The constraint algebra of topologically massive AdS gravity

2008/07/31 by S. Carlip, Steven Carlip · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #gr-qc #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2008/10/078

published as JHEP 0810:078,2008 · 18 pages; v2: new section on chirality of boundary theory, some minor clarifications and corrected typos, should roughly agree with version to appear in JHEP

arxiv created 2008/10/13 · openalex publication_date 2008/10/20 · arxiv updated 2010/04/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

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.

Citations

• Quantization of Gauge Systems
• Three-Dimensional Gravity Revisited
• Stability of gravity with a cosmological constant
• 2 + 1 dimensional gravity as an exactly soluble system
• Topologically massive AdS gravity
• Central charges in the canonical realization of asymptotic symmetries: An example from three dimensional gravity
• Canonical analysis of cosmological topologically massive gravity at the chiral point

Cited by

• Topologically massive AdS gravity
• Topologically massive gravity from the outside in
• Cosmological topologically massive gravitons and photons
• Non-Einstein geometries in chiral gravity