Related papers: A Topological Model for Two Dimensional Gravity Co…
A classical two dimensional theory of gravity which has a number of interesting features (including a Newtonian limit, black holes and gravitational collapse) is quantized using conformal field theoretic techniques. The critical dimension…
We formulate a topological theory in six dimensions with gauge group SO(3,3) which reduces to gravity on a four dimensional defect if suitable boundary conditions are chosen. In such a framework we implement the reflection automorphism of…
We consider gravity from the quantum field theory point of view and introduce a natural way of coupling gravity to matter by following the gauge principle for particle interactions. The energy-momentum tensor for the matter fields is shown…
We deform two-dimensional topological gravity by making use of its gauge theory formulation. The obtained noncommutative gravity model is shown to be invariant under a class of transformations that reduce to standard diffeomorphisms once…
Topological quantum field theories containing matter fields are constructed by twisting $N=2$ supersymmetric quantum field theories. It is shown that $N=2$ chiral (antichiral) multiplets lead to topological sigma models while $N=2$ twisted…
It is argued that quantum gravity has an interpretation as a topological field theory provided a certain constraint from the path intergral measure is respected. The constraint forces us to couple gauge and matter fields to gravity for…
We plan to translate the successful description of three-dimensional gravity as a gauge theory in the noncommutative framework, making use of the covariant coordinates. We consider two specific three-dimensional fuzzy spaces based on SU(2)…
An infinite number of topological conformal algebras with varying central charges are explicitly shown to be present in $2d$ gravity (treated both in the conformal gauge and in the light-cone gauge) coupled to minimal matter. The central…
A model of two--dimensional gravity with an action depending only on a linear connection is considered. This model is a topological one, in the sense that the classical action does not contain a metric or zweibein at all. A metric and an…
The two lineal gravities --- based on the de Sitter group or a central extension of the Poincar\'e group in 1+1 dimensions --- are shown to derive classically from a unique topological gauge theory. This one is obtained after a dimensional…
We develop a perturbation theory of four-dimensional topological 2-form gravity without cosmological constant. A 2-form and an $SU(2)$ connection 1-form are used as fundamental variables instead of metric. There is no quantum correction…
The interaction of matter with gravity in two dimensional spacetimes can be supplemented with a geometrical force analogous to a Lorentz force produced on a surface by a constant perpendicular magnetic field. In the special case of constant…
In this paper noncommutative gravity is constructed as a gauge theory of the noncommutative SO(2,3) group, while the noncommutativity is canonical (constant). The Seiberg-Witten map is used to express noncommutative fields in terms of the…
It is shown that the two dimensional gravity, described either in the conformal gauge (the Liouville theory) or in the light cone gauge, when coupled to matter possesses an infinite number of twisted $N=2$ superconformal symmetries. The…
By coupling {\cal N}=8 superconformal matter to {\cal N}=8 superconformal Chern-Simons gravity in three dimensions we obtain theories with novel terms in the scalar potential leading to AdS_3 solutions and superconformal symmetry breaking.…
The most general gravity Lagrangian in four dimensions contains three topological densities, namely Nieh-Yan, Pontryagin and Euler, in addition to the Hilbert-Palatini term. We set up a Hamiltonian formulation based on this Lagrangian. 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…
It is shown how to write the first order action for gravity in a gauge theoretic formalism where the spin connection and frame field degrees of freedom are assimilated together into a gauge connection. It is then shown how to couple the…
A number of recent proposals for a quantum theory of gravity are based on the idea that spacetime geometry and gravity are derivative concepts and only apply at an approximate level. There are two fundamental challenges to any such…
We make it precise what it means to have a connection with torsion as solution of the Einstein equations. While locally the theory remains the same, the new formulation allows for topologies that would have been excluded in the standard…