Related papers: A diffeomorphism anomaly in every dimension
The problem of observables in classical and quantum gravity is a long-standing one. It is sometimes argued that observable quantities should be diffeomorphsm invariant, following the philosophy of Dirac. We argue that diffeomorphism…
The configuration space of general relativity is superspace - the space of all Riemannian 3-metrics modulo diffeomorphisms. However, it has been argued that the configuration space for gravity should be conformal superspace - the space of…
We review and discuss the role of diffeomorphism symmetry in quantum gravity models. Such models often involve a discretization of the space-time manifold as a regularization method. Generically this leads to a breaking of the symmetries to…
Gravitational theories with fixed background fields break diffeomorphism invariance. This breaking can be spontaneous or explicit. A brief summary of the main consequences of these types of breaking is presented.
Four-dimensional Einstein gravity in the Palatini first order formalism is shown to possess a vector supersymmetry of the same type as found in the topological theories for Yang-Mills fields. A peculiar feature of the gravitational theory,…
Covariant (Lorentz invariant) fracton matter, minimally coupled and charged under a symmetric rank two gauge tensor, is considered. The gauge transformations correspond to linearized longitudinal diffeomorphisms. Consistent possible…
The w_\infty algebra is a particular generalization of the Virasoro algebra with generators of higher spin 2,3,...,\infty. It can be viewed as the algebra of a class of functions, relative to a Poisson bracket, on a suitably chosen surface.…
The application of the notion of `observable' from gauge theory to diffeomorphism-invariant theories -- most relevantly to general relativity -- has led to numerous conceptual and technical issues when interpreting classical theories with…
Loop quantum gravity is an approach to quantum gravity that starts from the Hamiltonian formulation in terms of a connection and its canonical conjugate. Quantization proceeds in the spirit of Dirac: First one defines an algebra of basic…
The standard picture of viable higher-dimensional theories is that extra dimensions manifest themselves at short distances only, their effects being negligible at scales larger than some critical value. We show that this is not necessarily…
We show that for classical Liouville field theory, diffeomorphism invariance, Weyl invariance and locality cannot hold together. This is due to a genuine Virasoro center, present in the theory, that leads to an energy\hyp{}momentum tensor…
Minimally modified gravity theories are modifications of general relativity with two local gravitational degrees of freedom in four dimensions. Their construction relies on the breaking of 4D diffeomorphism invariance keeping however the…
Earlier work of Balachandran and friends provided a map from algebras to field theories. These methods provide insight into quantum gauge theories and anomalies. In this note we take the reader from the coadjoint representation of the…
When 4-dimensional general relativity is extended by a 3-dimensional gravitational Chern-Simons term an apparent violation of diffeormorphism invariance is extinguished by the dynamical equations of motion for the modified theory. The…
Classical W-algebras in higher dimensions have been recently constructed. In this letter we show that there is a finitely generated subalgebra which is isomorphic to the algebra of local diffeomorphisms in D dimensions. Moreover, there is a…
A model for 2D-quantum gravity from the Virasoro symmetry is studied. The notion of space-time naturally arises as a homogeneous space associated with the kinematical (non-dynamical) SL(2,R) symmetry in the kernel of the Lie-algebra central…
The possibility of the extension of spatial diffeomorphisms to a larger family of symmetries in a class of classical field theories is studied. The generator of the additional local symmetry contains a quadratic kinetic term and a potential…
We consider diffeomorphism violation, which is parameterized by nondynamical background fields of the gravitational Standard-Model Extension (SME), and study its effects on the time evolution of the Universe. Our goal is to identify…
The algebra of diffeomorphisms derived from general coordinate transformations on commuting coordinates is represented by differential operators on noncommutative spaces. The algebra remains unchanged, the comultiplication however is…
We study the cosmological implications of gravity models which break diffeomorphisms (Diff) invariance down to transverse diffeomorphisms (TDiff). We start from the most general gravitational action involving up to quadratic terms in…