It is shown that in a quadratic gravity based on Weyl's conformal geometry, not only the Einstein-Hilbert action emerges but also a Weyl gauge field becomes massive in the Weyl gauge condition, $\tilde R = k$, for a Weyl gauge symmetry within the framework of the BRST formalism. We also consider a more general gravitational theory with a scalar field in the Weyl geometry and see that the Einstein-Hilbert action can be induced from spontaneous symmetry breakdown of the Weyl gauge symmetry. Thus, it turns out that Weyl's conformal gravity is quantum mechanically equivalent to Einstein's general relativity plus a massive Weyl gauge field, and the Weyl geometry is free from an infamous ``second clock problem'' in quantum regime.
We consider the (gauged) Weyl gravity action, quadratic in the scalar curvature ($\tilde R$) and in the Weyl tensor ($\tilde C_{μνρσ}$) of the Weyl conformal geometry. In the absence of matter fields, this action has spontaneous breaking in which the Weyl gauge field $ω_μ$ becomes massive (mass $m_ω\sim$ Planck scale) after "eating" the dilaton in the $\tilde R^2$ term, in a Stueckelberg mechanism. As a result, one recovers the Einstein-Hilbert action with a positive cosmological constant and the Proca action for the massive Weyl gauge field $ω_μ$. Below $m_ω$ this field decouples and Weyl geo…
We show how Einstein-Cartan gravity can accommodate both global scale and local scale (Weyl) invariance. To this end, we construct a wide class of models with nonpropagaing torsion and a nonminimally coupled scalar field. In phenomenological applications the scalar field is associated with the Higgs boson. For global scale invariance, an additional field -- dilaton -- is needed to make the theory phenomenologically viable. In the case of the Weyl symmetry, the dilaton is spurious and the theory reduces to a sub-class of one-field models. In both scenarios of scale invariance, we derive an equi…
We analyse in a systematic way the (non-)compact four dimensional Einstein-Weyl spaces equipped with a Bianchi metric. We show that Einstein-Weyl structures with a Class A Bianchi metric have a conformal scalar curvature of constant sign on the manifold. Moreover, we prove that most of them are conformally Einstein or conformally Kähler ; in the non-exact Einstein-Weyl case with a Bianchi metric of the type $VII_0, VIII$ or $IX$, we show that the distance may be taken in a diagonal form and we obtain its explicit 4-parameters expression. This extends our previous analysis, limited to the diago…
A class of time dependent solutions to $(3+1)$ Einstein--Maxwell-dilaton theory with attractive electric force is found from Einstein--Weyl structures in (2+1) dimensions corresponding to dispersionless Kadomtsev--Petviashvili and $SU(\infty)$ Toda equations. These solutions are obtained from time--like Kaluza--Klein reductions of $(3+2)$ solitons.
We construct and study perturbative unitarity (i.e., ghost and tachyon analysis) of a $3+1$-dimensional noncompact Weyl-Einstein-Yang-Mills model. The model describes a local noncompact Weyl's scale plus $SU(N)$ phase invariant Higgs-like field, conformally coupled to a generic Weyl-invariant dynamical background. Here, the Higgs-like sector generates the Weyl's conformal invariance of system. The action does not admit any dimensionful parameter and genuine presence of de Sitter vacuum spontaneously breaks the noncompact gauge symmetry in an analogous manner to the Standard Model Higgs mechani…
We prove that higher dimensional Einstein spacetimes which possess a geodesic, non-degenerate double Weyl aligned null direction (WAND) $\ell$ must additionally possess a second double WAND (thus being of type D) if either: (a) the Weyl tensor obeys $C_{abc[d}\ell_{e]}\ell^c=0$ ($\LeftrightarrowΦ_{ij}=0$, i.e., the Weyl type is II(abd)); (b) $\ell$ is twistfree. Some comments about an extension of the Goldberg-Sachs theorem to six dimensions are also made.
