Related papers: Self-dual variables, positive semi-definite action…

The partition function of four dimensional SO(4) Yang-Mills theory is rewritten in terms of variables admitting straightforward relation to the partition function of pure 4D gravity. The gauge action turns into first-order Hilbert-Palatini…

We study 2+1 Chern-Simons gravity at the classical action level. In particular we rederive the linear combinations of the ``standard'' and ``exotic'' Einstein actions, from the (anti) self-duality of the ``internal'' Lorentzian indices. The…

We construct a new covariant action for "flat" self-dual gravity in four spacetime dimensions. The action has just one term, but when expanded around an appropriate background gives rise to a kinetic term and a cubic interaction. Upon…

The canonical analysis of the (anti-) self-dual action for gravity supplemented with the (anti-) self-dual Pontrjagin term is carried out. The effect of the topological term is to add a `magnetic' term to the original momentum variable…

We propose a topological version of four-dimensional (Euclidean) Einstein gravity, in which anti-self-dual 2-forms and an SU(2) connection are used as fundamental fields. The theory describes the moduli space of conformally self-dual…

We first note that, at least in perturbation theory, there is a well-defined (subject to regularization) Lorentzian definition of the quantum effective action in both flat and curved space including (perturbative) gravity. The advantage of…

We develop a proposal for a theory of simplicial gravity with spinors as the fundamental configuration variables. The underlying action describes a mechanical system with finitely many degrees of freedom, the system has a Hamiltonian and…

The gravity action on the piecewise flat Riemannian manifold is formulated using the discrete set of the nondegenerate 4$\times$4 matrices on the 3-simplices as some connection type variables. These variables are the discrete counterpart of…

This paper studies the self-dual Einstein-Dirac theory. A generalization is obtained of the Jacobson-Smolin proof of the equivalence between the self-dual and Palatini purely gravitational actions. Hence one proves equivalence of self-dual…

We develop a Born-Infeld type theory for gravity in any dimension. We show that in four dimensions our formalism allows a self-dual (or anti-self dual) Born-Infeld gravity description. Moreover, we show that such a self-dual action is…

We consider a discrete model of euclidean quantum gravity in four dimensions based on a summation over random simplicial manifolds. The action used is the Einstein-Hilbert action plus an $R^2$-term. The phase diagram as a function of the…

Classical solutions for a four-dimensional Minkowskian string effective action and an Euclidean one with cosmological constant term are derived. The former corresponds to electrovac solutions whereas the later solutions are identified as…

Starting from a self-dual formulation of gravity, we obtain a noncommutative theory of pure Einstein theory in four dimensions. In order to do that, we use Seiberg-Witten map. It is shown that the noncommutative torsion constraint is solved…

The $N=4$ supersymmetric self-dual Yang-Mills theory in a four- dimensional space with signature $(2,2)$ is formulated in harmonic superspace. The on-shell constraints of the theory are reformulated in the equivalent form of vanishing…

We derive a manifestly duality-symmetric formulation of the action principle for conformal gravity linearized around Minkowski space-time. The analysis is performed in the Hamiltonian formulation, the fourth-order character of the equations…

We consider three dimensional gravity with a positive cosmological constant and non- zero gravitational Chern-Simons term. This theory has inflating de Sitter solutions and local metric degrees of freedom. The Euclidean signature partition…

After adding auxiliary fields and integrating out the original variables, the Yang-Mills action can be expressed in terms of local gauge invariant variables. This method reproduces the known solution of the two dimensional $SU(N)$ theory.…

We construct new seven-dimensional gravity by adding two topological terms to the Einstein-Hilbert action. For certain choice of the coupling constants, these terms may be related to the R^4 correction to the 3-form field equation of…

We show that self-dual gravity in Euclidean four-dimensional Anti-de Sitter space (AdS$_4$) can be described by a minimally coupled scalar field with a cubic interaction written in terms of a deformed Poisson bracket, providing a remarkably…

The concept of electric-magnetic duality can be extended to linearized gravity. It has indeed been established that in four dimensions, the Pauli-Fierz action (quadratic part of the Einstein-Hilbert action) can be cast in a form that is…