Related papers: On a Three-Dimensional Gravity Model with Higher D…

We show that 3D gravity, in its pure connection formulation, admits a natural 6D interpretation. The 3D field equations for the connection are equivalent to 6D Hitchin equations for the Chern-Simons 3-form in the total space of the…

We present a generally-covariant and parity-invariant "zwei-dreibein" action for gravity in three space-time dimensions that propagates two massive spin-2 modes, unitarily, and we use Hamiltonian methods to confirm the absence of unphysical…

In three dimensions, there exist modifications of Einstein's gravity akin to the topologically massive gravity that describe massive gravitons about maximally symmetric backgrounds. These theories are built on the three-dimensional version…

In these notes we explore a variety of models comprising a large number of constituents. An emphasis is placed on integrals over large Hermitian matrices, as well as quantum mechanical models whose degrees of freedom are organised in a…

We obtain a three-parameter family of massive N=1 supergravities in three dimensions from the 3-sphere reduction of an off-shell N=(1,0) six-dimensional Poincare supergravity that includes a curvature squared invariant. The…

In this paper we consider a model for gravity in 4-dimensional space-time originally proposed by Chamseddine, which may be derived by dimensional reduction and truncation from a 5-dimensional Chern-Simons theory. Its topological origin…

In this work we take into consideration a generalization of Gauge Theories based on the analysis of the structural characteristics of Maxwell theory, which can be considered as the prototype of such kind of theories (Maxwell-like). Such…

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…

We construct an effective model for gravity of a central object at large scales. To leading order in the large radius expansion we find a cosmological constant, a Rindler acceleration, a term that sets the physical scales and subleading…

I describe several broad features of a programme to understand gravity as an emergent, long wavelength, phenomenon (like elasticity) and discuss one concrete framework for realizing this paradigm in the backdrop of several recent results.

We have recently introduced a new and very simple action for three-dimensional massive gravity. This action is written in a first order formulation where the triad and the connection play a manifestly symmetric role, but where internal…

It has recently been shown that the Matrix model and supergravity give the same predictions for three graviton scattering. This contradicts an earlier claim in the literature (hep-th/9710174). We explain the error in this earlier work, and…

I have two main aims. The first is general, and more philosophical (Section 2). The second is specific, and more closely related to physics (Sections 3 and 4). The first aim is to state my general views about laws and causation at different…

This article investigates the topological pressure of isotropic axial products of Markov subshifts on the $d$-tree. We show that the quantity increases with dimension $d$. To achieve this, we introduce the pattern distribution vectors and…

Traditionally, higher-dimensional cosmological models have sought to provide a description of the fundamental forces in terms of a unifying geometrical construction. In this essay we discuss how, in their present incarnation,…

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…

We give a very concise review of the group field theory formalism for non-perturbative quantum gravity, a higher dimensional generalisation of matrix models. We motivate it as a simplicial and local realisation of the idea of 3rd…

A wide class of three-dimensional gravity models can be put into "Chern-Simons-like" form. We perform a Hamiltonian analysis of the general model and then specialise to Einstein-Cartan Gravity, General Massive Gravity, the recently proposed…

We discuss some classical and quantum properties of 2d gravity models involving metric and a scalar field. Different models are parametrized in terms of a scalar potential. We show that a general Liouville-type model with exponential…

After a brief review of topological gravity, we present a superspace approach to this theory. This formulation allows us to recover in a natural manner various known results and to gain some insight into the precise relationship between…