We analyse in a systematic way the four dimensionnal Einstein-Weyl spaces equipped with a diagonal Kähler Bianchi IX metric. In particular, we show that the subclass of Einstein-Weyl structures with a constant conformal scalar curvature is the one with a conformally scalar flat - but not necessarily scalar flat - metric ; we exhibit its 3-parameter distance and Weyl one-form. This extends previous analysis of Pedersen, Swann and Madsen , limited to the scalar flat, antiself-dual case. We also check that, in agreement with a theorem of Derdzinski, the most general conformally Einstein metric in…
We explore four-dimensional Einstein-Weyl gravity and supergravity on anti-de Sitter spacetime. For a specific range of the coupling with appropriate boundary conditions, we show the effective equivalence of the theory with Einstein gravity and AdS supergravity at the quadratic Lagrangian level. Furthermore we show that these equivalences can be promoted to the full nonlinear level. We also show that the similar behavior holds for the generalized Gibbons-Hawking terms. From this we find that the correlation functions in the dual conformal field theory of Einstein-Weyl gravity and supergravity …
We look for four dimensional Einstein-Weyl spaces equipped with a regular Bianchi metric. Using the explicit 4-parameters expression of the distance obtained in a previous work for non-conformally-Einstein Einstein-Weyl structures, we show that only four 1-parameter families of regular metrics exist on orientable manifolds : they are all of Bianchi $IX$ type and conformally Kähler ; moreover, in agreement with general results, they have a positive definite conformal scalar curvature. In a Gauduchon's gauge, they are compact and we obtain their topological invariants. Finally, we compare our re…
By making use of the background field method, the one-loop quantization for Euclidean Einstein-Weyl quadratic gravity model on the de Sitter universe is investigated. Using generalized zeta function regularization, the on-shell and off-shell one-loop effective actions are explicitly obtained and one-loop renormalizability, as well as the corresponding one-loop renormalization group equations, are discussed. The so called critical gravity is also considered.
HyperCR Einstein--Weyl equations in 2+1 dimensions reduce to a pair of quasi-linear PDEs of hydrodynamic type. All solutions to this hydrodynamic system can be in principle constructed from a twistor correspondence, thus establishing the integrability. Simple examples of solutions including the hydrodynamic reductions yield new Einstein--Weyl structures.
We obtain a newly charged BBMB (Bocharova-Bronnikov-Melnikov-Bekenstein) black hole solution from the Einstein-Weyl-Maxwell-conformal (conformally coupled) scalar theory with a positive Weyl coupling parameter $m^2_2$ numerically. This solution has a primary scalar hair, compared to a secondary scalar hair in the charged BBMB black hole solution. The limiting case of $m_2^2\to\infty$ leads to the series form of the charged BBMB black hole solution. However, for $m^2_2<0$, we could not obtain any asymptotically flat black hole solution with scalar hair.
We consider conformally invariant form of the actions in Einstein, Weyl, Einstein-Cartan and Einstein-Cartan-Weyl space in general dimensions($>2$) and investigate the relations among them. In Weyl space, the observational consistency condition for the vector field determining non-metricity of the connection can be obtained from the equation of motion. In Einstein-Cartan space a similar role is played by the vector part of the torsion tensor. We consider the case where the trace part of the torsion is the Kalb-Ramond type of field. In this case, we express conformally invariant action in terms…
We discuss the Kaluza-Klein reduction of spaces with (anti-)self-dual Weyl tensor and point out the emergence of the Einstein-Weyl equations for the reduction from four to three dimensions. As a byproduct we get a simple expression for the gravitational instanton density in terms of the Kaluza-Klein functions.
Recently, it has been pointed out that dimensionless actions in four dimensional curved spacetime possess a symmetry which goes beyond scale invariance but is smaller than full Weyl invariance. This symmetry was dubbed {\it restricted Weyl invariance}. We show that starting with a restricted Weyl invariant action that includes a Higgs sector with no explicit mass, one can generate the Einstein-Hilbert action with cosmological constant and a Higgs mass. The model also contains an extra massless scalar field which couples to the Higgs field (and gravity). If the coupling of this extra scalar fie…
We consider Weyl's conformal gravity coupled to a complex matter field in Weyl geometry. It is shown that a Higgs potential naturally arises from a $\tilde R^2$ term in moving from the Jordan frame to the Einstein frame. A massless Nambu-Goldstone boson, which stems from spontaneous symmetry breakdown of the Weyl gauge invariance, is absorbed into the Weyl gauge field, thereby the gauge field becoming massive. We present a model where the gravitational interaction generates a Higgs potential whose form is a perfect square. Finally, we show that a theory in the Jordan frame is gauge-equivalent …
The Weyl double copy relates vacuum solutions in general relativity to Abelian gauge fields in Minkowski spacetime. In a previous work, we showed how the Weyl double copy can be extended to provide a treatment of external gravitational sources consistent with the classical Kerr-Schild double copy. Using this generalization, here we provide a complete double copy analysis of electrovacuum Petrov type D spacetimes. This includes the first analysis of the charged C-metric, whose single copy interpretation invokes the two-potential formalism of electrodynamics. We also present the first double cop…
We characterize Lorentzian three-dimensional hyper-CR Einstein-Weyl structures in terms of invariants of the associated third order ordinary differential equations.
