Related papers: Shape Dynamics in 2+1 Dimensions
General Relativity can be reformulated as a geometrodynamical theory, called Shape Dynamics, that is not based on spacetime (in particular refoliation) symmetry but on spatial diffeomorphism and local spatial conformal symmetry. This leads…
Shape Dynamics is a metric theory of pure gravity, equivalent to General Relativity, but formulated as a gauge theory of spatial diffeomporphisms and local spatial conformal transformations. In this paper we extend the construction of Shape…
Shape Dynamics (SD) is a theory dynamically equivalent to vacuum General Relativity (GR), which has a different set of symmetries. It trades refoliation invariance, present in GR, for local 3-dimensional conformal invariance. This…
Barbour's interpretation of Mach's principle led him to postulate that gravity should be formulated as a dynamical theory of spatial conformal geometry, or in his terminology, "shapes." Recently, it was shown that the dynamics of General…
Shape Dynamics is a 3D conformally invariant theory of gravity which possesses a large set of solutions in common with General Relativity. When looked closely, these solutions are found to behave in surprising ways, so in order to probe the…
Shape Dynamics is a gauge theory based on spatial diffeomorphism- and Weyl-invariance which is locally indistinguishable form classical General Relativity. If taken seriously, it suggests that the spacetime--geometry picture that underlies…
Shape Dynamics is a theory of gravity that waives refoliation invariance in favor of spatial Weyl invariance. It is a canonical theory, constructed from a Hamiltonian, 3+1 perspective. One of the main deficits of Shape Dynamics is that its…
We show that there are 2 equivalent first order descriptions of 2+1 gravity with non-zero cosmological constant. One is the well-known spacetime description and the other is in terms of evolving conformal geometry. The key tool that links…
In this conceptual paper we construct a local version of Shape Dynamics that is equivalent to General Relativity in the sense that the algebras of Dirac observables weakly coincide. This allows us to identify Shape Dynamics observables with…
Shape dynamics is a reframing of canonical general relativity in which time reparametrization invariance is "traded" for a local conformal invariance. We explore the emergence of Lorentz invariance in this model in three contexts: as a…
We provide a bottom-up argument to derive some known results from holographic renormalization using the classical bulk-bulk equivalence of General Relativity and Shape Dynamics, a theory with spatial conformal (Weyl) invariance. The purpose…
Shape dynamics is a reformulation of general relativity, locally equivalent to Einstein's theory, in which the refoliation invariance of the older theory is traded for local scale invariance. Shape dynamics is here derived in a formulation…
In this PhD thesis, we develop a new approach to classical gravity starting from Mach's principles and the idea that the local shape of spatial configurations is fundamental. This new theory, "shape dynamics", is equivalent to general…
This thesis consists of two parts, connected by one central theme: the dynamics of the "shape of space". The first part of the thesis concerns the construction of a theory of gravity dynamically equivalent to general relativity (GR) in 3+1…
We study the process of compactification as a topology change. It is shown how the mediating spacetime topology, or cobordism, may be simplified through surgery. Within the causal Lorentzian approach to quantum gravity, it is shown that any…
The issue of how to deal with the modular transformations -- large diffeomorphisms -- in (2+1)-quantum gravity on the torus is discussed. I study the Chern-Simons/connection representation and show that the behavior of the modular…
We show that one can construct two equivalent gauge theories from a linking theory and give a general construction principle for linking theories which we use to construct a linking theory that proves the equivalence of General Relativity…
It is shown that the Topological Massive and ``Self-dual'' theories, which are known to provide locally equivalent descriptions of spin 1 theories in 2+1 dimensions, have different global properties when formulated over topologically…
It has been shown that, by adding an extra free field that decouples from the dynamics, one can construct actions for interacting 2n-form fields with self-dual field strengths in 4n+2 dimensions. In this paper we analyze canonical…
Shape Dynamics (SD) is a new theory of gravity that is based on fewer and more fundamental first principles than General Relativity (GR). The most important feature of SD is the replacement of GR's relativity of simultaneity with a more…