On the Relation Between Quadratic and Linear Curvature Lagrangians in Poincar E Gauge Gravity
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ON THE RELATION BETWEEN QUADRATIC AND LINEAR CURVATURE LAGRANGIANS IN POINCAREGAUGE GRAVITY y Yuri N. Obukhov and Friedrich W. Hehl Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, D{50923 Koln, Germany Abstract We discuss the choice of the Lagrangian in the Poincare gauge theory of gravity. Drawing analogies to earlier de Sitter gauge mo dels, we p oint out the p ossibility of deriving the Einstein-Cartan Lagrangian without cosmological term from a modi ed quadratic curvature invariantof topological typ e. PACS no.: 04.50.+h; 04.20.Cv Typ eset using REVT X E In: New Ideas in the Theory of Fundamental Interactions. Pro ceedings of the Second German{ Polish Symp osium, Zakopane 1995. H-D. Do ebner, M. Paw lowski, R. Raczk a (eds.) to b e published. y On leave from: Department of Theoretical Physics, Moscow State University, 117234 Moscow, Russia. 1 1. INTRODUCTION One of the main achievements of the gauge approachtogravity (see [1] [5] and references therein) lies in a b etter understanding of the deep relations b etween the symmetry groups of spacetime and the nature of the sources of the gravitational eld. At the same time a satisfactory kinematical picture of gauge gravity emerges which sp eci es metric, coframe, and connection as the fundamental gravitational eld variables. In contrast, the dynamical asp ect of the gravitational gauge theory is far less develop ed. In general, the choice of a dynamical scheme, i.e. of the gravitational eld Lagrangian, ranges from the simplest Einstein-Cartan mo del with the Hilb ert typ e Lagrangian (linear in curvature) to the 15-parameter theory with Lagrangian quadratic in torsion and curvature, or even to non-p olynomial mo dels. Some progress was achieved in gauge theories based on the de Sitter group [6] [11] which is, in a sense, the closest semi-simple \relative" of the (non-semi-simple) Poincare group. The main idea b ehind the derivation of the gravitational eld Lagrangian was to consider it as emerging, via a certain sp ontaneous breakdown symmetry mechanism, from a unique invariant, the Chern-Pontryagin or the Euler invariant, e.g., whichhave the meaning of top ological charges. Recently this approach has b een reanalyzed in [12]. In this pap er we rep ort on an attempt to exploit the analogy with the de Sitter gauge approach. In a Riemann-Cartan spacetime, we construct a gravitational Lagrangian by starting from a top ologica l invariant quadratic in curvature, deform it suitably, and arrive, apart from an exact form, at an Einstein-Cartan Lagrangian (linear in curvature). Whereas in the traditional approach of (4.6) the emergence of a cosmological term cannot b e pre- vented, our new metho d, see our main result (4.9), yields a pure Einstein-Cartan Lagrangian without cosmological term. 2 2. TWOFOUR-DIMENSIONAL TOPOLOGICAL INVARIANTS The spacetime whichwe consider ob eys a Riemann-Cartan geometry with orthonormal i coframe # , a metric g = o # # , and a Lorentz connection = = dx . Here i ^ ^ ^ ^ the anholonomic frame indices are denoted by ; ;::: = 0;1;2;3, the holonomic co ordinate indices by i;j;::: =0;1;2;3, and o = diag (1; +1; +1; +1) is the lo cal Minkowski metric (with the help of whichwe raise and lower Greek indices). As it is well known, in four dimensions there are two top ological invariants which are constructed from the (in general, Riemann-Cartan) curvature two-form R = d ^ . These are the Euler invariant de ned by the four-form 1 ? E := R ^ R = R ^ R ; (2.1) 2 and the Chern{Pontryagin invariant describ ed by the four-form P := R ^ R = R ^ R : (2.2) Both forms (2.1) and (2.2) are functionals of the Lorentz connection and of the lo cal metric o . The is the Levi-Civita tensor, and no any other geometrical variables are ? involved. The right star denotes the so-called Lie dual with resp ect to the Lie algebra indices. The Gauss-Bonnet theorem states that an integral of (2.1), with a prop er normalization constant, over a compact manifold without a b oundary describ es its Euler characteristics (the alternating sum of the Betti numb ers which count the simplexes in an arbitrary triangulatio n of the manifold). As for the integral of (2.2), also intro ducing prop er normalization, this represents the familiar \instanton" numb er sp ecialized to the gravitational gauge case. 3. ORDINARY AND TWISTED DEFORMATIONS OF THE CURVATURE Due to the p eculiar prop erties of the Lie algebra of the de Sitter