General Relativity in dimension $n = p + q$ can be formulated as a gauge theory for the conformal group $SO(p+1,q+1)$, along with an additional field reducing the structure group down to the Poincaré group $ISO(p,q)$. In this paper, we propose a new variational principle for Einstein geometry which realizes this fact. Importantly, as opposed to previous treatments in the literature, our action functional gives first order field equations and does not require supplementary constraints on gauge fields, such as torsion-freeness.
Our approach is based on the "first order formulation" of conformal tractor geometry. Accordingly, it provides a straightforward variational derivation of the tractor version of the Einstein equation. To achieve this, we review the standard theory of tractor geometry with a gauge theory perspective, defining the tractor bundle a priori in terms of an abstract principal bundle and providing an identification with the standard conformal tractor bundle via a dynamical soldering form. This can also be seen as a generalization of the so called Cartan-Palatini formulation of General Relativity in which the "internal" orthogonal group $SO(p,q)$ is extended to an appropriate parabolic subgroup $P\subset SO(p+1,q+1)$ of the conformal group.
Weyl derivatives, Weyl-Lie derivatives and conformal submersions are defined, then used to generalize the Jones-Tod correspondence between selfdual 4-manifolds with symmetry and Einstein-Weyl 3-manifolds with an abelian monopole. In this generalization, the conformal symmetry is replaced by a particular kind of conformal submersion with one dimensional fibres. Special cases are studied in which the conformal submersion is holomorphic, affine, or projective. All scalar-flat Kahler metrics with such a holomorphic conformal submersion, and all four dimensional hypercomplex structures with a compa…
We treat the problem of defining, and characterising in a practical way, an appropriate class of distinguished curves for Poincaré-Einstein manifolds, and other conformally singular geometries. These "generalised geodesics" agree with geodesics away from the conformal singularity set and are shown to satisfy natural "boundary conditions" at points where they meet or cross the metric singularity set. We also characterise when they coincide with conformal circles. In the case of (Poincaré-)Einstein manifolds, we are able to provide a very general theory of first integrals for these distinguished…
Here we treat the problem: given a torsion-free connection do its geodesics, as unparametrised curves, coincide with the geodesics of an Einstein metric? We find projective invariants such that the vanishing of these is necessary for the existence of such a metric, and in generic settings the vanishing of these is also sufficient. We also obtain results for the problem of metrisability (without the Einstein condition): We show that the odd Chern type invariants of an affine connection are projective invariants that obstruct the existence of a projectively related Levi-Civita connection. In add…
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 study four dimensional quantum gravity formulated as a certain conformal field theory at the ultraviolet fixed point, whose dynamics is described by the combined system of Riegert-Wess-Zumino and Weyl actions. Background free nature comes out as quantum diffeomorphism symmetry by quantizing the conformal factor of the metric field nonperturbatively. In this paper, Minkowski background M^4 is employed in practice. The generator of quantum diffeomorphism that forms conformal algebra is constructed. Using it, we study the composite scalar operator that becomes a good conformal field. We find t…
We propose further conformal parametrizations for initial data in some modified Einstein gravity theories. Some of them give rise to conformally covariant systems.
We extend Maldacena's argument, namely, obtaining Einstein gravity from Conformal Gravity, to six dimensional manifolds. The proof relies on a particular combination of conformal (and topological) invariants, which makes manifest the fact that 6D Conformal Gravity admits an Einstein sector. Then, by taking generalized Neumann boundary conditions, the Conformal Gravity action reduces to the renormalized Einstein-AdS action. These restrictions are implied by the vanishing of the traceless Ricci tensor, which is the defining property of any Einstein spacetime. The equivalence between Conformal an…
A discussion is given of the conformal Einstein field equations coupled with matter whose energy-momentum tensor is trace-free. These resulting equations are expressed in terms of a generic Weyl connection. The article shows how in the presence of matter it is possible to construct a conformal gauge which allows to know \emph{a priori} the location of the conformal boundary. In vacuum this gauge reduces to the so-called conformal Gaussian gauge. These ideas are applied to obtain: (i) a new proof of the stability of Einstein-Maxwell de Sitter-like spacetimes; (ii) a proof of the semi-global sta…
The equations of motion of four-dimensional conformal gravity, whose Lagrangian is the square of the Weyl tensor, require that the Bach tensor $E_{μν}= (\nabla^ρ\nabla^σ+ \ft12 R^{ρσ})C_{μρνσ}$ vanishes. Since $E_{μν}$ is zero for any Einstein metric, and any conformal scaling of such a metric, it follows that large classes of solutions in four-dimensional conformal gravity are simply given by metrics that are conformal to Einstein metrics (including Ricci-flat). In fact it becomes more intriguing to find solutions that are {\it not} conformally Einstein. We obtain five new such vacua, which a…
An important problem is to determine under which circumstances a metric on a conformally compact manifold is conformal to a Poincaré--Einstein metric. Such conformal rescalings are in general obstructed by conformal invariants of the boundary hypersurface embedding, the first of which is the trace-free second fundamental form and then, at the next order, the trace-free Fialkow tensor. We show that these tensors are the lowest order examples in a sequence of conformally invariant higher fundamental forms determined by the data of a conformal hypersurface embedding. We give a construction of the…
Necessary and sufficient conditions for a space-time to be conformal to an Einstein space-time are interpreted in terms of curvature restrictions for the corresponding Cartan conformal connection.
