Chern-Simons Forms in Gravitation Theories

The Chern-Simons (CS) form evolved from an obstruction in mathematics into an important object in theoretical physics. In fact, the presence of CS terms in physics is more common than one may think: they seem to play an important role in high Tc superconductivity and in recently discovered topological insulators. In classical physics, the minimal coupling in electromagnetism and to the action for a mechanical system in Hamiltonian form are examples of CS functionals. CS forms are also the natural generalization of the minimal coupling between the electromagnetic field and a point charge when the source is not point-like but an extended fundamental object, a membrane. They are found in relation with anomalies in quantum field theories, and as Lagrangians for gauge fields, including gravity and supergravity. A cursory review of the role of CS forms in gravitation theories is presented at an introductory level.Comment: Author-created, un-copyedited version of an article published in CQG; 41 pages, no figure

Chern-Simons Gravity: From 2+1 to 2n+1 Dimensions

These lectures provide an elementary introduction to Chern Simons Gravity and Supergravity in $d=2n+1$ dimensions.Comment: 17 pages, two columns, latex, no figures, Lectures presented at the XX Encontro de Fisica de Particulas e Campos, Sao Lourenco, Brazil, October 1999, and at the Fifth La Hechicera School, Merida, Venezuela, November 199

Reflections on Cosmology: an Outsider's Point of View

Some of the assumptions of cosmology, as based on the simplest version of General Relativity, are discussed. It is argued that by slight modifications of standard gravitation theory, our notion of the sources of gravity {the right hand side of Einstein's equations{, could be something radically different from what is usually expected. One example is exhibited to prove the point, and some consequences are discussed

Torsional Topological Invariants (and their relevance for real life)

The existence of topological invariants analogous to Chern/Pontryagin classes for a standard $SO(D)$ or $SU(N)$ connection, but constructed out of the torsion tensor, is discussed. These invariants exhibit many of the features of the Chern/Pontryagin invariants: they can be expressed as integrals over the manifold of local densities and take integer values on compact spaces without boundary; their spectrum is determined by the homotopy groups $\pi_{D-1}(SO(D))$ and $\pi_{D-1}(SO(D+1))$. These invariants are not solely determined by the connection bundle but depend also on the bundle of local orthonormal frames on the tangent space of the manifold. It is shown that in spacetimes with nonvanishing torsion there can occur topologically stable configurations associated with the frame bundle which are independent of the curvature. Explicit examples of topologically stable configurations carrying nonvanishing instanton number in four and eight dimensions are given, and they can be conjectured to exist in dimension $4k$. It is also shown that the chiral anomaly in a spacetime with torsion receives a contribution proportional to this instanton number and hence, chiral theories in $4k$-dimensional spacetimes with torsion are potentially anomalous.Comment: Lecture presented at the Meeting on Trends in Theoretical Physics held at La Plata, April 28-May 6, 1997. Minor correction

Bose-Fermi Transformation In Three Dimensional Space

A generalization of the Jordan-Wigner transformation to three (or higher) dimensions is constructed. The nonlocal mapping of spin to fermionic variables is expressed as a gauge transformation with topological charge equal to one. The resulting fermionic theory is minimally coupled to a nonabelian gauge field in a spontaneously broken phase containing monopoles.Comment: 11 pages, ReVTe

Chern-Simons Supergravities with Off-Shell Local Superalgebras

A new family of supergravity theories in odd dimensions is presented. The Lagrangian densities are Chern-Simons forms for the connection of a supersymmetric extension of the anti-de Sitter algebra. The superalgebras are the supersymmetric extensions of the AdS algebra for each dimension, thus completing the analysis of van Holten and Van Proeyen, which was valid for N=1 and for D=2,3,4,mod 8. The Chern-Simons form of the Lagrangian ensures invariance under the gauge supergroup by construction and, in particular, under local supersymmetry. Thus, unlike standard supergravity, the local supersymmetry algebra closes off-shell and without requiring auxiliary fields. The Lagrangian is explicitly given for D=5, 7 and 11. In all cases the dynamical field content includes the vielbein, the spin connection, N gravitini, and some extra bosonic ``matter'' fields which vary from one dimension to another. The superalgebras fall into three families: osp(m|N) for D=2,3,4, mod 8, osp(N|m) for D=6,7,8, mod 8, and su(m-2,2|N) for D=5 mod 4, with m=2^{[D/2]}. The possible connection between the D=11 case and M-Theory is also discussed.Comment: 13pages, RevTeX, no figures, two column

Geometric approach to the Hamilton-Jacobi equation and global parametrices for the Schr\"odinger propagator

We construct a family of Fourier Integral Operators, defined for arbitrary large times, representing a global parametrix for the Schr\"odinger propagator when the potential is quadratic at infinity. This construction is based on the geometric approach to the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi equation and thus sidesteps the problem of the caustics generated by the classical flow. Moreover, a detailed study of the real phase function allows us to recover a WKB semiclassical approximation which necessarily involves the multivaluedness of the graph of the Hamiltonian flow past the caustics