Related papers: Gravitational action with null boundaries
We apply the ADM approach to obtain a Hamiltonian description of the Einstein-Hilbert action. In doing so we add four new ingredients: (i) We eliminate the diffeomorphism constraints. (ii) We replace the densities $\sqrt g$ by a function…
Using the Steiner-Weyl expansion formula for parallel manifolds and the so called gonihedric principle we find a large class of discrete integral invariants which are defined on simplicial manifolds of various dimensions. These integral…
We derive a prescription for the phase space of general relativity on two intersecting null surfaces. The boundary symmetry group is the semidirect product of the group of arbitrary diffeomorphisms of each null boundary which coincide at…
We revisit the gravitational boundary action at null infinity of asymptotically flat spacetimes. We fix the corner ambiguities in the boundary action by using the constraint that (exponential of) the on-shell action leads to tree-level…
The Euclidean Einstein-Hilbert action is well-known to be unbounded below and thus to raise many questions regarding the definition of the gravitational path integral. A variety of works since the late 1980's have suggested that this…
A new geometric interpretation for General Relativity (GR) is proposed. We show that in the presence of an arbitrary affine connection, the gravitational field is described as nonmetricity of the affine connection. An affine connection can…
We study the constraint structure of Fierz -Pauli action in both flat and curved space in the framework of Hamiltonian formalism. We observe an abrupt change in the constraint algebra and the characteristics of the constraints when the mass…
As observed recently in arXiv:1212.2922, the action of General Relativity (GR) in finite spacetime regions has an imaginary part that resembles the Bekenstein entropy. In this paper, we expand on that argument, with attention to different…
We consider the general Wigner function for a particle confined to a finite interval and subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions. We derive the boundary corrections to the "star-genvalue" equation and to the time evolution equation. These…
We study a parity violating Metric-Affine gravitational theory given by the Einstein-Hilbert action plus the so-called Holst term in vacuum. We find out that for a certain value of the Barbero-Immirzi parameter the total action possesses a…
The program of quantizing the gravitational field with the help of affine field variables is continued. For completeness, a review of the selection criteria that singles out the affine fields, the alternative treatment of constraints, and…
We present a new derivation of gravitational entropy functionals in higher-curvature theories of gravity using corner terms that are needed to ensure well-posedness of the variational principle in the presence of corners. This is…
Recently, using the assumption that the string theory effective action at the critical dimension is background independent, the classical on-shell effective action of the bosonic string theory at order $\alpha'$ in a spacetime manifold…
In canonical quantum gravity, when space is a compact manifold with boundary there is a Hamiltonian given by an integral over the boundary. Here we compute the action of this `boundary Hamiltonian' on observables corresponding to open…
We find models of two-dimensional gravity that resolve the factorization puzzle and have a discrete spectrum, whilst retaining a semiclassical description. A novelty of these models is that they contain non-trivially correlated spacetime…
Despite the extraordinary attention that modified gravity theories have attracted over the past decade, the geodesic deviation equation in this context has not received proper formulation thus far. This equation provides an elegant way to…
An action principle is described which unifies general relativity and topological field theory. An additional degree of freedom is introduced and depending on the value it takes the theory has solutions that reduce it to 1) general…
We study the conditions of integrability when the boundary terms are considered in the variation of the geometric contribution of the Einstein-Hilbert action. We explore the emergent physical dynamics that is obtained when we make a…
A free non-relativistic particle moving in two dimensions on a half-plane can be described by self-adjoint Hamiltonians characterized by boundary conditions imposed on the systems. The most general boundary condition is parameterized in…
We study general relativity at a null boundary using the covariant phase space formalism. We define a covariant phase space and compute the algebra of symmetries at the null boundary by considering the boundary-preserving diffeomorphisms…