Consistent boundary conditions for cosmological topologically massive gravity at the chiral point
Daniel Grumiller, Niklas Johansson
备注:
6 pages, v4: included consequences of erratum 0910.1706 in (14), (16) and added new Refs, v5: corrected e-print number in Ref. [18] v6: Corrected, again, typos in Eqs. (10) and (11) that were removed in v3, but mysteriously reappeared in v4 and v5
We show that cosmological topologically massive gravity at the chiral point allows not only Brown-Henneaux boundary conditions as consistent boundary conditions, but slightly more general ones which encompass the logarithmic primary found in 0805.2610 as well as all its descendants.
At a critical ``chiral'' coupling, topologically massive gravity with a negative cosmological constant exhibits several unusual features, including the emergence of a new logarithmic branch of solutions and a linearization instability for certain boundary conditions. I show that at this coupling, the linearized theory may be parametrized by a free scalar field at the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound, and use this description to investigate these features.
Wolfgang Kummer was a pioneer of two-dimensional gravity and a strong advocate of the first order formulation in terms of Cartan variables. In the present work we apply Wolfgang Kummer's philosophy, the `Vienna School approach', to a specific three-dimensional model of gravity, cosmological topologically massive gravity at the chiral point. Exploiting a new Chern-Simons representation we perform a canonical analysis. The dimension of the physical phase space is two per point, and thus the theory exhibits a local physical degree of freedom, the topologically massive graviton.
We compute the tree-level scattering amplitude between two covariantly conserved sources in generic Cosmological Topologically Massive Gravity augmented with a Fierz-Pauli term that has three massive degrees of freedom. We consider the Chiral Gravity limit in the anti-de Sitter space as well as the limit of Flat-Space Chiral Gravity. We show that Chiral Gravity cannot be unitarily deformed with a Fierz-Pauli mass. We calculate the non-relativistic potential energy between two point-like spinning sources. In addition to the expected mass-mass and spin-spin interactions, there are mass-spin inte…
We look at the generalisation of topologically massive gravity (TMG) to higher spins, specifically spin-3. We find a special "chiral" point for the spin-three, analogous to the spin-two example, which actually coincides with the usual spin-two chiral point. But in contrast to usual TMG, there is the presence of a non-trivial trace and its logarithmic partner at the chiral point. The trace modes carry energy opposite in sign to the traceless modes. The logarithmic partner of the traceless mode carries negative energy indicating an instability at the chiral point. We make several comments on the…
We study surface charges on a generic null boundary in three dimensional topological massive gravity (TMG). We construct the solution phase space which involves four independent functions over the two dimensional null boundary. One of these functions corresponds to the massive chiral propagating graviton mode of TMG. The other three correspond to three surface charges of the theory, two of which can always be made integrable, while the last one can become integrable only in the absence of the chiral massive graviton flux through the null boundary. As the null boundary symmetry algebra we obtai…
We discuss the formulation of cosmological topologically massive (simple) supergravity theory in three-dimensional Riemann-Cartan space-times. We use the language of exterior differential forms and the properties of Majorana spinors on 3-dimensional space-times to explicitly demonstrate the local supersymmetry of the action density involved. Coupled field equations that are complete in both of their bosonic and fermionic sectors are derived by a first order variational principle subject to a torsion-constraint imposed by the method of Lagrange multipliers. We compare these field equations with…
We solve the equations of topologically massive gravity with potentially non-vanishing cosmological constant for homogeneous metrics without isotropy. We only reproduce known solutions. We also discuss their homogeneous deformations, possibly with isotropy. We show that de Sitter space and hyperbolic space cannot be infinitesimally homogeneously deformed in TMG. We clarify some of their Segre-Petrov types and discuss the warped de Sitter spacetime.
