9 research outputs found
Spacelike surfaces with free boundary in the Lorentz-Minkowski space
We investigate a variational problem in the Lorentz-Minkowski space \l^3
whose critical points are spacelike surfaces with constant mean curvature and
making constant contact angle with a given support surface along its common
boundary. We show that if the support surface is a pseudosphere, then the
surface is a planar disc or a hyperbolic cap. We also study the problem of
spacelike hypersurfaces with free boundary in the higher dimensional
Lorentz-Minkowski space \l^{n+1}.Comment: 16 pages. Accepted in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Covariant gauge fixing and Kuchar decomposition
The symplectic geometry of a broad class of generally covariant models is
studied. The class is restricted so that the gauge group of the models
coincides with the Bergmann-Komar group and the analysis can focus on the
general covariance. A geometrical definition of gauge fixing at the constraint
manifold is given; it is equivalent to a definition of a background (spacetime)
manifold for each topological sector of a model. Every gauge fixing defines a
decomposition of the constraint manifold into the physical phase space and the
space of embeddings of the Cauchy manifold into the background manifold (Kuchar
decomposition). Extensions of every gauge fixing and the associated Kuchar
decomposition to a neighbourhood of the constraint manifold are shown to exist.Comment: Revtex, 35 pages, no figure
Nonlinear quantum gravity on the constant mean curvature foliation
A new approach to quantum gravity is presented based on a nonlinear
quantization scheme for canonical field theories with an implicitly defined
Hamiltonian. The constant mean curvature foliation is employed to eliminate the
momentum constraints in canonical general relativity. It is, however, argued
that the Hamiltonian constraint may be advantageously retained in the reduced
classical system to be quantized. This permits the Hamiltonian constraint
equation to be consistently turned into an expectation value equation on
quantization that describes the scale factor on each spatial hypersurface
characterized by a constant mean exterior curvature. This expectation value
equation augments the dynamical quantum evolution of the unconstrained
conformal three-geometry with a transverse traceless momentum tensor density.
The resulting quantum theory is inherently nonlinear. Nonetheless, it is
unitary and free from a nonlocal and implicit description of the Hamiltonian
operator. Finally, by imposing additional homogeneity symmetries, a broad class
of Bianchi cosmological models are analyzed as nonlinear quantum
minisuperspaces in the context of the proposed theory.Comment: 14 pages. Classical and Quantum Gravity (To appear