A method for consistent quantization of conformal gravity treating conformal symmetry in a very controllable way is presented. First, we discuss local conformal symmetry in the framework of gravitational interactions, where we view it as an example of a general gauge theory. We also present some early attempts at quantization of conformal gravity and use the generalized framework of covariant quantization due to Faddeev and Popov. Some salient issues such as the need for conformal gauge-fixing, an issue with conformal third ghosts, and discontinuities in conformal gravity are studied as well. …
Conformally Einstein anti-self-dual spaces and their generalisations
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge（剑桥大学应用数学与理论物理系）；School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Sheffield（谢菲尔德大学数学与物理科学学院）
We use conformal, but ghostful, Weyl gravity to study its ghost-free, second derivative, partially massless (PM) spin 2 component in presence of Einstein gravity with positive cosmological constant. Specifically, we consider both gravitational- and self- interactions of PM via the fully non-linear factorization of conformal gravity's Bach tensor into Einstein times Schouten operators. We find that extending PM beyond linear order suffers from familiar higher-spin consistency obstructions: it propagates only in Einstein backgrounds, and the conformal gravity route generates only the usual safe,…
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…
In this article, we give nonexistence and nonuniqueness results for the vacuum Einstein conformal constraint equations in the far-from-CMC case and also show that in some cases the equations of the conformal method for positive Yamabe metrics and with TT-tensor $σ$ = 0 have a non-trivial solution, and thus answer a question by D. Maxwell.
The anomalous rescaling for antisymmetric tensor fields, including gauge bosons, and Dirac fermions on Einstein spaces with boundary has been prone to errors and these are corrected here. The explicit calculations lead to some interesting identities that indicate a deeper underlying structure.
We use the embedding of Einstein gravity with cosmological constant into conformal gravity as a basis for using the twistor action for conformal gravity to obtain MHV scattering amplitudes not just for conformal gravity, but also for Einstein gravity on backgrounds with non-zero cosmological constant. The new formulae for the gravitational MHV amplitude with cosmological constant arise by summing Feynman diagrams using the matrix-tree theorem. We show that this formula is well-defined (i.e., is independent of certain gauge choices) and that it non-trivially reproduces Hodges' formula for the M…
We provide a simple derivation of the equivalence between Einstein and Conformal Gravity (CG) with Neumann boundary conditions given by Maldacena. As Einstein spacetimes are Bach flat, a generic solution to CG would contain both Einstein and non-Einstein part. Using this decomposition of the spacetime curvature in the Weyl tensor, makes manifest the equivalence between the two theories, both at the level of the action and the variation of it. As a consequence, we show that the on-shell action for Critical Gravity in four dimensions is given uniquely in terms of the Bach tensor.
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 study Weyl symmetry (local conformal symmetry) in unimodular gravity. It is shown that the Noether currents for both Weyl symmetry and global scale symmetry, identically vanish as in the conformally invariant scalar-tensor gravity. We clearly explain why in the class of conformally invariant gravitational theories, the Noether currents vanish by starting with the conformally invariant scalar-tensor gravity. Moreover, we comment on both classical and quantum-mechanical equivalences among Einstein's general relativity, the conformally invariant scalar-tensor gravity and the Weyl-transverse (W…
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…
We study the three dimensional Einstein gravity conformally coupled to a scalar field. Solutions of this theory are geometries with vanishing scalar curvature. We consider solutions with a constant scalar field which corresponds to an infinite Newton's constant. There is a class of solutions with possible curvature singularities which asymptotic symmetries are given by two copies of the Virasoro algebra. We argue that the central charge of the corresponding CFT is infinite. Furthermore, we construct a family of Schwarzschild solutions which can be conformally mapped to the Martinez-Zanelli sol…
We prove the stability of de Sitter space-time as a solution to the Einstein-Vlasov system with massless particles. The semi-global stability of Minkowski space-time is also addressed. The proof relies on conformal techniques, namely Friedrich's conformal Einstein field equations. We exploit the conformal invariance of the massless Vlasov equation on the cotangent bundle and adapt Kato's local existence theorem for symmetric hyperbolic systems to prove a long enough time of existence for solutions of the evolution system implied by the Vlasov equation and the conformal Einstein field equations…
We show quantitatively that an exact solution of Einstein's conformal gravity can explain very well the galactic rotation curves for a sample of 104 galaxies without need for dark matter or other exotic modification of gravity. The metric is an overall rescaling of the Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetime as required by Weyl conformal invariance, which has to be spontaneously broken, and the velocity of the stars depends only on two universal parameters determined on the base of the observational data.