We consider cosmological topologically massive gravity at the chiral point with positive sign of the Einstein-Hilbert term. We demonstrate the presence of a negative energy bulk mode that grows linearly in time. Unless there are physical reasons to discard this mode, this theory is unstable. To address this issue we prove that the mode is not pure gauge and that its negative energy is time-independent and finite. The isometry generators L_0 and \bar{L}_0 have non-unitary matrix representations like in logarithmic CFT. While the new mode obeys boundary conditions that are slightly weaker than t…
We determine the black hole quasi-normal mode spectrum for tensor perturbations in topologically massive AdS-gravity. In the special case of chiral gravity quasi-normal modes are absent despite of the presence of a horizon. In the process we uncover a simple algebraic structure in the quasi normal modes spectrum: the tower of QNM's consists of descendents of a "chiral highest weight'' QNM which in turn satisfies a first order equation.
We study topologically massive (2+1)-dimensional gravity with a negative cosmological constant. The masses of the linearized curvature excitations about AdS_3 backgrounds are not only shifted from their flat background values but, more surprisingly, split according to chirality. For all finite values of the topological mass, we find a single bulk degree of freedom with positive energy, and exhibit a complete set of normalizable, finite-energy wave packet solutions. This model can also be written as a sum of two higher-derivative SL(2,R) Chern--Simons theories, weighted by the central charges o…
Recently, the asymptotic behaviour of three-dimensional anti-de Sitter gravity with a topological mass term was investigated. Boundary conditions were given that were asymptotically invariant under the two-dimensional conformal group and that included a fall-off of the metric sufficiently slow to consistently allow pp-wave type of solutions. Now, pp-waves can have two different chiralities. Above the chiral point and at the chiral point, however, only one chirality can be considered, namely the chirality that has the milder behaviour at infinity. The other chirality blows up faster than AdS an…
We correct a sign in the first variation of the on-shell action of cosmological topologically massive gravity at the chiral point and present the three equations affected by that sign. While this does not change any of the main conclusions of arXiv:0805.2610, it modifies the finite part of the Brown-York stress tensor. Our corrected Brown-York stress tensor is still finite, conserved and traceless, but no longer coincides with that of global AdS_3. It agrees with results found in recent literature.
We study the topologically massive gravity at the chiral point (chiral gravity) by using the logarithmic conformal field theory. Two new tensor fields of $ψ^{new}$ and $X$ are introduced for a candidate of propagating physical field at the chiral point. However, we show that ($ψ^{new},ψ^L$) form a dipole ghost pair of unphysical fields and $X$ is not a primary. This implies that there is no physically propagating degrees of freedom at the chiral point.
It is shown that in some multi-supergraviton models, the contributions to the effective potential due to a non-trivial topology can be positive, giving rise in this way to a positive cosmological constant, as demanded by cosmological observations.
We construct a Weyl-invariant extension of topologically massive gravity which, remarkably, turns out to include topologically massive electrodynamics, with a Proca mass term, conformally coupled to a scalar field. The action has no dimensionful parameters, therefore, the masses are generated via symmetry breaking either radiatively in flat backgrounds or spontaneously in constant curvature backgrounds. The broken phase of the theory, generically, has a single massive spin-2 and a massive spin-1 excitation. Chiral gravity in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes does not arise as a low ener…
We derive the partition function of an $\mathcal N=2$ chiral multiplet on topologically twisted $H^2\times S^1$. The chiral multiplet is coupled to a background vector multiplet encoding a real mass deformation. We consider an $ H^2\times S^1$ metric containing two parameters: one is the $S^1$ radius, while the other gives a fugacity $q$ for the angular momentum on $H^2$. The computation is carried out by means of supersymmetric localization, which provides a finite answer written in terms of $q$-Pochammer symbols and multiple Zeta functions. Especially, the partition function of normalizable …
A recent paper [arXiv:0801.4566] claims that topologically massive gravity contains only chiral boundary excitations at a particular value of the Chern-Simons coupling. On the other hand, propagating bulk degrees of freedom were found even at the chiral point in [arXiv:0803.3998]. The two references use very different methods, making comparison of their respective claims difficult. In this letter, we use the method of [arXiv:0801.4566] to construct a tower of propagating bulk states satisfying standard AdS boundary conditions. Our states have finite norm, with sign opposite to that of right-mo…
We present the higgsing of three-dimensional N=6 superconformal ABJM type theories coupled to conformal supergravity, so called topologically gauged ABJM theory, thus providing a gravitational extension of previous work on the relation between N M2 and N D2-branes. The resulting N=6 supergravity theory appears at a chiral point similar to that of three-dimensional chiral gravity introduced recently by Li, Song and Strominger, but with the opposite sign for the Ricci scalar term in the lagrangian. We identify the supersymmetry in the broken phase as a particular linear combination of the supers…
For cosmological topologically massive gravity at the chiral point we calculate momentum space 2- and 3-point correlators of operators in the postulated dual CFT on the cylinder. These operators are sourced by the bulk and boundary gravitons. Our correlators are fully consistent with the proposal that cosmological topologically massive gravity at the chiral point is dual to a logarithmic CFT. In the process we give a complete classification of normalizable and non-normalizeable left, right and logarithmic solutions to the linearized equations of motion in global AdS_3.