We show that a class of solutions of minimal supergravity in five dimensions is given by lifts of three--dimensional Einstein--Weyl structures of hyper-CR type. We characterise this class as most general near--horizon limits of supersymmetric solutions to the five--dimensional theory. In particular, we deduce that a compact spatial section of a horizon can only be a Berger sphere, a product metric on $S^1\times S^2$ or a flat three-torus. We then consider the problem of reconstructing all supersymmetric solutions from a given near--horizon geometry. By exploiting the ellipticity of the lineari…
We investigate the evolution of cosmological perturbations during de Sitter inflation in the Einstein-Chern-Simons-Weyl gravity. Primordial massive gravitational waves are composed of one scalar, two vector and four tensor circularly polarized modes. We show that the vector power spectrum decays quickly like a transversely massive vector in the superhorizon limit $z\to 0$. In this limit, the power spectrum coming from massive tensor modes decays quickly, leading to the conventional tensor power spectrum. Also, we find that in the limit of $m^2 \to 0$ (keeping the Weyl-squared term only), the v…
We argue that the Weyl coordinates and the rod-structure employed to construct static axisymmetric solutions in higher dimensional Einstein gravity can be generalized to the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory. As a concrete application of the general formalism, we present numerical evidence for the existence of static black ring solutions in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory in five spacetime dimensions. They approach asymptotically the Minkowski background and are supported against collapse by a conical singularity in the form of a disk. An interesting feature of these solutions is that the Gauss-Bonnet…
We present a new formulation for the canonical approach to conformal (Weyl-squared) gravity and its extension by the Einstein-Hilbert term and a nonminimally coupled scalar field. For this purpose we use a unimodular decomposition of the three-metric and introduce unimodular-conformal canonical variables. The important feature of this choice is that only the scale part of the three-metric and the rescaled trace part of the extrinsic curvature change under a conformal transformation. This significantly simplifies the constraint analysis and manifestly reveals the conformal properties of a theor…
The equations governing anti-self-dual and Einstein-Weyl conformal geometries can be regarded as `master dispersionless systems' in four and three dimensions respectively. Their integrability by twistor methods has been established by Penrose and Hitchin. In this note we present, in specially adapted coordinate systems, explicit forms of the corresponding equations and their Lax pairs. In particular, we demonstrate that any Lorentzian Einstein-Weyl structure is locally given by a solution to the Manakov-Santini system, and we find a system of two coupled third-order scalar PDEs for a general a…
We propose an extension of the BMS group, which we refer to as Weyl BMS or BMSW for short, that includes, besides super-translations, local Weyl rescalings and arbitrary diffeomorphisms of the 2d sphere metric. After generalizing the Barnich-Troessaert bracket, we show that the Noether charges of the BMSW group provide a centerless representation of the BMSW Lie algebra at every cross section of null infinity. This result is tantamount to proving that the flux-balance laws for the Noether charges imply the validity of the asymptotic Einstein's equations at null infinity. The extension requires…
We consider weighted parallel spinors in Lorentzian Weyl geometry in arbitrary dimensions, choosing the weight such that the integrability condition for the existence of such a spinor, implies the geometry to be Einstein-Weyl. We then use techniques developed for the classification of supersymmetric solutions to supergravity theories to characterise those Lorentzian EW geometries that allow for a weighted parallel spinor, calling the resulting geometries supersymmetric. The overall result is that they are either conformally related to ordinary geometries admitting parallel spinors (w.r.t. the …
We consider a Lorentz violating scalar field cosmological model given by the modified Einstein-aether theory defined in Weyl integrable geometry. The existence of exact and analytic solutions is investigated for the case of a spatially flat Friedmann--Lema\^ıtre--Robertson--Walker background space. We show that the theory admits cosmological solutions of special interests. In addition, we prove that the cosmological field equations admit the Lewis invariant as a second conservation law, which indicates the integrability of the field equations.
