Related papers: The Modular Group, Operator Ordering, and Time in …
We study the modular transformation properties of Euclidean solutions of 3D gravity whose asymptotic geometry has the topology of a torus. These solutions represent saddle points of the grand canonical partition function with an important…
It is shown that the Chern-Simons functional, built in the spinor representation from the initial data on spacelike hypersurfaces, is invariant with respect to infinitesimal conformal rescalings if and only if the vacuum Einstein equations…
We present a new class of oscillons in the (1+1)-dimensional signum-Gordon model. The oscillons periodically move to and fro in the space. They have finite total energy, finite size, and are strictly periodic in time. The corresponding…
Classical and quantum Chern-Simons with gauge group $\text{U}(1)^N$ were classified by Belov and Moore in \cite{belov_moore}. They studied both ordinary topological quantum field theories as well as spin theories. On the other hand a…
In this PhD thesis, we investigate a wide class of three-dimensional massive gravity models and show how most of them (if not all) can be brought in a first-order, Chern-Simons-like, formulation. This allows for a general analysis of the…
Quantum mechanics can be formulated in terms of phase-space functions, according to Wigner's approach. A generalization of this approach consists in replacing the density operators of the standard formulation with suitable functions, the…
We compare the path integral for transition functions in unimodular gravity and in general relativity. In unimodular gravity the cosmological constant is a property of states that are specified at the boundaries whereas in general…
The canonical description is based on the prior choice of a spacelike foliation, hence making a reference to a spacetime metric. However, the metric is expected to be a dynamical, fluctuating quantity in quantum gravity. After presenting…
One approach to defining dynamics for quantum gravity in a naturally timeless setting is to select a suitable matter degree of freedom as a 'clock' before quantisation. This idea of deparametrisation was recently introduced in group field…
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,…
Time-dependent soliton solutions are explicitly derived in a five-dimensional theory endowed with one (warped) extra-dimension. Some of the obtained geometries, everywhere well defined and technically regular, smoothly interpolate between…
Using ideas from Jones, lattice gauge theory and loop quantum gravity, we construct 1+1-dimensional gauge theories on a spacetime cylinder. Given a separable compact group $G$, we construct localized time-zero fields on the spatial torus as…
We study the canonical description of the axisymmetric vacuum in 2+1 dimensional gravity, treating Einstein's gravity as a Chern Simons gauge theory on a manifold with the restriction that the dreibein is invertible. Our treatment is in the…
We analyze the most general case of third-order Chern-Simons-like theories of massive 3D gravity. Results show the conditions for finding the unitary regions on the parameter space. There exists $(n-1)$th order theories on the boundary of a…
Ashtekar's formulation for canonical quantum gravity is known to possess the topological solutions which have their supports only on the moduli space $\CN$ of flat $SL(2,C)$ connections. We show that each point on the moduli space $\CN$…
The operator ordering problem due to the quantization or regularization ambiguity in the Chern-Simons theory exists. However, we show that this can be avoided if we require Galilei covariance of the nonrelativistic Abelian Chern-Simons…
We study complex Chern-Simons theory on a Seifert manifold $M_3$ by embedding it into string theory. We show that complex Chern-Simons theory on $M_3$ is equivalent to a topologically twisted supersymmetric theory and its partition function…
Recent work on canonical transformations in quantum mechanics is applied to transform between the Moncrief metric formulation and the Witten-Carlip holonomy formulation of 2+1-dimensional quantum gravity on the torus. A non-polynomial…
Shape Dynamics is a formulation of General Relativity where refoliation invariance is traded for local spatial conformal invariance. In this paper we explicitly construct Shape Dynamics for a torus universe in 2+1 dimensions through a…
We give an a priori construction of the two-dimensional reduction of three-dimensional quantum Chern-Simons theory. This reduction is a two-dimensional topological quantum field theory and so determines to a Frobenius ring, which here is…