Asymptotic boundary conditions and square integrability in the partition function of AdS gravity

DOI10.1007/JHEP06(2020)172zbMATH Open1437.83031arXiv2004.01723MaRDI QIDQ783976FDOQ783976

Authors: Joel Acosta, Alan Garbarz, Andrés Goya, Mauricio Leston 

Publication date: 4 August 2020

Published in: Journal of High Energy Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: There has been renewed interest in the path-integral computation of the partition function of AdS3 gravity, both in the metric and Chern-Simons formulations. The one-loop partition function around Euclidean AdS3 turns out to be given by the vacuum character of Virasoro group. This stems from the work of Brown and Henneaux (BH) who showed that, in AdS3 gravity with sensible asymptotic boundary conditions, an infinite group of (improper) diffeomorphisms arises which acts canonically on phase space as two independent Virasoro symmetries. The gauge group turns out to be composed of so-called ``proper diffeomorphisms which approach the identity at infinity fast enough. However, it is sometimes far from evident to identify where BH boundary conditions enter in the path integral, and much more difficult to see how the improper diffeomorphisms are left out of the gauge group. In particular, in the metric formulation, Giombi, Maloney and Yin obtained the one-loop partition function around thermal AdS3 resorting to the heat kernel method to compute the determinants coming from the path integral. Here we identify how BH boundary conditions follow naturally from the usual requirement of square-integrability of the metric perturbations. Also, and equally relevant, we clarify how the quotient by only proper diffeomorphisms is implemented, promoting the improper diffeomorphisms to symmetries in the path integral. Our strategy is general enough to apply to other approaches where square integrability is assumed. Finally, we show that square integrability implies that the asymptotic symmetries in higher dimensional AdS gravity are just isometries.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.01723

Recommendations

• One-loop partition function, gauge accessibility and spectra in \(\mathrm{AdS}_3\) gravity
• New boundary conditions for \(\mathrm{AdS}_3\)
• On boundary conditions in three-dimensional AdS gravity
• Most general \(\mathrm{AdS}_{3}\) boundary conditions
• Flat/AdS boundary conditions in three dimensional conformal gravity

zbMATH Keywords

BRST quantizationfield theories in lower dimensionsheat kernelmodels of quantum gravity

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Virasoro and related algebras (17B68) Heat kernel (35K08) Eta-invariants, Chern-Simons invariants (58J28) Infinite-dimensional groups and algebras motivated by physics, including Virasoro, Kac-Moody, (W)-algebras and other current algebras and their representations (81R10) Groups and algebras in quantum theory and relations with integrable systems (81R12) Quantization of the gravitational field (83C45) Path integrals in quantum mechanics (81S40)

Cites Work

• Central charges in the canonical realization of asymptotic symmetries: An example from three dimensional gravity
• The large-\(N\) limit of superconformal field theories and supergravity
• On a canonical quantization of 3D anti de Sitter pure gravity
• \(2+1\)-dimensional gravity as an exactly soluble system
• Black hole in three-dimensional spacetime
• On boundary value problems for Einstein metrics
• Asymptotically anti-de Sitter spaces
• Covariant theory of asymptotic symmetries, conservation laws and central charges
• Holographic positive energy theorems in three-dimensional gravity
• Quantum gravity partition functions in three dimensions
• The heat kernel on \(\text{AdS}_3\) and its applications
• Tweaking one-loop determinants in \(\mathrm{AdS}_{3}\)
• Kac-Moody and Virasoro characters from the perturbative Chern-Simons path integral

Cited In (2)

• Velocity Laws for Bound States in Asymptotically AdS Geometries
• One-loop partition function, gauge accessibility and spectra in \(\mathrm{AdS}_3\) gravity

This page was built for publication: Asymptotic boundary conditions and square integrability in the partition function of AdS gravity

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q783976)