We present an exact solution in 3-dimensional topologically massive gravity with negative cosmological constant which dynamically interpolates between a past horizon and a chiral AdS pp-wave. Similarly, upon time reversal, one obtains an AdS pp-wave with a future event horizon
We define conserved gravitational charges in -cosmologically extended- topologically massive gravity, exhibit them in surface integral form about their de-Sitter or flat vacua and verify their correctness in terms of two basic types of solution.
We calculate quasinormal modes of a massive scalar perturbation on the topologically massive black hole (CS-BTZ black hole). The chiral point of $μ\ell=1$ corresponds to a newly extremal black hole. We show that there is no quasinormal modes at this point. Accordingly, we prove the unitarity of the CS-BTZ black hole at the chiral point.
The solution of topologically massive gravity with cosmological constant is reduced, for space-times with two commuting Killing vectors, to a special-relativistic dynamical problem. This approach is applied to the construction of a class of exact sourceless, horizonless solutions asymptotic to the BTZ extreme black holes.
I review how "classical SUGRA" embeddability establishes positive energy E for D=3 topologically massive gravity (TMG), with or without a cosmological term, a procedure familiar from D=4 Einstein gravity (GR). It also provides explicit expressions for E. In contrast to GR, E is not manifestly positive, due to the peculiar two-term nature of TMG.
We calculate the running of the three coupling constants in cosmological, topologically massive 3d gravity. We find that ν, the dimensionless coefficient of the Chern-Simons term, has vanishing beta function. The flow of the cosmological constant and Newton's constant depends on ν, and for any positive νthere exist both a trivial and a nontrivial fixed point.
We calculate the one loop partition function for topologically massive higher spin gravity (TMHSG) for arbitrary spin by taking the spin-3 TMHSG action constructed in arXiv:1107.0915 and subsequently generalising it for an arbitrary spin. We find that the final result can be put into a product form which cannot be holomorphically factorized giving strong evidence that the topologically massive higher spin gravity is dual to a high spin extension of logarithmic CFT rather than a chiral one.
We calculate the free energy from the on-shell action for topologically massive gravity with negative and vanishing cosmological constant, thereby providing a first principles derivation of the free energy of Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black holes and flat space cosmologies. We summarize related recent checks of flat space holography.
We analyze (2+1)-dimensional gravity with a Chern--Simons term and a negative cosmological constant, primarily at the weak field level. The full theory is expressible as the sum of two higher derivative SL(2,R) "vector" Chern-Simons terms, while the physical bulk degrees of freedom correspond to a single massive scalar field, just as for Lambda=0. The interplay of Lambda and the mass parameter mu can be studied, and any physical mass--including the conformal value with null propagation--is accessible by tuning mu. The single bulk mode yields a complete set of normalizable positive energy wave …
Three-dimensional warped anti-de Sitter space in topologically massive gravity with a negative cosmological constant has been proposed to be holographically dual to a two-dimensional conformal field theory. We extend this proposal to both positive and vanishing values of the cosmological constant where stretched warped anti-de Sitter space is found to be a solution. For positive cosmological constant, another class of warped solutions is obtained by a spacelike (timelike) line fibration over Lorentzian (Euclidean) two-dimensional de Sitter space. These solutions exhibit a cosmological horizon …
We provide the first evidence for a holographic correspondence between a gravitational theory in flat space and a specific unitary field theory in one dimension lower. The gravitational theory is a flat-space limit of topologically massive gravity in three dimensions at Chern-Simons level k=1. The field theory is a chiral two-dimensional conformal field theory with central charge c=24.
