Rolling Stiefel manifolds equipped with α\alpha-metrics

We discuss the rolling, without slip and without twist, of Stiefel manifolds equipped with $\alpha$-metrics, from an intrinsic and an extrinsic point of view. We, however, start with a more general perspective, namely by investigating intrinsic rolling of normal naturally reductive homogeneous spaces. This gives evidence why a seemingly straightforward generalization of intrinsic rolling of symmetric spaces to normal naturally reductive homogeneous spaces is not possible, in general. For a given control curve, we derive a system of explicit time-variant ODEs whose solutions describe the desired rolling. These findings are applied to obtain the intrinsic rolling of Stiefel manifolds, which is then extended to an extrinsic one. Moreover, explicit solutions of the kinematic equations are obtained provided that the development curve is the projection of a not necessarily horizontal one-parameter subgroup. In addition, our results are put into perspective with examples of rolling Stiefel manifolds known from the literature.Comment: 48 page

Fuzzy Euclidean wormholes in anti-de Sitter space

This paper is devoted to an investigation of Euclidean wormholes made by fuzzy instantons. We investigate the Euclidean path integral in anti-de Sitter space. In Einstein gravity, we introduce a scalar field with a potential. Because of the analyticity, there is a contribution of complex-valued instantons, so-called fuzzy instantons. If we have a massless scalar field, then we obtain Euclidean wormholes, where the probabilities become smaller and smaller as the size of the throat becomes larger and larger. If we introduce a non-trivial potential, then in order to obtain a non-zero tunneling rate, we need to tune the shape of the potential. With the $O(4)$ symmetry, after the analytic continuation to the Lorentzian time, the wormhole throat should expand to infinity. However, by adding mass, one may obtain an instant wormhole that should eventually collapse to the event horizon. The existence of Euclidean wormholes is related to the stability or unitarity issues of anti-de Sitter space. We are not conclusive yet, but we carefully comment on these physical problems.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure

MacDowell-Mansouri gravity and Cartan geometry

The geometric content of the MacDowell-Mansouri formulation of general relativity is best understood in terms of Cartan geometry. In particular, Cartan geometry gives clear geometric meaning to the MacDowell-Mansouri trick of combining the Levi-Civita connection and coframe field, or soldering form, into a single physical field. The Cartan perspective allows us to view physical spacetime as tangentially approximated by an arbitrary homogeneous "model spacetime", including not only the flat Minkowski model, as is implicitly used in standard general relativity, but also de Sitter, anti de Sitter, or other models. A "Cartan connection" gives a prescription for parallel transport from one "tangent model spacetime" to another, along any path, giving a natural interpretation of the MacDowell-Mansouri connection as "rolling" the model spacetime along physical spacetime. I explain Cartan geometry, and "Cartan gauge theory", in which the gauge field is replaced by a Cartan connection. In particular, I discuss MacDowell-Mansouri gravity, as well as its more recent reformulation in terms of BF theory, in the context of Cartan geometry.Comment: 34 pages, 5 figures. v2: many clarifications, typos correcte