Related papers: Transgression forms as source for topological grav…
We use recent progress on Chern-Simons gauge theory in three dimensions [18] to give explicit, closed form formulas for the star product on some functions on the affine space ${\mathcal A}(\Sigma)$ of (smooth) connections on the trivialized…
We construct a topological Chern-Simons sigma model on a Riemannian three-manifold M with gauge group G whose hyperkahler target space X is equipped with a G-action. Via a perturbative computation of its partition function, we obtain new…
Starting with three dimensional Chern--Simons theory with gauge group $Sl(N,R)$, we derive an action $S_{cov}$ invariant under both left and right $W_N$ transformations. We give an interpretation of $S_{cov}$ in terms of anomalies, and…
Chern-Simons gauge theory, since its inception as a topological quantum field theory, has proved to be a rich source of understanding for knot invariants. In this work the theory is used to explore the definition of the expectation value of…
We formulate gauge theories on noncompact Lorentzian manifolds. For definiteness we choose an SO(1,4) gauge theory -- the isometry group of the five dimensional Minkowski space. We make use of the natural inner product to construct the…
Topological gravity (in the sense that it is metric-independent) in a $2n$-dimensional spacetime can be formulated as a gauge field theory for the AdS gauge group $SO(2,2n-1)$ by adding a multiplet of scalar fields. These scalars can break…
We study the issue of gauge invariance in five-dimensional theories compactified on an orbifold $S^1/(\mathbb{Z}_2\times \mathbb{Z}^\prime_2)$ in the presence of an external U(1) gauge field. From the four-dimensional point We study the…
We study Chern-Simons theory with a complex G_C or a real G x G gauge group on a manifold with boundary - this includes Lorentzian and Euclidean (anti-) de Sitter (E/A)dS gravity for G=SU(2) or G=SL(2,R). We show that there is a canonical…
As we re-examine the known holographic N=1 supersymmetric renormalization group flow in four dimensions, we describe the mass-deformed Bagger-Lambert theory or equivalently the mass-deformed U(2) x U(2) Chern-Simons gauge theory with level…
According to Yang \& Mills (1954), a {\it conserved} current and a related rigid (`global') symmetry lie at the foundations of gauge theory. When the rigid symmetry is extended to a {\it local} one, a so-called gauge symmetry, a new…
The aim of this paper is to discuss a kinematical algebraic structure of a theory of gravity, that would be unitary, renormalizable and coupled in the same manner to both spinorial and tensorial matter fields. An analysis of the common…
We give a geometric description of supersymmetric gravity/(non-)abelian $p$-form hierarchies in superspaces with 4D, $N = 1$ super-Poincare invariance. These hierarchies give rise to Chern-Simons-like invariants, such as those of the 5D, $N…
We elaborate on conformal higher-spin gauge theory in three-dimensional (3D) curved space. For any integer $n>2$ we introduce a conformal spin-$\frac{n}{2}$ gauge field $h_{(n)} =h_{\alpha_1\dots \alpha_n}$ (with $n$ spinor indices) of…
We study noncommutative principal bundles (Hopf-Galois extensions) in the context of coquasitriangular Hopf algebras and their monoidal category of comodule algebras. When the total space is quasi-commutative, and thus the base space…
Recent work [hep-th/0504183,hep-th/0508002] indicates an approach to the formulation of diffeomorphism invariant quantum field theories (qft's) on the Groenewold-Moyal (GM) plane. In this approach to the qft's, statistics gets twisted and…
We give an explicit gauge invariant, off-shell and local double copy construction of gravity from Yang-Mills theory to quartic order. To this end we use the framework of homotopy algebras, and we identify a rich new algebraic structure…
The Poincar\'e group can be interpreted as the group of isometries of a minkowskian space. This point of view suggests to consider the group of isometries of a given space as the suitable group to construct a gauge theory of gravity. We…
We consider $AdS_3$ $N$-extended Chern-Simons supergravity (\`a la Achucarro-Tonswend) and we study its gauge symmetries. We promote those gauge symmetries to a BRST symmetry and we perform its quantization by choosing suitable…
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…
Thomas-Whitehead (TW) gravity is a projectively invariant model of gravity over a d-dimensional manifold that is intimately related to string theory through reparameterization invariance. Unparameterized geodesics are the ubiquitous…