There is chiral like symmetry for 4-component massless fermion in (2+1)-dimensional gauge theory.Since QED$_{3}$ with Chern-Simons term contains vortex solution for vector potential,one may expect vortex driven phase transition as Kosterlitz-Thouless type where chiral condensate is washed away at zero temperature.To study this possibility,we evaluate the fermion propagator by Dyson-Schwinger equation numerically and spectral function analytically in the Landau gauge.For quenched case we adopt Ball-Chiu vertex to keep gauge invariance of the results.The critical value of topological mass,above …
We construct background-independent Noether charges in Topologically Massive Gravity with negative cosmological constant using its first-order formulation. The procedure is carried out by keeping track of the surface terms in the variation of the action, regardless the value of the gravitational Chern-Simons coupling $μ$. In particular, this method provides a definition of conserved quantities for solutions at the chiral point $μl = 1$ ($l$ is the AdS radius) that contain logarithmic terms (Log Gravity). It is also shown that the charge formula gives a finite result for warped AdS black holes …
We extend topologically massive electrodynamics, both by adding a higher derivative action to cast the entire three-term model in Chern-Simons (CS) form, and by embedding it in an AdS background. It can then be written as the sum of two CS terms, one of which vanishes at the "chiral" point, in analogy with its gravitational topologically massive counterpart. Separately we treat pure CS electrodynamics plus Einstein gravity interacting with point sources. The gravity/vector field equations decouple; their solutions are the familiar exterior "conical" metric and vector potentials.
We compute the one-loop beta functions of the cosmological constant, Newton's constant and the topological mass in topologically massive supergravity in three dimensions. We use a variant of the proper time method supplemented by a simple choice of cutoff function. We find that the dimensionless coefficient of the Chern-Simons term, $ν$, has vanishing beta function. The flow of the cosmological constant and Newton's constant depends on $ν$; we study analytically the structure of the flow and its fixed points in the limits of small and large $ν$.
We explicitly calculate the one-loop effective potential for the supersymmetric topologically massive gauge theory in four dimensions, where the chiral scalar superfield is directly coupled to the field strength for the gauge spinor superfield.
We consider (4+1)-dimensional topologically massive tensor gauge theory. This theory is an analog of the (2+1)-dimensional topologically massive Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory. If the space has a boundary, we find that a (3+1)-dimensional gapless theory appears at the boundary. This gapless theory is a chiral version of the (3+1)-dimensional $φ$ theory. This gapless theory is protected by the anomaly inflow mechanism of subsystem symmetry. We also consider the corner of our topologically massive tensor gauge theory, and find that an infinite number of (1+1)-dimensional chiral bosons appear at the…
AdS3 vacua of topologically massive gravity (TMG) have been shown to be perturbatively unstable for all values of the coupling constant except the chiral point μl=1. We study the possibility that the warped vacua of TMG, which exist for all values of μ, are stable under linearized perturbations. In this paper, we show that spacelike warped AdS3 vacua with Compere-Detournay boundary conditions are indeed stable in the range μl > 3. This is precisely the range in which black hole solutions arise as discrete identifications of the warped AdS3 vacuum. The situation somewhat resembles chiral gravit…
We set up the AdS/CFT correspondence for topologically massive gravity (TMG) in three dimensions. The first step in this procedure is to determine the appropriate fall off conditions at infinity. These cannot be fixed a priori as they depend on the bulk theory under consideration and are derived by solving asymptotically the non-linear field equations. We discuss in detail the asymptotic structure of the field equations for TMG, showing that it contains leading and subleading logarithms, determine the map between bulk fields and CFT operators, obtain the appropriate counterterms needed for hol…
We study the linearized approximation of N=1 topologically massive supergravity around AdS3. Linearized gravitino fields are explicitly constructed. For appropriate boundary conditions, the conserved charges demonstrate chiral behavior, so that chiral gravity can be consistently extended to chiral supergravity.
