Surface terms and the Gauss-Bonnet Hamiltonian
Abstract
We derive the gravitational Hamiltonian starting from the Gauss-Bonnet action, keeping track of all surface terms. This is done using the language of orthonormal frames and forms to keep things as tidy as possible. The surface terms in the Hamiltonian give a remarkably simple expression for the total energy of a spacetime. This expression is consistent with energy expressions found in hep-th/0212292. However, we can apply our results whatever the choice of background and whatever the symmetries of the spacetime.
Cite
@article{arxiv.gr-qc/0303082,
title = {Surface terms and the Gauss-Bonnet Hamiltonian},
author = {Antonio Padilla},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/0303082},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Version to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity. Note that this version is 8 pages shorter than version 1, making it more suitable for the journal. Anyone wishing more calculational detail should refer to version 1. Some references have also been added