Related papers: Topological gravity in Minkowski space
We propose a topological version of four-dimensional (Euclidean) Einstein gravity, in which anti-self-dual 2-forms and an SU(2) connection are used as fundamental fields. The theory describes the moduli space of conformally self-dual…
The study of topological quantum field theories increasingly relies upon concepts from higher-dimensional algebra such as n-categories and n-vector spaces. We review progress towards a definition of n-category suited for this purpose, and…
In this thesis, we focus on higher-curvature extensions of Einstein gravity as toy models to probe universal properties of conformal field theory (CFT) using the gauge/gravity duality. In this context, we are particularly interested in…
The Torelli group of a manifold is the group of all diffeomorphisms which act as the identity on the homology of the manifold. In this paper, we calculate the invariant part (invariant under the action of the automorphisms of the homology)…
General relativity does not allow one to specify the topology of space, leaving the possibility that space is multiply rather than simply connected. We review the main mathematical properties of multiply connected spaces, and the different…
The duality of Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity and a double scaled matrix integral has led to studies of the canonical spectral form factor (SFF) in the so called $\tau-$scaled limit of large times, $t \to \infty$, and fixed temperature in…
A topological version of four-dimensional (Euclidean) Einstein gravity which we propose regards anti-self-dual 2-forms and an anti-self-dual part of the frame connections as fundamental fields. The theory describes the moduli spaces of…
In this work, we extend a 2d topological gravity model of Marolf and Maxfield to have as its bulk action any open/closed TQFT obeying Atiyah's axioms. The holographic duals of these topological gravity models are ensembles of 1d topological…
The classical Minkowski formula is extended to spacelike codimension-two submanifolds in spacetimes which admit "hidden symmetry" from conformal Killing-Yano two-forms. As an application, we obtain an Alexandrov type theorem for spacelike…
We show that a topology can be defined in the four dimensional space-time of special relativity so as to obtain a topological semigroup for time. The Minkowski 4-vector character of space-time elements as well as the key properties of…
We use the well established duality of topological gravity to a double scaled matrix model with the Airy spectral curve to define what we refer to as topological gravity with arbitrary Dyson index $\upbeta$ ($\upbeta$ topological gravity).…
I review some recent results on four-manifold invariants which have been obtained in the context of topological quantum field theory. I focus on three different aspects: (a) the computation of correlation functions, which give explicit…
Topological quantum field theories (TQFTs) are symmetric monoidal functors out of cobordism categories. In dimension two, oriented TQFTs are famously classified by commutative Frobenius algebras. In the unoriented setting, the…
Quantum theory of the free Maxwell field in Minkowski space is constructed using a representation in which the self dual connection is diagonal. Quantum states are now holomorphic functionals of self dual connections and a decomposition of…
The topological aspects of Einstein gravity suggest that topological invariance could be a more profound principle in understanding quantum gravity. In this work, we explore a topological supergravity action that initially describes a…
In these two lectures I describe the difficulties one encounters when trying to construct a framework in which to describe topology change in classical general relativity where one sticks to the assumption of an everywhere non-singular…
In four space-time dimensions, there are good theoretical reasons for believing that General Relativity is the correct geometrical theory of gravity, at least at the classical level. If one admits the possibility of extra space-time…
The four-dimensional gauge group of general relativity corresponds to arbitrary coordinate transformations on a four-manifold. Theories of gravity with a dynamical structure remarkably like Einstein's theory can be obtained on the basis of…
A gravity theory without masses can be constructed in Minkowski spaces using a geometric Minkowski potential. The related affine spacelike spheres can be seen as the regions of the Minkowski spacelike vectors characterized by a constant…
"Quantum Topology" deals with the general quantum theory as the theory of the functional quantum space; space time and energy momentum forms form a connected manifold; a functional quantum space on the quantum level. The general quantum…