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 generalization of Ricci flow to TMG. When the Chern-Simons coupling is small the AdS solution flows to warped AdS by the condensation of the massive graviton mode. When the coupling is large the situation is reversed, and warped AdS flows to AdS. Minisuperspace models are constructed where these flows are studied explicitly.
We construct classical curvature spinors in topologically massive gauge theory and topologically massive gravity, expressed in terms of massive three-particle amplitudes. We show that when the amplitudes double copy, the curvature spinors satisfy the Cotton double copy, the three-dimensional cousin of the Weyl double copy. Furthermore, we show that under certain circumstances the Cotton double copy can be derived via a dimensional reduction of the Weyl double copy.
The combined effects of the Lorentz-symmetry violating Chern-Simons and Ricci-Cotton actions are investigated for the Einstein-Hilbert gravity in the second order formalism modified by higher derivative terms, and their consequences on the spectrum of excitations are analyzed. We follow the lines of previous works and build up an orthonormal basis of operators that splits the fundamental fields according to their individual degrees of freedom. With this new basis, the attainment of the propagators is remarkably simplified and the identification of the physical and unphysical modes gets a new i…
We study conformal gravity in d=2+1, where the Cotton tensor is equated to a--necessarily traceless--matter stress tensor, for us that of the improved scalar field. We first solve this system exactly in the $pp$ wave regime, then show it to be equivalent to topologically massive gravity.
Cotton flow tends to evolve a given initial metric on a three manifold to a conformally flat one. Here we expound upon the earlier work on Cotton flow and study the linearized version of it around a generic initial metric by employing a modified form of the DeTurck trick. We show that the flow around the flat space, as a critical point, reduces to an anisotropic generalization of linearized KdV equation with complex dispersion relations one of which is an unstable mode, rendering the flat space unstable under small perturbations. We also show that Einstein spaces and some conformally flat non-…
The double copy relates quantities in gauge, gravity and related theories. A well-known procedure for relating exact classical solutions is the Weyl double copy in four spacetime dimensions, and a three-dimensional analogue of this -- the Cotton double copy -- has recently been found for topologically massive gauge theory and gravity. In this paper, we use twistor methods to provide a derivation of the position-space Cotton double copy, where this is seen to arise from combining appropriate data in so-called minitwistor space. Our methods rely on a massive generalisation of the Penrose transfo…
We re-derive, compactly, a TMG decoupling theorem: source-free TMG separates into its Einstein and Cotton sectors for spaces with a hypersurface-orthogonal Killing vector, here concretely for circular symmetry. We can then generalize it to include matter, which is necessarily null.
Using the conformally invariant Cotton tensor, we define a geometric flow, the "Cotton flow", which is exclusive to three dimensions. This flow tends to evolve the initial metrics into conformally flat ones, and is somewhat orthogonal to the Yamabe flow, the latter being a flow within a conformal class. We define an entropy functional, and study the flow of nine homogeneous spaces both numerically and analytically. In particular, we show that the arbitrarily deformed homogeneous 3-sphere flows into the round 3-sphere. Two of the nine homogeneous geometries, which are degenerated by the Ricci f…
We argue that gravity theories in AdS4 are holographically dual to either of two three-dimensional CFT's: the usual Dirichlet CFT1 where the fixed graviton acts as a source for the stress-energy tensor, and a dual CFT2 with a fixed dual graviton which acts as a source for a dual stress-energy tensor. The dual stress-energy tensor is shown to be the Cotton tensor of the Dirichlet CFT. The two CFT's are related by a Legendre transformation generated by a gravitational Chern-Simons coupling. This duality is a gravitational version of electric-magnetic duality valid at any radius r, where the reno…
Self-duality in Euclidean gravitational set ups is a tool for finding remarkable geometries in four dimensions. From a holographic perspective, self-duality sets an algebraic relationship between two a priori independent boundary data: the boundary energy-momentum tensor and the boundary Cotton tensor. This relationship, which can be viewed as resulting from a topological mass term for gravity boundary dynamics, survives under the Lorentzian signature and provides a tool for generating exact bulk Einstein spaces carrying, among others, nut charge. In turn, the holographic analysis exhibits per…
We suggest a new spin-4 self-dual model (parity singlet) and a new spin-4 parity doublet in $D=2+1$. They are of higher order in derivatives and are described by a totally symmetric rank-4 tensor without extra auxiliary fields. Despite the higher derivatives they are ghost free. We find gauge invariant field combinations which allow us to show that the canonical structure of the spin-4 (spin-3) models follows the same pattern of its spin-2 (spin-1) counterpart after field redefinitions. For $s=1,2,3,4$, the spin-$s$ self-dual models of order $2s-1$ and the doublet models of order $2s$ can be w…
We consider instanton solutions of Euclidean Horava-Lifshitz gravity in four dimensions satisfying the detailed balance condition. They are described by geometric flows in three dimensions driven by certain combinations of the Cotton and Ricci tensors as well as the cosmological-constant term. The deformation curvature terms can have competing behavior leading to a variety of fixed points. The instantons interpolate between any two fixed points, which are vacua of topologically massive gravity with Lambda > 0, and their action is finite. Special emphasis is placed on configurations with SU(2) …
In this work, we study the higher-derivative massive gravity in $D$-dimensional space-time with the mass term arisen due to a 2-brane embedded in a $4D$ Minkowski spacetime. We consider the effect of a resonance mass term from the DGP braneworld model for the higher-derivative massive gravity. Moreover, we add the gravitational Chern-Simons and Ricci-Cotton terms to this model and evaluate the graviton propagator using a basis of Barnes-Rivers spin projectors. Using the obtained propagator, we proceed with discussing the consistency of the model, writing the dispersion relations, and analyzing…
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…
The general second-order massive field equations for arbitrary positive integer spin in three spacetime dimensions, and their "self-dual" limit to first-order equations, are shown to be equivalent to gauge-invariant higher-derivative field equations. We recover most known equivalences for spins 1 and 2, and find some new ones. In particular, we find a non-unitary massive 3D gravity theory with a 5th order term obtained by contraction of the Ricci and Cotton tensors; this term is part of an N=2 super-invariant that includes the "extended Chern-Simons" term of 3D electrodynamics. We also find a …
In three dimensions, there exist modifications of Einstein's gravity akin to the topologically massive gravity that describe massive gravitons about maximally symmetric backgrounds. These theories are built on the three-dimensional version of the Bach tensor (a curl of the Cotton-York tensor) and its higher derivative generalizations; and they are on-shell consistent without a Lagrangian description based on the metric tensor alone. We give a generic construction of these models, find the spectra and compute the conserved quantities for the Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli black hole.
