Related papers: Unavoidable Conflict Between Massive Gravity Model…

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…

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…

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…

Non-abelian higher gauge theory has recently emerged as a generalization of standard gauge theory to higher dimensional (2-dimensional in the present context) connection forms, and as such, it has been successfully applied to the…

The usual Chern-Simons extension of Einstein gravity theory consists in adding a squared Riemann contribution to the Hilbert Lagrangian, which means that a square-curvature term is added to the linear-curvature leading term governing the…

This thesis is dedicated to the study of theories of massive gravity. The formulation of higher spin gauge field theories, along with a Chern-Simons (CS) like term for fields of higher spins is presented. Through this setup, general…

We consider the coupling of scalar topological matter to (2+1)-dimensional gravity. The matter fields consist of a 0-form scalar field and a 2-form tensor field. We carry out a canonical analysis of the classical theory, investigating its…

We construct a topological field theory which, on the one hand, generalizes BF theories in that there is non-trivial coupling to `topological matter fields'; and, on the other, generalizes the three-dimensional model of Carlip and Gegenberg…

We give a general class of exact solutions to the (1+2)-dimensional topologically massive gravity model coupled with Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory where a "self-duality" condition is imposed on the Maxwell field.

In the last years higher dimensional physics has won importance. Despite the Superstrings, higher dimensional effects, in measurable scales of energy (some TeV), became only possible with Randall-Sundrum's models (RS). In particular, recent…

The general second-order massive field equations for arbitrary positive integer spin in three spacetime dimensions, and their "self-dual" limit to first-order equations, are shown to be equivalent to gauge-invariant higher-derivative field…

It has previously been shown heuristically that the topology of the Universe affects gravity, in the sense that a test particle near a massive object in a multiply connected universe is subject to a topologically induced acceleration that…

Einstein's equations in a tetrad formulation are derived from a linear theory in flat spacetime with an asymmetric potential using free field gauge invariance, local Lorentz invariance and universal coupling. The gravitational potential can…

It is shown that topological massive gravity augmented by the triadic gravitational Chern-Simons first order term is a curved a pure spin-2 action. This model contains two massive spin-2 excitations. However, since its light-front energy is…

This note aims to provide an entr\'ee to two developments in two-dimensional topological gravity -- that is, intersection theory on the moduli space of Riemann surfaces -- that have not yet become well-known among physicists. A little over…

We show that, in four-dimensional spacetimes with an arbitrary Einstein metric, with and without a cosmological constant, perturbative dynamical degrees of freedom in generic quadratic-curvature gravity can be decoupled into massless and…

A theory of massive gravity depends on a non-dynamical 'reference metric' f_{\mu\nu} which is often taken to be the flat Minkowski metric. In this paper we examine the theory of perturbations on a background with metric g_{\mu\nu} which…

Linearized gravity is considered as an ordinary gauge field theory. This implies the need for gauge fixing in order to have well defined propagators. Only after having achieved this, the most general mass term is added. The aim of this…

We show that topologically massive gravity can be obtained by the consistent Kaluza-Klein reduction from recently constructed seven-dimensional gravity with topological terms. The internal four-manifold should be Einstein with the…

Theoretical considerations of fundamental physics, as well as certain cosmological observations, persistently point out to permissibility, and maybe necessity, of macroscopic modifications of the Einstein general relativity. The…