In this note the AKSZ construction is applied to the BFV description of the reduced phase space of the Einstein-Hilbert and of the Palatini--Cartan theories in every space-time dimension greater than two. In the former case one obtains a BV theory for the first-order formulation of Einstein--Hilbert theory, in the latter a BV theory for Palatini--Cartan theory with a partial implementation of the torsion-free condition already on the space of fields. All theories described here are
A new variational principle for General Relativity, based on an action functional $I/(Phi, abla)/$ involving both the metric $Phi/$ and the connection $ abla/$ as independent, emph{unconstrained/} degrees of freedom is presented. The extremals of $I/$ are seen to be pairs $/(Phi, abla)/$ in which $Phi/$ is a Ricci flat metric, and $ abla/$ is the associated Riemannian connection. An application to Kaluzas theory of interacting gravitational and electromagnetic fields is discussed.
An explicit, geometric description of the first-class constraints and their Poisson brackets for gravity in the Palatini-Cartan formalism (in space-time dimension greater than three) is given. The corresponding Batalin- Fradkin-Vilkovisky (BFV) formulation is also developed.
A classic problem in general relativity, long studied by both physicists and philosophers of physics, concerns whether the geodesic principle may be derived from other principles of the theory, or must be posited independently. In a recent paper [Geroch & Weatherall, The Motion of Small Bodies in Space-Time, Comm. Math. Phys. (forthcoming)], Bob Geroch and I have introduced a new approach to this problem, based on a notion we call tracking. In the present paper, I situate the main results of that paper with respect to two other, related approaches, and then make some preliminary remarks on the interpretational significance of the new approach. My main suggestion is that tracking provides the resources for eliminating point particles---a problematic notion in general relativity---from the geodesic principle altogether.
We discuss a general procedure to encode the reduction of the target space geometry into AKSZ sigma models. This is done by considering the AKSZ construction with target the BFV model for constrained graded symplectic manifolds. We investigate the relation between this sigma model and the one with the reduced structure. We also discuss several examples in dimension two and three when the symmetries come from Lie group actions and systematically recover models already proposed in the literature.
We review the AKSZ construction as applied to the topological open membranes and Poisson sigma models. We describe a generalization to open topological p-branes and Nambu-Poisson sigma models.