We find constant scalar curvature Type-N and Type-D solutions in all higher curvature gravity theories with actions of the form f(Ricci) that are built on the Ricci tensor, but not on its derivatives. In our construction, these higher derivative theories inherit some of the previously studied solutions of the cosmological topologically massive gravity and the new massive gravity field equations, once the parameters of the theories are adjusted. Besides the generic higher curvature theory, we have considered in some detail the examples of the quadratic curvature theory, the cubic curvature theo…
We introduce a notion of Ricci flow in generalized geometry, extending a previous definition by Gualtieri on exact Courant algebroids. Special stationary points of the flow are given by solutions to first-order differential equations, the Killing spinor equations, which encompass special holonomy metrics with solutions of the Hull-Strominger system. Our main result investigates a method to produce new solutions of the Ricci flow and the Killing spinor equations. For this, we consider T-duality between possibly topologically distinct torus bundles endowed with Courant structures, and demonstrat…
We elaborate on conformal higher-spin gauge theory in three-dimensional (3D) curved space. For any integer $n>2$ we introduce a conformal spin-$\frac{n}{2}$ gauge field $h_{(n)} =h_{α_1\dots α_n}$ (with $n$ spinor indices) of dimension $(2-n/2)$ and argue that it possesses a Weyl primary descendant $C_{(n)}$ of dimension $(1+n/2)$. The latter proves to be divergenceless and gauge invariant in any conformally flat space. Primary fields $C_{(3)}$ and $C_{(4)}$ coincide with the linearised Cottino and Cotton tensors, respectively. Associated with $C_{(n)}$ is a Chern-Simons-type action that is bo…
In this paper we systematically construct simply transitive homogeneous spacetime solutions of the three-dimensional Minimal Massive Gravity (MMG) model. In addition to those that have analogs in Topologically Massive Gravity, such as warped AdS and pp-waves, there are several solutions genuine to MMG. Among them, there is a stationary Lifshitz metric with the dynamical exponent z=-1 and an anisotropic Lifshitz solution where all coordinates scale differently. Moreover, we identify a homogeneous Kundt type solution at the chiral point of the theory. We also show that in a particular limit of t…
Minimal Massive Gravity (MMG) is an extension of three-dimensional Topologically Massive Gravity that, when formulated about Anti-de Sitter space, accomplishes to solve the tension between bulk and boundary unitarity that other models in three dimensions suffer from. We study this theory at the chiral point, i.e. at the point of the parameter space where one of the central charges of the dual conformal field theory vanishes. We investigate the non-linear regime of the theory, meaning that we study exact solutions to the MMG field equations that are not Einstein manifolds. We exhibit a large cl…
Ricci magnetic geodesic (RMG) motion in a kähler manifold is the analogue of geodesic motion in the presence of a magnetic field proportional to the ricci form. It has been conjectured to model low-energy dynamics of vortex solitons in the presence of a Chern-Simons term, the kähler manifold in question being the $n$-vortex moduli space. This paper presents a detailed study of RMG motion in soliton moduli spaces, focusing on the cases of hyperbolic vortices and spherical $\mathbb{C}P^1$ lumps. It is shown that RMG flow localizes on fixed point sets of groups of holomorphic isometries, but that…
Killing vector fields in three dimensions play important role in the construction of the related spacetime geometry. In this work we show that when a three dimensional geometry admits a Killing vector field then the Ricci tensor of the geometry is determined in terms of the Killing vector field and its scalars. In this way we can generate all products and covariant derivatives at any order of the ricci tensor. Using this property we give ways of solving the field equations of Topologically Massive Gravity (TMG) and New Massive Gravity (NMG) introduced recently. In particular when the scalars o…
We give a novel description of the recently proposed theory of new massive gravity (NMG) in three dimensions. We show that in terms of a Dirac type differential operator acting on the traceless Ricci tensor, the field equations of the theory reduce to the massive Klein-Gordon type equation with a curvature-squared source term and to a constraint equation. Under a certain relation between the source tensor and the traceless Ricci tensor, fulfilled for constant scalar curvature, the field equations of topologically massive gravity (TMG) can be thought of as the "square-root" of the massive Klein…
We construct Kundt solutions of Minimal Massive Gravity theory and show that, similar to Topologically Massive Gravity (TMG), most of them are constant scalar invariant (CSI) spacetimes, that correspond to deformations of round and warped (A)dS. We also find an explicit non-CSI Kundt solution at the merger point. Finally, we give their algebraic classification with respect to the traceless Ricci tensor (Segre classification) and show that their Segre-types match with the types of their counterparts in TMG.
