In this article, the Cartan geometric approach toward (extended) supergravity in the presence of boundaries will be discussed. In particular, based on new developments in this field, we will derive the Holst variant of the MacDowell-Mansouri action for $\mathcal{N}=1$ and $\mathcal{N}=2$ pure AdS supergravity in $D=4$ for arbitrary Barbero-Immirzi parameters. This action turns out to play a crucial role in context of boundaries in the framework of supergravity if one imposes supersymmetry invariance at the boundary. For the $\mathcal{N}=2$ case, it follows that this amounts to the introduction of a $θ$-topological term to the Yang-Mills sector which explicitly depends on the Barbero-Immirzi parameter. This shows the close connection between this parameter and the $θ$-ambiguity of gauge theory. We will also discuss the chiral limit of the theory, which turns out to possess some very special properties such as the manifest invariance of the resulting action under an enlarged gauge symmetry. Moreover, we will show that demanding supersymmetry invariance at the boundary yields a unique boundary term corresponding to a super Chern-Simons theory with $\mathrm{OSp}(\mathcal{N}|2)$ gauge group. In this context, we will also derive boundary conditions that couple boundary and bulk degrees of freedom and show equivalence to the results found in the D'Auria-Fré approach in context of the non-chiral theory. These results provide a step towards of quantum description of supersymmetric black holes in the framework of loop quantum gravity.
Strong-weak duality invariance can only be defined for particular sectors of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories. Nevertheless, for full non-Abelian non-supersymmetric theories, dual theories with inverted couplings, have been found. We show that an analogous procedure allows to find the dual action to the gauge theory of gravity constructed by the MacDowell-Mansouri model plus the superposition of a $Θ$ term.
In this work we generalize the MacDowell-Mansouri theory of gravity using strict 2-groups. To achieve this, we construct the categorical generalization of the ISO(4,1) group, which we call the de Sitter 2-group. We then proceed to generalize the MacDowell-Mansouri theory in two different ways. First, as a Yang-Mills-type theory, where the symmetry is explicitly broken to obtain an Einstein-Cartan theory coupled to Kalb-Ramond fields. And second, by using the categorical generalization of the BF theory, called 2-BF theory, which after the addition of some symmetry breaking and constraint terms …
In this bachelor thesis, possible kinetic terms and couplings of standard fields in MacDowell-Mansouri-Stelle-West gravity are studied with some aspects of group theory in mind. Possible obstructions to these couplings are considered and used to make statements about the validity of the theory when coupled to matter. While interactions themselves turn out to be mostly unaffected except for scalar fields, the theory fails at its goal of putting gravity on equal footing with Yang-Mills theories. This happens with the kinetic term for spin-1 gauge fields and spin-0 ones, as one needs auxiliary fi…
In the context of field theory two elements seem to be necessary to search for strong-weak coupling duality. First, a gauge theory formulation and second, supersymmetry. For gravitation these two elements are present in MacDowell-Mansouri supergravity. The search for an "effective duality" in this theory presents technical and conceptual problems that we discuss. Nevertheless, by means of a field theoretical approach, which in the abelian case coincides with $S$-duality, we exhibit a dual theory, with inverted couplings. This results in a supersymmetric non-linear sigma model of the Freedman-T…
The geometric content of the MacDowell-Mansouri formulation of general relativity is best understood in terms of Cartan geometry. In particular, Cartan geometry gives clear geometric meaning to the MacDowell-Mansouri trick of combining the Levi-Civita connection and coframe field, or soldering form, into a single physical field. The Cartan perspective allows us to view physical spacetime as tangentially approximated by an arbitrary homogeneous "model spacetime", including not only the flat Minkowski model, as is implicitly used in standard general relativity, but also de Sitter, anti de Sitter…
Starting with the MacDowell-Mansouri formulation of gravity with a $SO(4,1)$ gauge group, we introduce new parameters into the action to include the non-dynamical Holst term, and the topological Nieh-Yan and Pontryagin classes. Then, we consider the new parameters as fields and analyze the solutions coming from their equations of motion. The new fields introduce torsional contributions to the theory that modify Einstein's equations.
