(Super-)Gravities of a different sort

Abstract

We review the often forgotten fact that gravitation theories invariant under local de Sitter, anti-de Sitter or Poincare transformations can be constructed in all odd dimensions. These theories belong to the Chern-Simons family and are particular cases of the so-called Lovelock gravities, constructed as the dimensional continuations of the lower dimensional Euler classes. The supersymmetric extensions of these theories exist for the AdS and Poincare groups, and the fields are components of a single connection for the corresponding Lie algebras. In 11 dimensions these supersymmetric theories are gauge theories for the osp(1|32) and the M algebra, respectively. The relation between these new supergravities and the standard theories, as well as some of their dynamical features are also discussed.

12 pages, jpconf.cls, prepared for the Fourth Meeting on Constrained Dynamics and Quantum Gravity, Sardinia, Italy, 2-16 September 2005

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Expansions of algebras and superalgebras and some applications
• Eleven-Dimensional Gauge Theory for the M Algebra as an Abelian Semigroup Expansion of osp(32|1)
• Minimal AdS-Lorentz supergravity in three-dimensions
• Sources for Chern-Simons theories
• Cartan geometry of spacetimes with a nonconstant cosmological function $\Lambda$
• Geometry and stability of spinning branes in AdS gravity
• Naked Singularities, Topological Defects and Brane Couplings
• Local supersymmetric extensions of the Poincare and AdS invariant gravity
• Semigroup Expansion and M-Supergravity in Eleven Dimensions