A definition of quasi-local energy in a gravitational field based upon its embedding into flat space is discussed. The outcome is not satisfactory from many points of view.
Torsion gravity is a natural extension to Einstein gravity in the presence of the fermion matter sources. In this paper we adopt Walds covariant method of Noether charge to construct the quasi-local energy of the Einstein-Cartan-fermion system, and find that its explicit expression is formally independent of the coupling constant between torsion and axial current. This seemingly topological nature is unexpected and is reminiscent of similar nature of quantum Hall effect and topological insulator. However, the coupling dependence does enter when evaluating it on-shell, and thus the topological nature is pseudo. Based on the expression of the quasi-local energy, we evaluate it for a particular solution on the entanglement wedge and find the agreement with the holographic relative entropy obtained before. This shows that the equivalence of these two quantities in the Einstein-Cartan-fermion system. Moreover, the quasi-local energy in this case is not always positive definite so that it provides an example of swampland in torsion gravity. Based on the covariant Noether charge, we also derive the nonzero fermion effect on Komar angular momentum. The implication of our results to the tests of torsion gravity in the future gravitational wave astronomy is also discussed.
Dual gravitational charges have been recently computed from the Holst term in tetrad variables using covariant phase space methods. We highlight that they originate from an exact 3-form in the tetrad symplectic potential that has no analogue in metric variables. Hence there exists a choice of the tetrad symplectic potential that sets the dual charges to zero. This observation relies on the ambiguity of the covariant phase space methods. To shed more light on the dual contributions, we use the Kosmann variation to compute (quasi-local) Hamiltonian charges for arbitrary diffeomorphisms. We obtain a formula that illustrates comprehensively why the dual contribution to the Hamiltonian charges: (i) vanishes for exact isometries and asymptotic symmetries at spatial infinity; (ii) persists for asymptotic symmetries at future null infinity, in addition to the usual BMS contribution. Finally, we point out that dual gravitational charges can be equally derived using the Barnich-Brandt prescription based on cohomological methods, and that the same considerations on asymptotic symmetries apply.
We investigate whether the null energy, averaged over some region of spacetime, is bounded below in QFT. First, we use light-sheet quantization to prove a version of the Smeared Null Energy Condition (SNEC) proposed in [1], applicable for free and super-renormalizable QFTs equipped with a UV cutoff. Through an explicit construction of squeezed states, we show that the SNEC bound cannot be improved by smearing on a light-sheet alone. We propose that smearing the null energy over two null directions defines an operator that is bounded below and independent of the UV cutoff, in what we call the Double-Smeared Null Energy Condition, or dSNEC. We indicate schematically how this bound behaves with respect to the smearing lengths and argue that the dSNEC displays a transition when the smearing lengths are comparable to the correlation length.
This thesis is dedicated to the study of quasi-local boundary in quantum gravity in the 3D space-time case. This research takes root in the holographic principle, which conjectures that the geometry and the dynamic of a space-time region can be entirely described by a theory living on the boundary of this given region. The most studied case of this principle is the AdS/CFT correspondence, where the quantum fluctuations of an asymptotically AdS space are described by a conformal field theory living at spatial infinity, invariant under the Virasoro group. The philosophy applied in this thesis differs from the AdS/CFT case. I focus on the case of quasi-local holography, i.e. for a bounded region of space-time with a boundary at a finite distance. The objective is to clarify the bulk-boundary relation in quantum gravity described by the Ponzano-Regge model, defining a model for 3D gravity via a discrete path integral. I present the first perturbative and exact computations of the Ponzano-Regge amplitude on a torus with a 2D boundary state. After the presentation of the general framework for the 3D amplitude in terms of the 2D boundary state, I consider the 2D torus case, with application in the study of the thermodynamics of the BTZ black hole. First, the 2D boundary is described by a coherent spin network state in the semi-classical regime. The stationary phase approximation allows to recover in the asymptotic limit the usual amplitude for 3D quantum gravity as the character of the symmetry of asymptotically flat gravity, the BMS group. Then I introduce a new type of coherent boundary state, which allows an exact evaluation of the amplitude for 3D quantum gravity. I obtain a complex regularization of the BMS character. The possibility of this exact computation suggests the existence of a (quasi)-integrable structure, linked to the symmetries of 3D quantum gravity with 2D finite boundary.
We present a line of research aimed at investigating holographic dualities in the context of three dimensional quantum gravity within finite bounded regions. The bulk quantum geometrodynamics is provided by the Ponzano-Regge state-sum model, which defines 3d quantum gravity as a discrete topological quantum field theory (TQFT). This formulation provides an explicit and detailed definition of the quantum boundary states, which allows a rich correspondence between quantum boundary conditions and boundary theories, thereby leading to holographic dualities between 3d quantum gravity and 2d statistical models as used in condensed matter. After presenting the general framework, we focus on the concrete example of the coherent twisted torus boundary, which allows for a direct comparison with other approaches to 3d/2d holography at asymptotic infinity. We conclude with the most interesting questions to pursue in this framework.