We consider two BF formulations of the theory of gravity with a negative cosmological constant, of Plebanski and of MacDowell-Mansouri. Both give the standard Einstein equations in the bulk but differ in expressions of edge charges. We compute the asymptotic charges explicitly in both theories for AdS-Schwarzschild, AdS-Kerr, and AdS-Taub--NUT solutions. We find that while in the case of the Plebanski theory the charges are divergent, they are finite for MacDowell-Mansouri theory. Furthermore, we show that in the case of the arbitrary asymptotically AdS spacetimes, MacDowell--Mansouri asymptot…
We analyse the behaviour of the MacDowell-Mansouri action with internal symmetry group $\mathrm{SO}(4,1)$ under the covariant Hamiltonian formulation. The field equations, known in this formalism as the De Donder-Weyl equations, are obtained by means of the graded Poisson-Gerstenhaber bracket structure present within the covariant formulation. The decomposition of the internal algebra $\mathfrak{so}(4,1)\simeq\mathfrak{so}(3,1)\oplus\mathbb{R}^{3,1}$ allows the symmetry breaking $\mathrm{SO}(4,1)\to\mathrm{SO}(3,1)$, which reduces the original action to the Palatini action without the topologi…
In this work we present a non-relativistic gravity theory defined in four spacetime dimensions using the MacDowell-Mansouri geometrical formulation. We obtain a Newtonian gravity action which is constructed from the curvature of a Newton-Hooke version of the so-called Newtonian algebra. We show that the non-relativistic gravity theory presented here contains the Poisson equation in presence of a cosmological constant. Moreover we make contact with the Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) approach for gravity by considering a particular ansatz for a given gauge field. We extend our results to a g…
We discuss a possible scale of gravitational origin at around $10$ MeV, or $10^{-12}$ cm, which arises in the MacDowell-Mansouri formalism of gravity due to the topological Gauss-Bonnet term in the action, as pointed out by Bjorken several years ago. A length scale of the same size emerges also in the Kodama solution in gravity, which is known to be closely related to the MacDowell-Mansouri formulation. We particularly draw attention to the intriguing incident that existence of six compact extra dimensions originated from TeV-scale quantum gravity as well points to a length scale of $10^{-12}$…
We present a gauge theory of the super SL(2,C) group. The gauge potential is a connection of the Super SL(2,C) group. A MacDowell-Mansouri type of action is proposed where the action is quadratic in the Super SL(2,C) curvature and depends purely on gauge connection. By breaking the symmetry of the Super SL(2,C) topological gauge theory to SL(2,C), a metric is naturally defined.
An alternative way of introducing the supersymmetric cosmological term in a supergravity theory is presented. We show that the $AdS$-Lorentz superalgebra allows to construct a geometrical formulation of supergravity containing a generalized supersymmetric cosmological constant. The $N=1$, $D=4$ supergravity action is built only from the curvatures of the $AdS$-Lorentz superalgebra and corresponds to a MacDowell-Mansouri like action. The extension to a generalized $AdS$-Lorentz superalgebra is also analyzed.
Thesis provides an analysis of various aspects theory of gravity seen as a deformation of a topological SO(2,3) BF theory. Considered framework, originating from the 70's and known as MacDowell-Mansouri gravity, assures the most general form of action, containing the Einstein-Cartan action with a negative cosmological constant, the Holst term, and the topological Euler, Pontryagin and Nieh-Yan invariants. Main goal was to investigate the presence of Barbero-Immirzi parameter in the context of supergravity, as well as black hole thermodynamics arising from the gravitational Noether charges.
We propose a gauge theory of gravitation. The gauge potential is a connection of the Super SL(2,C) group. A MacDowell-Mansouri type of action is proposed where the action is quadratic in the Super SL(2,C) curvature and depends purely on gauge connection. By breaking the symmetry of the Super SL(2,C) topological gauge theory to SL(2,C), a spinor metric is naturally defined. With an auxiliary anti-commuting spinor field, the theory is reduced to general relativity. The Hamiltonian variables are related to the ones given by Ashtekar. The auxiliary spinor field plays the role of Witten spinor in t…
DESI and Dynamical Dark Energy from Extended Pre-geometric Gravity
Anqing Normal University（安庆师范大学）；Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, School of Mathematics and Physics, Anqing Normal University（安庆师范大学数学与物理学院天文与天体物理研究所）；Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati INFN（INFN弗拉斯科蒂国家实验室）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；CAS Key Laboratory for Researches in Galaxies and Cosmology/Department of Astronomy, School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学天文与空间科学学院天文系星系与宇宙学中国科学院重点实验室）；Al-Farabi Kazakh National University（阿尔法拉比哈萨克国立大学）；Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sez. di Napoli（INFN那不勒斯分部）
