English

The Constraint Algebra of Topologically Massive AdS Gravity

High Energy Physics - Theory 2010-04-28 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Three-dimensional topologically massive AdS gravity has a complicated constraint algebra, making it difficult to count nonperturbative degrees of freedom. I show that a new choice of variables greatly simplifies this algebra, and confirm that the theory contains a single propagating mode for all values of the mass parameter and the cosmological constant. As an added benefit, I rederive the central charges and conformal weights of the boundary conformal field theory from an explicit analysis of the asymptotic algebra of constraints.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0807.4152,
  title  = {The Constraint Algebra of Topologically Massive AdS Gravity},
  author = {S. Carlip},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0807.4152},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

18 pages; v2: new section on chirality of boundary theory, some minor clarifications and corrected typos, should roughly agree with version to appear in JHEP

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:04:27.855Z