Related papers: BF Description of Higher-Dimensional Gravity Theor…
We study embedding gravity, a modified theory of gravity, in which our space-time is assumed to be a four-dimensional surface in flat ten-dimensional space. Based on a simple geometric idea, this theory can be reformulated as General…
The most general action, quadratic in the B fields as well as in the curvature F, having SO(3,1) or SO(4) as the internal gauge group for a four-dimensional BF theory is presented and its symplectic geometry is displayed. It is shown that…
We show that the degenerate sector of Spin(4) Plebanski formulation of four-dimensional gravity is exactly solvable and describes covariantly embedded SU(2) BF theory. This fact ensures that its spin foam quantization is given by the SU(2)…
We study a family of (possibly non topological) deformations of $BF$ theory for the Lie algebra obtained by quadratic extension of $\mathfrak{so}(3,1)$ by an orthogonal module. The resulting theory, called quadratically extended General…
General Relativity is expected to break down in the high-curvature regime. Beyond an effective field theory treatment with higher-order operators, it is important to identify consistent theories with higher-curvature terms at the…
The modified Gauss-Bonnet gravity can be motivated by a number of physical reasons, including: the uniqueness of a gravitational Lagrangian in four and higher dimensions and the leading order $\alpha^\prime$ corrections in superstring…
A modified Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in four dimensions where the quadratic Gauss-Bonnet term is coupled to a scalar field is considered. The field equations of the model are obtained by variational methods by making use of the…
It is argued that the quadruple gravitational constant 4G can be seen as a fundamental limit of nature. The limit holds across all gravitational systems and distinguishes bound from unbound systems. Including the maximum force c^4/4G allows…
Recently, motivated by certain loop quantum gravity inspired corrections, it was shown that for spherically symmetric midisuperspace models infinitely many second derivative theories of gravity exist (as revealed by the presence of three…
We construct an n-dimensional Born-Infeld type gravity theory that has the same properties as Einstein's gravity in terms of the vacuum and particle content: Namely, the theory has a unique viable vacuum (maximally symmetric solution) and a…
The problem of background independent quantum gravity is the problem of defining a quantum field theory of matter and gravity in the absence of an underlying background geometry. Loop quantum gravity (LQG) is a promising proposal for…
The present paper proposes a new explanation for the 3-dimensional Einstein general theory of relativity which is free of contradictions and consistent with usual 4-dimensional physics. We discuss the property of the new gravity theory with…
We introduce a three-dimensional Plebanski action for the gauge group SO(4). In this model, the $B$ field satisfies quadratic simplicity constraints similar to that of the four-dimensional Plebanski theory, but with the difference that the…
We derive the the Barrett-Crane spin foam model for Euclidean 4 dimensional quantum gravity from a discretized BF theory, imposing the constraints that reduce it to gravity at the quantum level. We obtain in this way a precise prescription…
We study generalizations of 3- and 4-dimensional BF-theory in the context of higher gauge theory. First, we construct topological higher gauge theories as discrete state sum models and explain how they are related to the state sums of…
Using the Cartan formulation of General Relativity, we construct a well defined lattice-regularized theory capable to describe large non-perturbative quantum fluctuations of the frame field (or the metric) and of the spin connection. To…
General covariance in quantum gravity is seen once one integrates over all possible metrics. In recent years topological field theories have given us a different route to general covariance without integrating over all possible metrics.…
We revise imposition of various constraints in spin foam models of 4-dimensional general relativity. We argue that the usual simplicity constraint must be supplemented by a constraint on holonomies and together they must be inserted…
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 formulate AdS_2 higher spin gravity as BF theory with fields taking values in sl(N,R) algebra treated as higher spin algebra. The theory is topological and naturally extends the Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity model so as to include higher…