Conserved charges for gravity with locally anti-de sitter asymptotics

An Alternative Study about the Geometry and the First Law of Thermodynamics for AdS Lovelock Gravity, Using the Definition of Conserved Charges

In this work, we introduce an extension of the study of the first law of thermodynamics of black holes based on the geometry of the extended phase space for AdS Lovelock gravities, which includes changes in scales. As expected, the result obtained coincides with the previously known four-dimensional case. For higher dimensions, the result is the rise of two new contributions to the first law of thermodynamics. The first term corresponds to corrections of the usual definition of thermodynamic volumes at the horizon due to the presence of the higher curvature terms. The second term arises in odd dimensions, comes from the asymptotic region, and corresponds to a scale transformation of the form ∝δ^ln(l/ℓ), with l the AdS radius and ℓ a parameter. A particularly interesting case corresponds to the Chern Simons gravity where the change scale does not generate a contribution at the asymptotic region, likely due to the Chern Simons AdS local symmetry.

On the Geometric Approach to the Boundary Problem in Supergravity

We review the geometric superspace approach to the boundary problem in supergravity, retracing the geometric construction of four-dimensional supergravity Lagrangians in the presence of a non-trivial boundary of spacetime. We first focus on pure N=1 and N=2 theories with negative cosmological constant. Here, the supersymmetry invariance of the action requires the addition of topological (boundary) contributions which generalize at the supersymmetric level the Euler-Gauss-Bonnet term. Moreover, one finds that the boundary values of the super field-strengths are dynamically fixed to constant values, corresponding to the vanishing of the OSp(N|4)-covariant supercurvatures at the boundary. We then consider the case of vanishing cosmological constant where, in the presence of a non-trivial boundary, the inclusion of boundary terms involving additional fields, which behave as auxiliary fields for the bulk theory, allows to restore supersymmetry. In all the cases listed above, the full, supersymmetric Lagrangian can be recast in a MacDowell-Mansouri(-like) form. We then report on the application of the results to specific problems regarding cases where the boundary is located asymptotically, relevant for a holographic analysis.

Off-Shell Noether Currents and Potentials for First-Order General Relativity

We report off-shell Noether currents obtained from off-shell Noether potentials for first-order general relativity described by n-dimensional Palatini and Holst Lagrangians including the cosmological constant. These off-shell currents and potentials are achieved by using the corresponding Lagrangian and the off-shell Noether identities satisfied by diffeomorphisms generated by arbitrary vector fields, local SO(n) or SO(n−1,1) transformations, ‘improved diffeomorphisms’, and the ‘generalization of local translations’ of the orthonormal frame and the connection. A remarkable aspect of our approach is that we do not use Noether’s theorem in its direct form. By construction, the currents are off-shell conserved and lead naturally to the definition of off-shell Noether charges. We also study what we call the ‘half off-shell’ case for both Palatini and Holst Lagrangians. In particular, we find that the resulting diffeomorphism and local SO(3,1) or SO(4) off-shell Noether currents and potentials for the Holst Lagrangian generically depend on the Immirzi parameter, which holds even in the ‘half off-shell’ and on-shell cases. We also study Killing vector fields in the ‘half off-shell’ and on-shell cases. The current theoretical framework is illustrated for the ‘half off-shell’ case in static spherically symmetric and Friedmann–Lemaitre–Robertson–Walker spacetimes in four dimensions.

Asymptotic Gravitational Charges

We present a method for finding, in principle, all asymptotic gravitational charges. The basic idea is that one must consider all possible contributions to the action that do not affect the equations of motion for the theory of interest; such terms include topological terms. As a result we observe that the first order formalism is best suited to an analysis of asymptotic charges. In particular, this method can be used to provide a Hamiltonian derivation of recently found dual charges.

Quasilocal conserved charges in a covariant theory of gravity

In any generally covariant theory of gravity, we show the relationship between the linearized asymptotically conserved current and its nonlinear completion through the identically conserved current. Our formulation for conserved charges is based on the Lagrangian description, and so completely covariant. By using this result, we give a prescription to define quasilocal conserved charges in any higher derivative gravity. As applications of our approach, we demonstrate the angular momentum invariance along the radial direction of black holes and reproduce more efficiently the linearized potential on the asymptotic anti-de Sitter space.