Related papers: Recursion relations in semirigid topological gravi…
We identify and examine a generalization of topological sigma models suitable for coupling to topological open strings. The targets are Kahler manifolds with a real structure, i.e. with an involution acting as a complex conjugation,…
We report on an instance in quantum gravity where a topological expansion resums into an effective description on a single geometry. The original theory whose gravitational path integral we study is JT quantum gravity with one asymptotic…
The aim of this Thesis is twofold. On the one hand, we find the necessary and sufficient conditions for a maximally supersymmetric supergravity theory in 3D to be a solution of 11D supergravity (but the result is general and also holds for…
We consider the BRST and superconformal properties of the ghost action of 2-D supergravity. Using the background spin structure on the worldsheet, we show that this action can be transformed by canonical field transformations to reach other…
The paper concerns the fictitious entanglement of the so-called ``singularities'' in problems, pertaining to quantum gravity, due, in point of fact, to the way we try to employ, in that context, differential geometry, the latter being…
Dipole charge conservation forces isolated charges to be immobile fractons. These couple naturally to spatial two-index symmetric tensor gauge fields that resemble a spatial metric. We propose a spacetime Lorentz covariant version of dipole…
The BRST invariance condition in a highest-weight representation of the topological ($\equiv$ twisted $N=2$) algebra captures the `invariant' content of two-dimensional gravity coupled to matter. The standard DDK formulation is recovered by…
We describe gauge theories which allow to retrieve a large class of gravitational theories, including, MacDowell-Mansouri gravity and its topological extension to Loop Quantum Gravity via the Pontrjagin characteristic class involving the…
The restoration of spin connection clarifies the long known local Lorentz invariance problem in telelparallel gravities. It is considered now that any tetrad together with the associated spin connection can be equally utilized. Among the…
We present a semiclassical framework in which stress-tensor deformations of a quantum field theory (QFT) reorganize into a gravitational action evaluated at a metric saddle. The deformed partition function can be written as a gravitational…
We review the relation between Loop Quantum Gravity on a fixed graph and discrete models of gravity. We compare Regge and twisted geometries, and discuss discrete actions based on twisted geometries and on the discretization of the…
$BF$ gravity comprises all the formulations of gravity that are based on deformations of $BF$ theory. Such deformations consist of either constraints or potential terms added to the topological $BF$ action that turn some of the gauge…
We consider gravitational perturbations of 2D dilaton gravity systems and show that these can be recast into $T\bar{T}$-deformations (at least) under certain conditions, where $T$ means the energy-momentum tensor of the matter field coupled…
In this thesis, we compute within the field-antifield formalism the local BRST cohomology of various theories involving p-form gauge fields. A particular emphasis is put on the cohomology groups corresponding to the consistent local…
We discuss some of the key topological aspects of a two $(1+1)$-dimensional (2D) self-interacting non-Abelian gauge theory (having no interaction with matter fields) in the framework of {\it chiral} superfield formalism. We provide the…
We present the manifestly covariant quantization of quadratic gravity or higher-derivative gravity in the de Donder gauge condition (or harmonic gauge condition) for general coordinate invariance on the basis of the BRST transformation. We…
In semiclassical gravity the back-reaction of the classical gravitational field interacting with quantum matter fields is described by the semiclassical Einstein equations. A criterion for the validity of semiclassical gravity based on the…
This thesis is broadly split into two parts. In the first part, simple state sum models for minimally coupled fermion and scalar fields are constructed on a $1$-manifold. The models are independent of the triangulation and give the same…
In the Hamiltonian language we provide a study of flat-space cosmology in bigravity and massive gravity constructed mostly with de Rham, Gabadadze, Tolley (dRGT) potential. It is demonstrated that the Hamiltonian methods are powerful not…
The local BRST cohomology of the gauged non-linear sigma model on a group manifold is worked out for any Lie group G. We consider both, the case where the gauge field is dynamical and the case where it has no kinetic term (G/G topological…