Related papers: Even-dimensional topological gravity from Chern-Si…
Topological quantum field theories containing matter fields are constructed by twisting $N=2$ supersymmetric quantum field theories. It is shown that $N=2$ chiral (antichiral) multiplets lead to topological sigma models while $N=2$ twisted…
The relation between Einstein gravity and the Chern-Simons gauge theory of the Poincare' group is discussed at the classical level.
We construct an n-dimensional Born-Infeld type gravity theory that has the same properties as Einstein's gravity in terms of the vacuum and particle content: Namely, the theory has a unique viable vacuum (maximally symmetric solution) and a…
We review the often forgotten fact that gravitation theories invariant under local de Sitter, anti-de Sitter or Poincare transformations can be constructed in all odd dimensions. These theories belong to the Chern-Simons family and are…
In the context of a Poincar\'e gauge theoretical formulation, pure gravity in 3+1-dimensions is dimensionally reduced to gravity in 2+1-dimensions with or without cosmological constant $\Lambda$. The dimensional reductions are consistent…
We consider various models of three-dimensional gravity with torsion or nonmetricity (metric affine gravity), and show that they can be written as Chern-Simons theories with suitable gauge groups. Using the groups ISO(2,1), SL(2,C) or…
These lectures are intended as a broad introduction to Chern Simons gravity and supergravity. The motivation for these theories lies in the desire to have a gauge invariant action -in the sense of fiber bundles- in more than three…
Topological quantum field theories can be used as a powerful tool to probe geometry and topology in low dimensions. Chern-Simons theories, which are examples of such field theories, provide a field theoretic framework for the study of knots…
We consider a topological field theory derived from the Chern - Simons action in (2+1) dimensions with the I(ISO(2,1)) group,and we investigate in detail the canonical structure of this theory.Originally developed as a topological theory of…
It is a long-standing question to extend the definition of 3-dimensional Chern-Simons theory to one which associates values to 1-manifolds with boundary and to 0-manifolds. We provide a solution in case the gauge group is a torus. We also…
Topology change in quantum gravity is considered. An exact wave function of the Universe is calculated for topological Chern-Simons 2+1 dimensional gravity. This wave function occurs as the effect of a quantum anomaly which leads to the…
We present a topological version of two dimensional dilaton supergravity. It is obtained by gauging an extension of the super-Poincar\'e algebra in two space-time dimensions. This algebra is obtained by an unconventional contraction of the…
It is shown that the compactification a la Randall Sundrum of the so called, five dimensional Einstein Chern Simons action gravity leads to an action for a four dimensional scalar tensor gravity that includes a Gauss Bonnet term, which…
It is well known that three-dimensional Einstein's gravity without matter is topological, i.e. it does not have local propagating degrees of freedom. The main result of this work is to show that dynamics in the gravitational sector can be…
We perform the Dirac hamiltonian analysis of a four-dimensional gauge theory of gravity with an action of topological type, which generalizes some well-known two-dimensional models. We show that, in contrast with the two-dimensional case,…
We propose a generalization of Chiral Gravity, which follows from considering a Chern-Simons action for the spin connection with anti-symmetric contorsion. The theory corresponds to Topologically Massive Gravity at the chiral point…
We show that a spin-$5/2$ field can be consistently coupled to gravitation without cosmological constant in five-dimensional spacetimes. The fermionic gauge "hypersymmetry" requires the presence of a finite number of additional fields,…
We construct a novel higher-spin theory of gravity in 2+1 spacetime dimensions. The construction is based on a higher-spin super-algebra extending the Poincare group. Our algebra accommodates all integer and half-integer spins from 1 to…
The most general theory of gravity in d-dimensions which leads to second order field equations for the metric has [(d-1)/2] free parameters. It is shown that requiring the theory to have the maximum possible number of degrees of freedom,…
We present a second order gravity action which consists of ordinary Einstein action augmented by a first-order, vector like, Chern-Simons quasi topological term.This theory is ghost-free and propagates a pure spin-2 mode. It is…