Related papers: Self-dual variables, positive semi-definite action…
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…
We discuss alternative descriptions of four-dimensional self-dual Yang-Mills fields in harmonic space with additional commuting spinor coordinates. In particular, the linear analyticity equation and nonlinear covariant harmonic-field…
We argue that a certain twisted supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in three dimensions with gauge group SU(2) possesses a set of topological observables whose expectation values can be computed in a related Chern Simons theory. This Chern…
We formulate gauge theories on noncompact Lorentzian manifolds. For definiteness we choose an SO(1,4) gauge theory -- the isometry group of the five dimensional Minkowski space. We make use of the natural inner product to construct the…
We find out the complex geometries corresponding to the semi-classical saddles of threedimensional quantum gravity by making use of the known results of dual conformal field theory (CFT), which is effectively given by Liouville field…
Four-dimensional euclidean quantum gravity has been studied as a discrete model based on dynamical triangulations by Ambjorn and Jurkiewicz and by Agishtein and Migdal. We discuss a particular implementation of a Monte Carlo simulation of…
Classically, unimodular gravity is known to be equivalent to General Relativity (GR), except for the fact that the effective cosmological constant $\Lambda$ has the status of an integration constant. Here, we explore various formulations of…
The path integral of four dimensional quantum gravity is restricted to conformally self-dual metrics. It reduces to integrals over the conformal factor and over the moduli space of conformally self--dual metrics and can be studied with the…
For a finite abelian group action on a linear category, we study the dual action given by the character group acting on the category of equivariant objects. We prove that the groups of equivariant autoequivalences on these two categories…
We construct N=1 supersymmetrisations of some recently-proposed theories of critical gravity, conformal gravity, and extensions of critical gravity in four dimensions. The total action consists of the sum of three separately off-shell…
The $(4,0)$ theory in six dimensions is an exotic theory of supergravity that has been argued to emerge as the strong coupling limit of theories having $N=8$ supergravity as their low energy effective theory in five spacetime dimensions. It…
We consider a Yang-Mills type gauge theory of gravity based on the conformal group SO(4,2) coupled to a conformally invariant real scalar field. The goal is to generate fundamental dimensional constants via spontaneous breakdown of the…
Motivated by quantum mechanical considerations we earlier suggested an alternative action for discretised quantum gravity which has a dimension of length. It is the so called "linear" action. The proposed action is a "square root" of the…
We consider an Einstein-Hilbert-Dilaton action for gravity coupled to various types of Abelian and non-Abelian gauge fields in a spatially finite system. These include Yang-Mills fields and Abelian gauge fields with three and four-form…
We review past and present results on the non-local form-factors of the effective action of semiclassical gravity in two and four dimensions computed by means of a covariant expansion of the heat kernel up to the second order in the…
Starting from the original Einstein action, sometimes called the Gamma squared action, we propose a new setup to formulate modified theories of gravity. This can yield a theory with second order field equations similar to those found in…
We discuss the possible relevance of some recent mathematical results and techniques on four-manifolds to physics. We first suggest that the existence of uncountably many R^4's with non-equivalent smooth structures, a mathematical…
A new way is proposed to cancel the cosmological constant. The proposal involves the metric determinant acting as a type of self-adjusting $q$-field without need of a fine-tuned chemical potential. Since the determinant of the metric now…
The Euclidean path integral approach to quantum gravity is conventionally formulated in terms of the Einstein-Hilbert-York-Gibbons-Hawking action, which requires suitable subtractions to produce the correct black hole partition function.…
A quantization of unimodular gravity is described, which results in a quantum effective action which is also unimodular, ie a function of a metric with fixed determinant. A consequence is that contributions to the energy momentum tensor of…