outer automorphism of the Lie algebra sl(2,R). It has important consequences for the stability…
Chern--Simons type Lagrangians in $d=3$ dimensions are analyzed from the point of view of their covariance and globality. We use the transgression formula to find out a new fully covariant and global Lagrangian for Chern--Simons gravity:…
We propose a mechanism that couples matter fields to three-dimensional quantum gravity, which can be used for theories with a positive or negative cosmological constant. Our proposal is rooted in the Chern-Simons formulation of…
Spherical reduction of generic four-dimensional theories is revisited. Three different notions of "spherical symmetry" are defined. The following sectors are investigated: Einstein-Cartan theory, spinors, (non-)abelian gauge fields and…
In this note, we revisit the 4-dimensional theory of massive gravity through compactification of an extra dimension and geometric symmetry breaking. We dimensionally reduce the 5-dimensional topological Chern-Simons gauge theory of (anti)…
It has recently pointed out that a four-dimensional analog of Chern-Simons theory provides an elegant framework for understanding integrable models with spectral parameters. The goal of this short note is to better understand the relation…
We overview some attempts to find S-duality analogues of non-supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, in the context of gravity theories. The case of MacDowell-Mansouri gauge theory of gravity is discussed. Three-dimensional dimensional reductions…
We derive the six-dimensional (1,0) effective action arising from F-theory on an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold with multiple sections. The considered theories admit both non-Abelian and Abelian gauge symmetries. Our derivation…
There are two natural Chern-Simons theories associated with the embedding of a three-dimensional surface in Euclidean space; one is constructed using the induced metric connection -- it involves only the intrinsic geometry, the other is…
Kaluza-Klein reduction of the 3-dimensional gravitational Chern-Simons term leads to a 2-dimensional theory that supports a symmetry breaking solution and an associated kink interpolating between AdS and dS geometries.