In this work, we use the global analysis and degree-theoretic methods introduced by Smale to study the existence and multiplicity of solutions of the vacuum Einstein constraint equations given by the conformal method of Lichnerowicz-Choquet-Bruhat-York. In particular this approach gives a new proof of the existence result of Maxwell and Holst-Nagy-Tsogtgerel. We also relate the method to the limit equation of Dahl-Gicquaud-Humbert and the non-existence result of Nguyen.
We discuss conformal issues of pure and extended teleparallel gravity. In particular, we present formulations of conformal transformation in teleparallel gravity. Furthermore, we propose conformal scalar and gauge field theories in teleparallel gravity and study conformal torsion gravity. We explicitly demonstrate that a power-law acceleration (including the $Λ$CDM universe) as well as the de Sitter expansion of the universe can be realized in extended teleparallel gravity with a conformal scalar field, and that pure teleparallel gravity with a conformal scalar field can lead to the $Λ$CDM mod…
We compute asymptotic symmetry algebras of conformal gravity. Due to more general boundary conditions allowed in conformal gravity in comparison to those in Einstein gravity, we can classify the corresponding algebras. The highest algebra for non-trivial boundary conditions is five dimensional and it leads to global geon solution with non-vanishing charges.
Constructs from conformal geometry are important in low dimensional gravity models, while in higher dimensions the higher curvature interactions of Lovelock gravity are similarly prominent. Considering conformal invariance in the context of Lovelock gravity leads to natural, higher-curvature generalizations of the Weyl, Schouten, Cotton and Bach tensors, with properties that straightforwardly extend those of their familiar counterparts. As a first application, we introduce a new set of conformally invariant gravity theories in D=4k dimensions, based on the squares of the higher curvature Weyl …
In a recent paper in EPJC March 2016, Faria has shown that quantum massive conformal gravity is renormalizable but has ghost states. We comment this paper on the aspect of renormalizability.
We consider holography of two pp-wave metrics in conformal gravity, their one point functions, and asymptotic symmetries. One of the metrics is a generalization of the standard pp-waves in Einstein gravity to conformal gravity. The holography of this metric shows that within conformal gravity one can have realised solution which has non-vanishing partially massless response (PMR) tensor even for vanishing subleading term in the Fefferman-Graham expansion (i.e. Neumann boundary conditions), and vice-versa.
In this paper we characterize the source-free Einstein-Maxwell spacetimes which have a trace-free Chevreton tensor. We show that this is equivalent to the Chevreton tensor being of pure-radiation type and that it restricts the spacetimes to Petrov types \textbf{N} or \textbf{O}. We prove that the trace of the Chevreton tensor is related to the Bach tensor and use this to find all Einstein-Maxwell spacetimes with a zero cosmological constant that have a vanishing Bach tensor. Among these spacetimes we then look for those which are conformal to Einstein spaces. We find that the electromagnetic f…
We investigate the evolution of cosmological perturbations generated during de Sitter inflation in the conformal gravity. Primordial gravitational waves are composed of vector and tensor modes. We obtain the constant vector and tensor power spectra which seems to be correct because the conformal gravity is invariant under conformal transformation like the Maxwell kinetic term.
For a conformally-coupled scalar field we obtain the conformally-related Einstein-Langevin equations, using appropriate transformations for all the quantities in the equations between two conformally-related spacetimes. In particular, we analyze the transformations of the influence action, the stress energy tensor, the noise kernel and the dissipation kernel. In due course the fluctuation-dissipation relation is also discussed. The analysis in this paper thereby facilitates a general solution to the Einstein-Langevin equation once the solution of the equation in a simpler, conformally-related …
We discuss conformally flat plane wave solutions of Einstein equations depending on the plane wave phase $ξ=ωτ-{\bf qx}$, where $τ$ is the conformal time. We show that ideal fluid Einstein equations and scalar fields with exponential self-interaction have solutions of this form. We consider in more detail the source depending on $ξ$ with $ω=\vert{\bf q}\vert$ describing models of a massless scalar field, electromagnetic field and relativistic particles with space-time depending mass density. We obtain explicit conformally flat metrics solving Einstein equations with such a source of the energy…
We generalize the Noether current method proposed by Majhi and Padmanabhan recently to $f(R)$ gravity and conformal gravity and analyze the near horizon symmetry of black holes in these models. It is shown that the entropy obtained with Cardy's formula agrees with Wald entropy.
