No Arabic abstract
It is possible that relativistic symmetries become deformed in the semiclassical regime of quantum gravity. Mathematically, such deformations lead to the noncommutativity of spacetime geometry and non-vanishing curvature of momentum space. The best studied example is given by the $kappa$-Poincare Hopf algebra, associated with $kappa$-Minkowski space. On the other hand, the curved momentum space is a well-known feature of particles coupled to three-dimensional gravity. The purpose of this thesis was to explore some properties and mutual relations of the above two models. In particular, I study extensively the spectral dimension of $kappa$-Minkowski space. I also present an alternative limit of the Chern-Simons theory describing three-dimensional gravity with particles. Then I discuss the spaces of momenta corresponding to conical defects in higher dimensional spacetimes. Finally, I consider the Fock space construction for the quantum theory of particles in three-dimensional gravity.
We present a three dimensional non-relativistic model of gravity that is invariant under the central extension of the symmetry group that leaves the recently constructed Newtonian gravity action invariant. We show that the model arises from the contraction of a bi-metric model that is the sum of the Einstein gravity in Lorentzian and the Euclidean signatures. We also present the supersymmetric completion of this action which provides one of the very few examples of an action for non-relativistic supergravity.
Gauge symmetries are known to be respected by gravity because gauge charges carry flux lines, but global charges do not carry flux lines and are not conserved by gravitational interaction. For discrete symmetries, they are spontaneously broken in the Universe, forming domain walls. Since the realization of discrete symmetries in the Universe must involve the vacuum expectation values of Higgs fields, a string-like configuration (hair) at the intersection of domain walls in the Higgs vacua can be realized. Therefore, we argue that discrete charges are also respected by gravity.
We show that a recently proposed action for three-dimensional non-relativistic gravity can be obtained by taking the limit of a relativistic Lagrangian that involves the co-adjoint Poincare algebra. We point out the similarity of our construction with the way that three-dimensional Galilei Gravity and Extended Bargmann Gravity can be obtained by taking the limit of a relativistic Lagrangian that involves the Poincare algebra. We extend our results to the AdS case and we will see that there is a chiral decomposition both at the relativistic and non-relativistic level. We comment on possible further generalizations.
In theories with discrete Abelian gauge groups, requiring that black holes be able to lose their charge as they evaporate leads to an upper bound on the product of a charged particles mass and the cutoff scale above which the effective description of the theory breaks down. This suggests that a non-trivial version of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) may also apply to gauge symmetries that are discrete, despite there being no associated massless field, therefore pushing the conjecture beyond the slogan that `gravity is the weakest force. Here, we take a step towards making this expectation more precise by studying $mathbb{Z}_N$ and $mathbb{Z}_2^N$ gauge symmetries realised via theories of spontaneous symmetry breaking. We show that applying the WGC to a dual description of an Abelian Higgs model leads to constraints that allow us to saturate but not violate existing bounds on discrete symmetries based on black hole arguments. In this setting, considering the effect of discrete hair on black holes naturally identifies the cutoff of the effective theory with the scale of spontaneous symmetry breaking, and provides a mechanism through which discrete hair can be lost without modifying the gravitational sector. We explore the possible implications of these arguments for understanding the smallness of the weak scale compared to $M_{Pl}$.
In this paper we use the AdS/CFT correspondence to refine and then establish a set of old conjectures about symmetries in quantum gravity. We first show that any global symmetry, discrete or continuous, in a bulk quantum gravity theory with a CFT dual would lead to an inconsistency in that CFT, and thus that there are no bulk global symmetries in AdS/CFT. We then argue that any long-range bulk gauge symmetry leads to a global symmetry in the boundary CFT, whose consistency requires the existence of bulk dynamical objects which transform in all finite-dimensional irreducible representations of the bulk gauge group. We mostly assume that all internal symmetry groups are compact, but we also give a general condition on CFTs, which we expect to be true quite broadly, which implies this. We extend all of these results to the case of higher-form symmetries. Finally we extend a recently proposed new motivation for the weak gravity conjecture to more general gauge groups, reproducing the convex hull condition of Cheung and Remmen. An essential point, which we dwell on at length, is precisely defining what we mean by gauge and global symmetries in the bulk and boundary. Quantum field theory results we meet while assembling the necessary tools include continuous global symmetries without Noether currents, new perspectives on spontaneous symmetry-breaking and t Hooft anomalies, a new order parameter for confinement which works in the presence of fundamental quarks, a Hamiltonian lattice formulation of gauge theories with arbitrary discrete gauge groups, an extension of the Coleman-Mandula theorem to discrete symmetries, and an improved explanation of the decay $pi^0togamma gamma$ in the standard model of particle physics. We also describe new black hole solutions of the Einstein equation in $d+1$ dimensions with horizon topology $mathbb{T}^ptimes mathbb{S}^{d-p-1}$.