Related papers: A remarkably simple theory of 3d massive gravity
A perturbative regime based on contorsion as a dynamical variable and metric as a (classical) fixed background, is performed in the context of a pure Yang-Mills formulation based on $GL(3,R)$ gauge group. In the massless case we show that…
We demonstrate how some problems arising in simplicial quantum gravity can be successfully addressed within the framework of combinatorial group theory. In particular, we argue that the number of simplicial 3-manifolds having a fixed…
We present several theories of four-dimensional gravity in the Plebanski formulation, in which the tetrads and the connections are the independent dynamical variables. We consider the relation between different versions of gravitational…
Three-dimensional gravity with a minimally coupled self-interacting scalar is considered. The fall-off of the fields at infinity is assumed to be slower than that of a localized distribution of matter, so that the asymptotic symmetry group…
In this paper we investigate possible consistent ghost-free models containing massive spin 2 particles in three dimensions. We work in a constructive approach based on the frame-like gauge invariant description for such massive spin 2…
Gravity is uniquely situated in between classical topological field theories and standard local field theories. This can be seen in the the quasi-local nature of gravitational observables, but is nowhere more apparent than in gravity's…
A detailed canonical analysis for three-dimensional massive gravity is performed. The construction of the fundamental Dirac brackets, the complete structure of the constraints and the counting of the physical degrees of freedom are…
Considering Chern-Simons like gravity theories in three dimensions as first order systems, we analyze the Hamiltonian structure of three theories Topological massive gravity, New massive gravity, and Zwei-Dreibein Gravity.We show that these…
We develop techniques of analyzing the unitarity of general Born-Infeld (BI) gravity actions in D-dimensional spacetimes. Determinantal form of the action allows us to find a compact expression quadratic in the metric fluctuations around…
We present a theory of four-dimensional quantum gravity with massive gravitons which may be essentially renormalizable. In the Plebanski formulation of General Relativity (GR), in which the tetrads, the connection and the curvature are all…
The method of four-dimensional Causal Dynamical Triangulations provides a background-independent definition of the sum over geometries in quantum gravity, in the presence of a positive cosmological constant. We present the evidence…
Loop quantum gravity in its Hamiltonian form relies on a connection formulation of the gravitational phase space with three key properties: 1.) a compact gauge group, 2.) real variables, and 3.) canonical Poisson brackets. In conjunction,…
Since the main open problem of contemporary physics is to find a unified description of the four interactions, we present a possible scenario which, till now only at the classical level, is able to englobe experiments ranging from…
We provide a unified treatment of electric-magnetic duality, at the action level and with manifest Lorentz invariance, for massive, massless as well as partially-massless gravitons propagating in maximally symmetric spacetimes of any…
A new method for integrating anomalous Ward identities and finding the effective action is proposed. Two-dimensional supergravity and $W_3$-gravity are used as examples to demonstrate its potential. An operator is introduced that associates…
A general framework for effective theories propagating two tensor and one scalar degrees of freedom is investigated. Geometrically, it describes dynamical foliation of spacelike hypersurfaces coupled to a general background, in which the…
We propose a new class of conformal higher spin gravities in three dimensions, which extends the one by Pope and Townsend. The main new feature is that there are infinitely many examples of the new theories with a finite number of higher…
A first-order formulation of gravity is developed in which the fundamental fields consist of an SL(2,C) connection and two spinor-valued 1-forms. It is shown that the first term of an expansion of the Einstein-Hilbert action leads to an…
By invoking an asymmetric metric tensor, and borrowing ideas from non-commutative geometry, string theory, and trace dynamics, we propose an action function for quantum gravity. The action is proportional to the four dimensional…
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…