We show that the horizon geometry for supersymmetric black hole solutions of minimal five-dimensional gauged supergravity is that of a particular Einstein-Cartan-Weyl (ECW) structure in three dimensions, involving the trace and traceless part of both torsion and nonmetricity, and obeying some precise constraints. In the limit of zero cosmological constant, the set of nonlinear partial differential equations characterizing this ECW structure reduces correctly to that of a hyper-CR Einstein-Weyl structure in the Gauduchon gauge, which was shown by Dunajski, Gutowski and Sabra to be the horizon g…
Conformal Weyl and Cotton tensors are dimensionally reduced by a Kaluza-Klein procedure. Explicit formulas are given for reducing from four and three dimensions to three and two dimensions, respectively. When the higher dimensional conformal tensor vanishes because the space is conformallly flat, the lower-dimensional Kaluza-Klein functions satisfy equations that coincide with the Einstein-Weyl equations in three dimensions and kink equations in two dimensions.
We obtain the Schrodinger and general pp-wave solutions with or without the massive vector in Einstein-Weyl supergravity. The vector is an auxiliary field in the off-shell supermultiplet and it acquires a kinetic term in the Weyl-squared super invariant. We study the supersymmetry of these solutions and find that turning on the massive vector has a consequence of breaking all the supersymmetry. The Schrodinger and also the pp-wave solutions with the massive vector turned off on the other hand preserve 1/4 of the supersymmetry.
We explore, in the context of AdS/CFT correspondence, the causality constraints on the Noncritical Einstein-Weyl (NEW) gravity model in five dimensions. The scalar and shear channels are considered as small metric perturbations around an AdS black brane background. Our results show that causality analysis on the propagation of these two channels imposes a new bound on the coupling of the Weyl-squared terms in the NEW gravity. This new bound imposes more stringent restrictions than those of the tachyon-free condition, improving predictive power of the theory.
Thanks to their interpretation as first order correction of General Relativity at high energies, quadratic theories of gravity gained much attention in recent times. Particular attention has been drawn to the Einstein-Weyl theory, where the addition of the squared Weyl tensor to the action opens the possibility of having non-Schwarzschild black holes in the classical spectrum of the theory. Static and spherically symmetric solutions of this theory have been studied and classified in terms of their small scales behaviour; however, a classification of these solutions in terms of the asymptotic g…
We consider two multi-dimensional generalisations of the dispersionless Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (dKP) equation, both allowing for arbitrary dimensionality, and non-linearity. For one of these generalisations, we characterise all solutions which are constant on a central quadric. The quadric ansatz leads to a second order ODE which is equivalent to Painleve I or II for the dKP equation, but fails to pass the Painlevé test in higher dimensions. The second generalisation of the dKP equation leads to a class of Einstein-Weyl structures in an arbitrary dimension, which is characterised by the existe…
We investigate the gravitational backreaction, generated by coupling a general conformal sector to external, classical gravity, as described by a conformal anomaly effective action. We address the issues raised by the regularization of the topological Gauss-Bonnet and Weyl terms in these actions and the use of dimensional regularization (DR). We discuss both their local and nonlocal expressions, as possible IR and UV descriptions of conformal theories, below and above the conformal breaking scale. Our discussion overlaps with several recent studies of dilaton gravities - obtained via a certain…
Spherically symmetric solutions in quasi-local Einstein-Weyl gravity
Abdus Salam Centre for Theoretical Physics, Imperial College London（阿卜杜斯·萨拉姆理论物理中心，伦敦帝国理工学院）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University（查理大学数学与物理学院理论物理研究所）；Institut de Physique Théorique Philippe Meyer, Laboratoire de Physique de l’École normale supérieure (ENS), Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité（菲利普·梅耶理论物理研究所，巴黎高等师范学院物理实验室，PSL大学，法国国家科学研究中心，索邦大学，巴黎西岱大学）
It is shown that the explicit calculation of the Wess-Zumino functional pertaining to the breaking term of the Weyl symmetry for the Einstein-Hilbert action allows to restore the Weyl symmetry by introducing the extra dilaton field as Goldstone field. Adding the Wess-Zumino counter-term to the Einstein-Hilbert action reproduces the usual Weyl invariant action used in standard literature. Further consideration might confer to the Einstein-Hilbert action a new status.
