Related papers: Generalized Poincare algebras and Lovelock-Cartan …
It is an accepted fact that requiring the Lovelock theory to have the maximun possible number of degree of freedom, fixes the parameters in terms of the gravitational and the cosmological constants. In odd dimensions, the Lagrangian is a…
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,…
Recently was shown that standard odd and even-dimensional General Relativity can be obtained from a $(2n+1)$-dimensional Chern-Simons Lagrangian invariant under the $B_{2n+1}$ algebra and from a $(2n)$-dimensional Born-Infeld Lagrangian…
This is 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 system --with a fiber bundle formulation-- in more than three dimensions,…
The Poincar\'e (inhomogeneous Lorentz) group underlies special relativity. In these lectures a consistent formalism is developed allowing an appropriate gauging of the Poincar\'e group. The physical laws are formulated in terms of points,…
Chern-Simons models for gravity are interesting because they provide with a truly gauge-invariant action principle in the fiber-bundle sense. So far, their main drawback has largely been the perceived remoteness from standard General…
The gauging of the q-Poincar\'e algebra of ref. hep-th 9312179 yields a non-commutative generalization of the Einstein-Cartan lagrangian. We prove its invariance under local q-Lorentz rotations and, up to a total derivative, under…
Starting from gravity as a Chern-Simons action for the AdS algebra in five dimensions, it is possible to deform the theory through an expansion of the Lie algebra that leads to a system consisting of the Einstein-Hilbert action plus…
We present a generalization of the standard In\"on\"u-Wigner contraction by rescaling not only the generators of a Lie superalgebra but also the arbitrary constants appearing in the components of the invariant tensor. The procedure…
Following the approach of Grignani and Nardelli [1], we show how to cast the two-dimensional model $L \sim curv^2 + torsion^2 + cosm.const$ -- and in fact any theory of gravity -- into the form of a Poincare gauge theory. By means of the…
A Poincar\'{e} gauge theory of (2+1)-dimensional gravity is developed. Fundamental gravitational field variables are dreibein fields and Lorentz gauge potentials, and the theory is underlain with the Riemann-Cartan space-time. The most…
The Poincar\'e gauge theory (PGT) of gravity provides a viable formulation of general relativity (Einstein-Cartan theory), and a popular model-building framework for modified gravity with torsion. Notoriously, however, the PGT terms which…
We present here a possible generalisation of the Poincar\'e-Cartan form in classical field theory in the most general case: arbitrary dimension, arbitrary order of the theory and in the absence of a fibre bundle structure. We use for the…
A Chern-Simons action for supergravity in odd-dimensional spacetimes is proposed. For all odd dimensions, the local symmetry group is a non trivial supersymmetric extension of the Poincar\'e group. In $2+1$ dimensions the gauge group…
In this paper, we discuss a gravitational theory based on the generalized gauge field. Our Lagrangian is invariant not only under local Lorentz transformation and the ordinary gauge transformation but also under a new gauge transformation.…
We discuss a generalization of Chern-Simons theory in three dimensions based on Leibniz (or Loday) algebras, which are generalizations of Lie algebras. Special cases of such theories appear in gauged supergravity, where the Leibniz algebra…
We show that General Relativity can be formulated as a constrained topological theory for flat 2-connections associated to the Poincar\'e 2-group. Matter can be consistently coupled to gravity in this formulation. We also show that the edge…
A higher order theory of dilaton gravity is constructed as a generalization of the Einstein-Lovelock theory of pure gravity. Its Lagrangian contains terms with higher powers of the Riemann tensor and of the first two derivatives of the…
We consider theories describing the dynamics of a four-dimensional metric, whose Lagrangian is diffeomorphism invariant and depends at most on second derivatives of the metric. Imposing degeneracy conditions we find a set of Lagrangians…
We consider a modification of the standard Einstein theory in four dimensions, alternative to R. Jackiw and S.-Y. Pi, Phys. Rev. D 68, 104012 (2003), since it is based on the first-order (Einstein-Cartan) approach to General Relativity,…