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.
We consider a realization of the Galilean conformal algebra (GCA) in two dimensional space-time on the AdS boundary of a particular three dimensional gravity theory, the so-called cosmological topologically massive gravity (CTMG), which includes the gravitational Chern-Simons term and the negative cosmological constant. The infinite dimensional GCA in two dimensions is obtained from the Virasoro algebra for the relativistic CFT by taking a scaling limit $t\to t$, $x\toεx$ with $ε\to 0$. The parent relativistic CFT should have left and right central charges of order $\mathcal{O}(1/ε)$ but oppos…
In a spacetime with nonvanishing torsion there can occur topologically stable configurations associated with the frame bundle which are independent of the curvature. The relevant topological invariants are integrals of local scalar densities first discussed by Nieh and Yan (N-Y). In four dimensions, the N-Y form $N= (T^a \wedge T_a - R_{ab} \wedge e^a \wedge e^b)$ is the only closed 4-form invariant under local Lorentz rotations associated with the torsion of the manifold. The integral of $N$ over a compact D-dimensional (Euclidean) manifold is shown to be a topological invariant related to th…
Cosmological solutions with a homogeneous Yang-Mills field which oscillates and passes between topologically distinct vacua are discussed. These solutions are used to model the collapsing Bartnik-McKinnon gravitational sphaleron and the associated anomalous production of fermions. The Dirac equation is analyzed in these backgrounds. It is shown explicitly that a fermion energy level crosses from the negative to positive energy spectrum as the gauge field evolves between the topologically distinct vacua. The cosmological solutions are also generalized to include an axion field.
The asymptotic solutions of cosmological topologically massive gravity (TMG) are analyzed for values of the mass parameter in the range $μ\geq1$. At non-chiral values, a new term in the Fefferman-Graham expansion is needed to capture the bulk degree of freedom. The CDWW modes provide a basis for the pure non-Einstein solutions at all $μ$, with nonlinear corrections appearing at higher order in the expansion.
We analyze the asymptotic solutions of Chiral Gravity (Topologically Massive Gravity at μl = 1 with Brown-Henneaux boundary conditions) focusing on non-Einstein metrics. A class of such solutions admits curvature singularities in the interior which are reflected as singularities or infinite bulk energy of the corresponding linear solutions. A non-linear solution is found exactly. The back-reaction induces a repulsion of geodesics and a shielding of the singularity by an event horizon but also introduces closed timelike curves.
We study exact solutions of three-dimensional gravity with a cosmological constant and a gravitational Chern-Simons term: the theory known as topologically massive gravity. After reviewing the algebraic classification, we show that if a solution has curvature of algebraic type D, then it is biaxially squashed AdS_3. Applying the classification, we provide a comprehensive review of the literature, showing that most known solutions are locally equivalent to biaxially squashed AdS_3 or to AdS pp-waves.