We exploit the correspondence between the three-dimensional Lorentzian Einstein-Weyl geometries of the hyper-CR type, and the Veronese webs to show that the former structures are locally given in terms of solutions to the dispersionless Hirota equation. We also demonstrate how to construct hyper-CR Einstein--Weyl structures by Kodaira deformations of the flat twistor space $T\CP^1$, and how to recover the pencil of Poisson structures in five dimensions illustrating the method by an example of the Veronese web on the Heisenberg group.
A longstanding open problem in mathematical physics has been that of finding an action principle for the Einstein-Weyl (EW) equations. In this paper, we present for the first time such an action principle in three dimensions in which the Weyl vector is not exact. More precisely, our model contains, in addition to the Weyl nonmetricity, a traceless part. If the latter is (consistently) set to zero, the equations of motion boil down to the EW equations. In particular, we consider a metric affine $f(R)$ gravity action plus additional terms involving Lagrange multipliers and gravitational Chern-Si…
We study black hole solutions in extended gravities with higher-order curvature terms, including conformal and Einstein-Weyl gravities. In addition to the usual AdS vacuum, the theories admit Lifshitz and Schrödinger vacua. The AdS black hole in conformal gravity contains an additional parameter over and above the mass, which may be interpreted as a massive spin-2 hair. By considering the first law of thermodynamics, we find that it is necessary to introduce an associated additional intensive/extensive pair of thermodynamic quantities. We also obtain new Liftshitz black holes in conformal grav…
This paper is an extended and more detailed version of arXiv:0812.0533. We tackle the problem of constructing explicit examples of topological cocycles of Roberts' net cohomology, as defined abstractly by Brunetti and Ruzzi. We consider the simple case of massive bosonic quantum field theory on the two dimensional Einstein cylinder. After deriving some crucial results of the algebraic framework of quantization, we address the problem of the construction of the topological cocycles. All constructed cocycles lead to unitarily equivalent representations of the fundamental group of the circle (see…
We construct N=1 supersymmetrisations of some recently-proposed theories of critical gravity, conformal gravity, and extensions of critical gravity in four dimensions. The total action consists of the sum of three separately off-shell supersymmetric actions containing Einstein gravity, a cosmological term and the square of the Weyl tensor. For generic choices of the coefficients for these terms, the excitations of the resulting theory around an AdS_4 background describe massive spin-2 and massless spin-2 modes coming from the metric; massive spin-1 modes coming from a vector field in the theor…
We discuss the cosmological evolution of the Weyl conformal geometry and its associated Weyl quadratic gravity. The Einstein gravity (with a positive cosmological constant) is recovered in the spontaneously broken phase of Weyl gravity; this happens after the Weyl gauge field ($ω_μ$) of scale symmetry, that is part of the Weyl geometry, becomes massive by Stueckelberg mechanism and then decouples. This breaking is a natural result of the cosmological evolution of Weyl geometry, in the absence of matter. Of particular interest in the analysis is the special limiting case of Weyl integrable geom…
We study a class of higher dimensional warped Einstein spacetimes with one extra dimension. These were originally identified by Brinkmann as those Einstein spacetimes that can be mapped conformally on other Einstein spacetimes, and have subsequently appeared in various contexts to describe, e.g., different braneworld models or warped black strings. After clarifying the relation between the general Brinkmann metric and other more specific coordinate systems, we analyze the algebraic type of the Weyl tensor of the solutions. In particular, we describe the relation between Weyl aligned null direc…
A computer assisted existence proof for a non-Schwarzschild black hole in Einstein--Weyl gravity
National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences（国家理论与计算科学研究所）；Mandelstam Institute for Theoretical Physics, School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand（威特沃特斯兰德大学物理学院曼德尔斯坦理论物理研究所）
The aim of this note is to unveil a striking equivalence between the one-loop divergences in 7D Einstein and 6D Conformal Gravities. The particular combination of 6D pointwise Weyl invariants of the 6D Conformal Gravity corresponds to that of Branson's Q-curvature and can be written solely in terms of the Ricci tensor and its covariant derivatives. The quadratic metric fluctuations of this action, 6D Weyl graviton, are endowed with a sixth-order kinetic operator that happens to factorize on a 6D Einstein background into product of three shifted Lichnerowicz Laplacians. We exploit this feature …
