Systematics of Boundary Actions in Gauge Theory and Gravity

Abstract

We undertake a general study of the boundary (or edge) modes that arise in gauge and gravitational theories defined on a space with boundary, either asymptotic or at finite distance, focusing on efficient techniques for computing the corresponding boundary action. Such actions capture all the dynamics of the system that are implied by its asymptotic symmetry group, such as correlation functions of the corresponding conserved currents. Working in the covariant phase space formalism, we develop a collection of approaches for isolating the boundary modes and their dynamics, and illustrate with various examples, notably AdS${}_3$ gravity (with and without a gravitational Chern-Simons terms) subject to assorted boundary conditions.

67 pages. v2: references added, typos corrected

References in corpus (9)

• Warped AdS_3 Black Holes
• Black hole mass and angular momentum in topologically massive gravity
• Semi-classical central charge in topologically massive gravity
• Black Hole Entropy in the presence of Chern-Simons Terms
• Boundary conditions for spacelike and timelike warped AdS_3 spaces in topologically massive gravity
• Warped Conformal Field Theory as Lower Spin Gravity
• Geometric actions for three-dimensional gravity
• Covariant Symplectic Structure and Conserved Charges of Topologically Massive Gravity
• Strolling along gauge theory vacua