Related papers: Transgression forms as source for topological grav…
We implement the Dirac-Schwinger-Zwanziger integrality condition on four-dimensional classical ungauged supergravity and use it to obtain its duality-covariant, gauge-theoretic, differential-geometric model on an oriented four-manifold $M$…
Recent work on the loop representation of quantum gravity has revealed previously unsuspected connections between knot theory and quantum gravity, or more generally, 3-dimensional topology and 4-dimensional generally covariant physics. We…
The notion of a measure on the space of connections modulo gauge transformations that is invariant under diffeomorphisms of the base manifold is important in a variety of contexts in mathematical physics and topology. At the formal level,…
We study the Chern-Simons topological quantum field theory with an inhomogeneous gauge group, a non-semi-simple group obtained from a semi-simple one by taking its semi-direct product with its Lie algebra. We find that the standard knot…
We plan to translate the successful description of three-dimensional gravity as a gauge theory in the noncommutative framework, making use of the covariant coordinates. We consider two specific three-dimensional fuzzy spaces based on SU(2)…
Chern-Simons gauge theory for compact semisimple groups is analyzed from a perturbation theory point of view. The general form of the perturbative series expansion of a Wilson line is presented in terms of the Casimir operators of the gauge…
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 analyze (2+1)-dimensional gravity with a Chern--Simons term and a negative cosmological constant, primarily at the weak field level. The full theory is expressible as the sum of two higher derivative SL(2,R) "vector" Chern-Simons terms,…
We find a large internal symmetry within 4-dimensional Poincare gauge theory. In the Riemann-Cartan geometry of Poincare gauge theory the field equation and geodesics are invariant under projective transformation, just as in affine…
We use the Chern-Simons formulation of higher spin theories in three dimensions to study aspects of holographic W-gravity. Concepts which were useful in studies of pure bulk gravity theories, such as the Fefferman-Graham gauge and the…
The evolution of a generally covariant theory is under-determined. One hundred years ago such dynamics had never before been considered; its ramifications were perplexing, its future important role for all the fundamental interactions under…
A detailed study of certain apspects of some 2+1 dimensional field theories is presented with special emphasis on the role of Wigner's little group for massless particles in generating gauge transformations. The planar models considered…
We show that the translational subgroup of Wigner's little group for massless particles in 3+1 dimensions generate gauge transformation in linearized Einstein gravity. Similarly a suitable representation of the 1-dimensional translational…
We discuss the N=2 superspace formulation of the N=8 superconformal Bagger-Lambert-Gustavsson theory, and of the N=6 superconformal Aharony-Bergman-Jafferis-Maldacena U(N)xU(N) Chern-Simons theory. In particular, we prove the full SU(4)…
We develop a generalized projective gauge theory of gravity and spinorial matter, incorporating both non-metricity and torsion. The work is divided into three parts. Part I provides a thorough review of General Relativity, Metric-Affine…
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 introduce and study the Wilson loops in a general 3D topological field theories (TFTs), and show that the expectation value of Wilson loops also gives knot invariants as in Chern-Simons theory. We study the TFTs within the…
We study three-dimensional gauge theories based on orthogonal groups. Depending on the global form of the group these theories admit discrete $\theta$-parameters, which control the weights in the sum over topologically distinct gauge…
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…
We derive higher Wess--Zumino--Witten (WZW) and gauged WZW (gWZW) terms within strict higher Chern--Simons (CS) gauge theory. Starting from the Cartan homotopy formula, we obtain the $(2n+2)$-dimensional higher CS forms and transgression…