We consider the conformal Einstein equations for massless collisionless gas cosmologies which admit an isotropic singularity. It is shown that the Cauchy problem for these equations is well-posed with data consisting of the limiting particle distribution function at the singularity.
The leitmotif of this paper is the question of whether four- and higher even-dimensional Conformal Gravities do have a Chern-Simons pedigree. We show that Weyl gravity can be obtained as dimensional reduction of a five-dimensional Chern-Simons action for a suitable (gauged-fixed, tractor-like) five-dimensional AdS connection. The gauge-fixing and dimensional reduction program admits a readily generalization to higher dimensions for the case of certain conformal gravities obtained by contractions of the Weyl tensor.
Extending Bekenstein's theorem in order to search exact solutions of Einstein-Maxwell-conformal-scalar equations
National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院国家天文台）；School of Astronomy and Space Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学天文学与空间科学学院）
We consider conformal gravity boundary conditions and outline the highest dimensional non-trivial asymptotic symmetry algebras of conformal gravity. The highest among them is five dimensional and leads to a global geon solution.
We investigate the new massive conformal gravity which is not invariant under conformal transformations, in comparison to the massive conformal gravity. We find five polarization modes of gravitational waves propagating on the Minkowski spacetimes. The stability of Minkowski spacetimes is guaranteed if the mass squared is not negative and the linearized Ricci tenor is employed to describe a massive spin-2 graviton. However, the small Schwarzschild black hole is unstable against the $s$-mode massive graviton perturbations.
The C-metric solution of conformal gravity with a conformally coupled scalar field is presented. The solution belongs to the class of Petrov type D spacetimes and is conformal to the standard AdS C-metric appeared in vacuum Einstein gravity. For all parameter ranges, we identify some of the physically interesting static regions and the corresponding coordinate ranges. The solution may contain a black hole event horizon, an acceleration horizon, either of which may be cut by the conformal infinity or be hidden behind the conformal infinity. Since the model is conformally invariant, we also disc…
The cylindrically-symmetric static vacuum equations of Conformal Gravity are solved for the case of additional boost symmetry along the axis. We present the complete family of solutions which describe the exterior gravitational field of line sources in Conformal Gravity. We also analyze the null geodesics in these spaces.
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 study the theory of Weyl conformal gravity with matter degrees of freedom in a conformally invariant interaction. Specifically, we consider a triplet of scalar fields and SO(3) non-abelian gauge fields, i.e. the Georgi-Glashow model conformally coupled to Weyl gravity. We show that the equations of motion admit solutions spontaneously breaking the conformal symmetry and the gauge symmetry, providing a mechanism for supplying a scale in the theory. The vacuum solution corresponds to anti-de-Sitter space-time, while localized soliton solutions correspond to magnetic monopoles in asymptoticall…
Recently in (Eur. Phys. J. C 76:341, 2016) [arXiv:1604.08706], Myung has suggested that the renormalizability of massive conformal gravity is meaningless unless the massive ghost states of the theory are stable. Here we show that massive conformal gravity can be renormalizable having unstable ghost states.
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 …
We construct a model of conformal gravity with Higgs field. This model has a positive Newton's constant and exhibits a novel symmetry breaking mechanism of gauge symmetries. A possible application to cosmology is briefly mentioned.
We study cosmological tensor perturbations generated during de Sitter inflation in the conformal gravity with mass parameter $m^2=2H^2$. It turns out that tensor power spectrum is scale-invariant.
Since it can describe the rotation curves of galaxies without dark matter and can give rise to accelerated expansion, conformal gravity attracts much attention recently. As a theory of modified gravity, it is important to test conformal gravity with astrophysical observations. Here we constrain conformal gravity with SNIa and Hubble parameter data and investigate whether it suffers from an age problem with the age of APM~08279+5255. We find conformal gravity can accommodate the age of APM~08279+5255 at 3 $σ$ deviation, unlike most of dark energy models which suffer from an age problem.
A large class of solutions of the Einstein-conformal scalar equations in D=2+1 and D=3+1 is identified. They describe the collisions of asymptotic conformal scalar waves and are generated from Einstein-minimally coupled scalar spacetimes via a (generalized) Bekenstein transformation. Particular emphasis is given to the study of the global properties and the singularity structure of the obtained solutions. It is shown, that in the case of the absence of pure gravitational radiation in the initial data, the formation of the final singularity is not only generic, but is even inevitable.
The drift method, introduced by the second author, provides a new formulation of the Einstein constraint equations, either in vacuum or with matter fields. The natural of the geometry underlying this method compensates for its slightly greater analytic complexity over, say, the conformal or conformal thin sandwich methods. We review this theory here and apply it to the study of solutions of the constraint equations with non-constant mean curvature. We show that this method reproduces previously known existence results obtained by other methods, and does better in one important regard. Namely, …
