English

Twisted N=2 Supergravity as Topological Gravity in Four Dimensions

High Energy Physics - Theory 2014-11-18 v1

Abstract

We show that the BRST quantum version of pure D=4 N=2 supergravity can be topologically twisted, to yield a formulation of topological gravity in four dimensions. The topological BRST complex is just a rearrangement of the old BRST complex, that partly modifies the role of physical and ghost fields: indeed, the new ghost number turns out to be the sum of the old ghost number plus the internal U(1) charge. Furthermore, the action of N=2 supergravity is retrieved from topological gravity by choosing a gauge fixing that reduces the space of physical states to the space of gravitational instanton configurations, namely to self-dual spin connections. The descent equations relating the topological observables are explicitly exhibited and discussed. Ours is a first step in a programme that aims at finding the topological sector of matter coupled N=2 supergravity, viewed as the effective Lagrangian of type II superstrings and, as such, already related to 2D topological field-theories. As it stands the theory we discuss may prove useful in describing gravitational instantons moduli-spaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/9208029,
  title  = {Twisted N=2 Supergravity as Topological Gravity in Four Dimensions},
  author = {Damiano Anselmi and Pietro Fre},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9208029},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

38 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-22T15:43:31.951Z