We perform a detailed analysis of the asymptotic behavior of a multifield cosmological model with phantom terms. Specifically, we consider the Chiral-Phantom model consisting of two scalar fields with a mixed kinetic term, while one scalar field has negative kinetic energy, that is, it has phantom properties. We show that the Hubble function can change sign, and we study the global evolution of the field equation in the finite and infinity regions with the use of Poincaré variables. We find that in the Chiral-Phantom model the limit of the quintessence scalar field is recovered while the cosmo…
We consider Topologically Massive Gravity (TMG), which is three dimensional general relativity with a cosmological constant and a gravitational Chern-Simons term. When the cosmological constant is negative the theory has two potential vacuum solutions: Anti-de Sitter space and Warped Anti-de Sitter space. The theory also contains a massive graviton state which renders these solutions unstable for certain values of the parameters and boundary conditions. We study the decay of these solutions due to the condensation of the massive graviton mode using Ricci-Cotton flow, which is the appropriate g…
In this work we provide a link between a nearly vanishing cosmological constant and chiral symmetry. This is accomplished with a modification of General Relativity coupled to a topological field theory, namely BF theory by introducing fermions charged under the BF theory gauge group. We find that the cosmological constant sources a chiral anomaly for the fermions, providing a `technical naturalness' explanation for the smallness of the observed cosmological constant. Applied to the early universe, we show that production of fermions during inflation can provide all the dark matter in the unive…
We describe the construction of $2+1$-dimensional toplogically massive adS gravity with ${\mathcal{N}}$-extended supersymmetry in superspace by means of introducing a compensating hypermultiplet for the super-Weyl invariance. For $\mathcal{N}\geq 3$ the scalar multiplet must be on shell and the potential for the scalar compensator is completely determined by the geometry. As a consequence the resulting massive theory has no free parameter for $\mathcal{N}\geq 4$. For $\mathcal{N}= 4$ we show that this leads to topologically massive gravity at the chiral point and construct the corresponding of…
The present manuscript discusses a remarkable phenomenon concerning non-linear and non-integrable field theories in $(3+1)$-dimensions, living at finite density and possessing non-trivial topological charges and non-Abelian internal symmetries (both local and global). With suitable types of ansätze, one can construct infinite-dimensional families of analytic solutions with non-vanishing topological charges (representing the Baryonic number) labelled by both two integers numbers and by free scalar fields in $(1+1)$-dimensions. These exact configurations represent $(3+1)$-dimensional topological…
We present explicit examples of semi-realistic heterotic models with spontaneously broken supersymmetry, which dynamically lead to breaking scales much smaller than $M_{\rm Planck}$ and exponentially small positive values for the cosmological constant. Contrary to field theoretic intuition, we find that the global structure of the effective potential is significantly affected by contributions of massive and non-level matched string states and we investigate the conditions that dynamically ensure a number of desired properties.
We study exact solutions to Cosmological Topologically Massive Gravity (CTMG) coupled to Topologically Massive Electrodynamics (TME) at special values of the coupling constants. For the particular case of the so called chiral point lμ_G=1, vacuum solutions (with vanishing gauge field) are exhibited. These correspond to a one-parameter deformation of GR solutions, and are continuously connected to the extremal Bañados-Teitelboim-Zanelli black hole (BTZ) with bare constants J=-lM. At the chiral point this extremal BTZ turns out to be massless, and thus it can be regarded as a kind of ground stat…
By applying the Faddeev-Jackiw symplectic approach we systematically show that both the local gauge symmetry and the constraint structure of topologically massive gravity with a cosmological constant $Λ$, elegantly encoded in the zero-modes of the symplectic matrix, can be identified. Thereafter, via an appropriate partial gauge-fixing procedure, the time gauge, we calculate the quantization bracket structure (generalized Faddeev-Jackiw brackets) for the dynamic variables and confirm that the number of physical degrees of freedom is one. This approach provides an alternative to explore the dyn…
The Kalmeyer-Laughlin chiral spin liquids (CSL) and the Z2 spin liquids are two of the simplest topologically ordered states. Here I develop a theory of a direct quantum phase transition between them. Each CSL is characterized by an integer n and is topologically equivalent to the 1/2n Laughlin fractional quantum Hall (FQH) state. Depending on the parity of n, the transition from the CSL is either to a "twisted" version of the Z2 spin liquid, the "doubled semion" model, or the conventional Z_2 spin liquid ("toric code"). In the presence of SU(2) spin symmetry, the triplet gap remains open thro…
It is well known that the covariant coupling of fermionic matter to gravity induces a four-fermion interaction. The presence of this term in a homogenous and isotropic space-time results in a BCS-like Hamiltonian and the formation of a chiral condensate with a mass gap. We calculate the gap ($Δ$) via a mean-field approximation for minimally coupled fermionic fields in a FRW background and find that it depends on the scale factor. The calculation also yields a correction to the bare cosmological constant ($Λ_0$), and a non-zero vev for $<ψ^\dagψ>$ which then behaves as a scalar field. Hence we …