Reducible first-class constraints, gauge symmetry, and the degrees of freedom of three-dimensional gravity coupled to topological matter

Abstract

We develop a systematic Hamiltonian formulation for a gravitating topological matter system in three-dimensional spacetime, coupling a scalar matter field and a two-form gauge field to first-order Hilbert--Palatini gravity. We perform the Dirac--Bergmann analysis, obtaining the full structure of the constraints, classifying them into first- and second-class ones, and computing their Poisson bracket algebra. Furthermore, we write down the explicit expression for the Hamiltonian generator of gauge symmetries on the full set of canonical variables, containing the exact number of gauge parameters. A mapping of these parameters then shows that the gauge transformations reproduce on-shell the spacetime diffeomorphism and local Poincaré symmetries. The symmetry structure of the coupled model is thereby established on a Cauchy surface without boundary. Our canonical analysis further shows that the first-class constraints obey three reducibility conditions. We trace them back to an off-shell identity of Ricci type and to the redundancy of the gauge parameters carried by the two-form field. In the extended phase-space they close only modulo the second-class sector. Once they are taken into account, the model carries no local degrees of freedom. The fundamental symplectic structure on the reduced phase-space is fixed by the explicit computation of the Dirac brackets. Both these and the Hamiltonian gauge generator are obtained in the extended phase-space, with no canonical variable eliminated beforehand. Finally, we show that on a surface with boundary the improved generator built from the reducible parameters collapses to a single boundary integral, which vanishes identically.

25 pages. v2: title changed; revised and extended, several signs and conventions corrected. Conclusions unchanged