Related papers: Expository Remarks on Three-Dimensional Gravity an…
The universal perturbative invariants of rational homology spheres can be extracted from the Chern-Simons partition function by combining perturbative and nonperturbative results. We spell out the general procedure to compute these…
We construct consistent bosonic higher-spin gauge theories in odd dimensions D>3 based on Chern-Simons forms. The gauge groups are infinite-dimensional higher-spin extensions of the Anti-de Sitter groups SO(D-1,2). We propose an invariant…
We consider dimensional reduction of gauge theories with arbitrary gauge group in a formalism based on equivariant principal bundles. For the classical gauge groups we clarify the relations between equivariant principal bundles and quiver…
We review the group-geometric approach to supergravity theories, in the perspective of recent developments and applications. Usual diffeomorphisms, gauge symmetries and supersymmetries are unified as superdiffeomorphisms in a supergroup…
In this PhD thesis, we investigate a wide class of three-dimensional massive gravity models and show how most of them (if not all) can be brought in a first-order, Chern-Simons-like, formulation. This allows for a general analysis of the…
Parity is ubiquitous, but not always identified as a simplifying tool for computations. Using parity, having in mind the example of the bosonic/fermionic Fock space, and the framework of Z_2-graded (super) algebra, we clarify relationships…
Some general features of locally supersymmetric theories (N=1 in four dimensions) involving Chern-Simons forms and antisymmetric tensors are sketched out. The relevance of the three-form multiplet both for the description of Chern-Simons…
We show the existence of hyperbolic 4-manifolds with vanishing Seiberg-Witten invariants, addressing a conjecture of Claude LeBrun. This is achieved by showing, using results in geometric and arithmetic group theory, that certain hyperbolic…
When the gravitational Chern-Simons term is reduced from 3 to 2 dimensions, the lower dimensional theory supports a symmetry breaking solution and an associated kink. Kinks in general relativity bear a close relation to flat space kinks,…
In this self-contained book, following Edward Witten, Maxim Kontsevich, Greg Kuperberg and Dylan Thurston, we define an invariant Z of framed links in rational homology 3-spheres, and we study its properties. The invariant Z, which is often…
Motivated by physical constructions of homological knot invariants, we study their analogs for closed 3-manifolds. We show that fivebrane compactifications provide a universal description of various old and new homological invariants of…
In this paper, we are concerned with studying the existence of invariant complex manifolds of two-dimensional holomorphic systems. From the geometric singular perturbation theory we know that if a slow-fast system has associated a normally…
We consider the superspace of D=3, N=5 supersymmetry using SO(5)/U(2) harmonic coordinates. Three analytic N=5 gauge superfields depend on three vector and six harmonic bosonic coordinates and also on six Grassmann coordinates.…
An overview of the perturbative expansion of the Chern--Simons path integral is given. The main goal is to describe how trivalent graphs appear: as they already occur in the perturbative expansion of an analogous finite-dimensional…
A wide class of three-dimensional gravity models can be put into "Chern-Simons-like" form. We perform a Hamiltonian analysis of the general model and then specialise to Einstein-Cartan Gravity, General Massive Gravity, the recently proposed…
We introduce new topological quantum invariants of compact oriented 3-manifolds with boundary where the boundary is a disjoint union of two identical surfaces. The invariants are constructed via surgery on manifolds of the form $F \times I$…
We uncover a direct connection between three-dimensional gravity with chiral boundary conditions and a class of forced integrable systems. Starting from the Chern-Simons formulation, we derive consistent boundary conditions on a non-compact…
General relativity is extended by promoting the three-dimensional gravitational Chern-Simons term to four dimensions. This entails choosing an embedding coordinate v_\mu -- an external quantity, which we fix to be a non-vanishing constant…
When 4-dimensional general relativity is extended by a 3-dimensional gravitational Chern-Simons term an apparent violation of diffeormorphism invariance is extinguished by the dynamical equations of motion for the modified theory. The…
Motivated by spectral asymptotics for orbital integrals in a relative trace formula, we generalize a number of geometric properties of geodesics in the hyperbolic plane, to maximal flat submanifolds of symmetric spaces of non-compact type.