group, a new ob ject app ears within the framework of de Sitter gauge gravity part of the generalized SO(1; 4) or SO(2; 3) curvature, a two-form 3 1 := R # ; with # := # ^ # : (3.1) 2 ` Wemay call it a deformation of the original curvature form by a sp eci c contribution constructed from the translational gauge p otentials, namely the coframe one-forms # . The constant ` with the dimension of length provides the correct dimension. If we recall that the curvature of a Riemann-Cartan spacetime can b e decomp osed into six irreducible pieces (N ) R , with N =1;:::;6, see [4], then we nd that # is prop ortional to the sixth pieces (6) R , the curvature scalar, that is, in (3.1) we subtracted a certain constant scalar curvature piece from the total curvature. Similarly to (3.1), by means of the Ho dge star, we can de ne another deformation 1 1 R := R = R (# ^ # ) : (3.2) 2 2 ` ` Wemay call this a twisted translational deformation, since has the opp osite parity b ehavior compared to R . In fact, the term is prop ortional to a constant pseudoscalar (3) piece R of the curvature or, in comp onents, to R . In other words, in (3.2) a constant [ ] (3) pseudoscalar curvature piece is subtracted out. Note that R vanishes together with the torsion since, by means of the rst Bianchi identity, (3) DT = R ^ # or DT ^ # = R ^ # ^ # = R ^ # ^ # : (3.3) (3) Hence, in a Riemannian spacetime, R vanishes identically. (M ) Using also the irreducible decomp osition of the torsion into three pieces T , with M =1;2;3, the last equation can b e rewritten as (3) R ^ # ^ # = d (# ^ T ) T ^ T (3) (1) (1) (2) (3) = d # ^ T T ^ T 2 T ^ T : (3.4) For a pro of of this equation see [4] Eq.(B.2.19). Before we consider some Lagrangians in the next section, we develop some algebra for the quadratic expressions of # and .We nd: 4 # ^ # = (# ^ # ) ^ # ^ # =0: (3.5) Moreover, for anytwo-form , wehave =. Consequently,we nd # ^ # = ( # ) ^ # = # ^ # = ^ (3.6) or ^ =0: (3.7) The mixed term can b e expanded as follows: 1 # ^ = # ^ # =12: (3.8) 2 Here is, as usually, the volume four-form. If we transform the Ho dge star into the Lie ? star ,wehave ? = # = # : (3.9) Eventually,we take the Lie star of the last equation: ? = # : (3.10) 4. DEFORMED TOPOLOGICAL INVARIANTS AND THE EINSTEIN-CARTAN LAGRANGIAN Let us calculate the Euler and Pontryagin four-forms with the curvature replaced by the deformed curvature. We denote the Lagrangian of the Einstein-Cartan theory by 1 ^ R : (4.1) L := EC 2 2` Later we will meet similar Lagrangians with substituted by # .We do the corresp onding algebra rst: 5 1 # ^ R = R # ^ # 2 1 (3) = R # ^ # ^ # ^ # = R ^ # ^ # ; (4.2) [ ] 2 2 ^ R = 2` L ; (4.3) EC ? ? 2 # ^ R = # ^ R = ^ R = 2` L ; (4.4) EC ? ? (3) ^ R = ^ R = # ^ R = R ^ # ^ # : (4.5) In the formulas (4.2) and (4.5) it is of course p ossible to substitute the rst Bianchi identity (3.4) in order to splitt o a b oundary term, if desireable. For the deformations (3.1) and (3.2) one nds, resp ectively, the following generalized Euler forms: 12 ? ; (4.6) V = ^ = E +4L + Eu EC 4 ` 2 12 0 ? (3) V = R ^R = E + ; (4.7) R ^ # ^ # Eu 2 4 ` ` 1 00 ? (3) V = ^R = E +2L + R ^ # ^ # : (4.8) EC Eu 2 ` It is interesting to note that the translational Chern{Simons term # ^ T [13], via (3.4), ? app ears as b oundary term in (4.7) and (4.8). The other mixed term, R ^ ,isthe same as that in (4.8), since the Lie star can b e moved to R . Three more generalized top ological Lagrangians are de ned according to the Chern- Pontryagin pattern as follows: V = R ^R = P +4L ; (4.9) Po EC 2 0 (3) = ^ = P V R ^ # ^ # ; (4.10) Po 2 ` 1 12 00 (3) = ^R = P +2L V : (4.11) R ^ # ^ # + EC Po 2 4 ` ` As we can see, b oth deformed curvatures, (3.1) and (3.2), generate the Einstein-Cartan Lagrangian (4.1) from the top ological typ e invariants, since the variational derivatives of E and P are identically zero. In the case of one should use the Euler typ e form (4.6), while for R the Chern-Pontryagin typ e invariant (4.9) suggests itself. Actually, the case 6 (4.6) was studied in the work of MacDowell and Mansouri [6] (see also [7] [12]). The 4 problem of this de Sitter gauge approachwas a very large cosmological constant 1=` which is generated simultaneously with the Einstein-Cartan Lagrangian. To the b est of our knowledge, the p ossibili ty (4.9) of using the twisted deformation of the curvature was not rep orted in the literature, even if Mielke [14] had somewhat related thoughts, see his Eq.(9.8). A nice improvement of the usual de Sitter result is then the absence of the cosmological term in (4.9).