Symmetric space Cartan connections and gravity in three and four dimensions

DOI10.3842/SIGMA.2009.080zbMATH Open1188.22014arXiv0904.1738MaRDI QIDQ970264FDOQ970264

Derek K. Wise

Publication date: 17 May 2010

Published in: SIGMA. Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Einstein gravity in both 3 and 4 dimensions, as well as some interesting generalizations, can be written as gauge theories in which the connection is a Cartan connection for geometry modeled on a symmetric space. The relevant models in 3 dimensions include Einstein gravity in Chern-Simons form, as well as a new formulation of topologically massive gravity, with arbitrary cosmological constant, as a single constrained Chern-Simons action. In 4 dimensions the main model of interest is MacDowell-Mansouri gravity, generalized to include the Immirzi parameter in a natural way. I formulate these theories in Cartan geometric language, emphasizing also the role played by the symmetric space structure of the model. I also explain how, from the perspective of these Cartan-geometric formulations, both the topological mass in 3d and the Immirzi parameter in 4d are the result of non-simplicity of the Lorentz Lie algebra so(3,1) and its relatives. Finally, I suggest how the language of Cartan geometry provides a guiding principle for elegantly reformulating any 'gauge theory of geometry'.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0904.1738

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zbMATH Keywords

general relativitysymmetric spacesChern-Simons theoryCartan geometrytopologically massive gravityMacDowell-Mansouri gravity

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of Lie groups to the sciences; explicit representations (22E70) Classical or axiomatic geometry and physics (51P05) Applications of global differential geometry to the sciences (53C80) Analogues of general relativity in lower dimensions (83C80) General relativity (83C99)

Cited In (19)

• Lifting general relativity to observer space
• Carrollian manifolds and null infinity: a view from Cartan geometry
• Non-relativistic Maxwell Chern-Simons gravity
• (Re-)inventing the relativistic wheel: gravity, cosets, and spinning objects
• Spacetime and observer space symmetries in the language of Cartan geometry
• General relativity with a positive cosmological constant \(\lambda\) as a gauge theory
• Regge calculus from a new angle
• Holographic correspondence in topological superconductors
• Cartan gravity, matter fields, and the gauge principle
• Teleparallel gravity as a higher gauge theory
• Chern–Simons field theory on the general affine group, 3d-gravity and the extension of Cartan connections
• The reduced phase space of Palatini-Cartan-Holst theory
• Residual Weyl symmetry out of conformal geometry and its BRST structure
• Physical quantities of Reissner-Nordström spacetime with arbitrary function and regularized procedure
• Total conserved charges of Kerr-Newman spacetimes in gravity theory using a Poincaré gauge version of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity
• A review on geometric formulations for classical field theory: the Bonzom–Livine model for gravity
• Curved space-times by crystallization of liquid fiber bundles
• Holst-MacDowell-Mansouri action for (extended) supergravity with boundaries and super Chern-Simons theory
• Bundle geometry of the connection space, covariant Hamiltonian formalism, the problem of boundaries in gauge theories, and the dressing field method

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