Anti de Sitter Gravity from BF-Chern-Simons-Higgs Theories

It is shown that an action inspired from a BF and Chern-Simons model, based on the $AdS_4$ isometry group SO(3, 2), with the inclusion of a Higgs potential term, furnishes the MacDowell-Mansouri-Chamseddine-West action for gravity, with a Gauss-Bonnet and cosmological constant term. The $AdS_4$ space is a natural vacuum of the theory. Using Vasiliev's procedure to construct higher spin massless fields in AdS spaces and a suitable star product, we discuss the preliminary steps to construct the corresponding higher-spin action in $AdS_4$ space representing the higher spin extension of this model. Brief remarks on Noncommutative Gravity are made.Comment: 6 pages, plain Tex, Revised. References are are adde

The Partition Function for Topological Field Theories

We use a Hodge decomposition and its generalization to non-abelian flat vector bundles to calculate the partition function for abelian and non- abelian BF theories in $n$ dimensions. This enables us to provide a simple proof that the partition function is related to the Ray-Singer torsion defined on flat vector bundles for all odd-dimensional manifolds, and is equal to unity for even dimensions.Comment: 23 pages, plain-TeX fil

Conformal and Nonconformal Symmetries in 2d Dilaton gravity

We study finite-dimensional extra symmetries of generic 2D dilaton gravity models. Using a non-linear sigma model formulation we show that the unique theories admitting an extra (conformal) symmetry are the models with an exponential potential $V \propto e^{\beta\phi}$ ($S ={1\over2\pi} \int d^2 x \sqrt{-g} [ R \phi + 4 \lambda^2 e^{\beta\phi} ]$), which include the CGHS model as a particular though limiting ($\beta=0$) case. These models give rise to black hole solutions with a mass-dependent temperature. The underlying extra symmetry can be maintained in a natural way in the one-loop effective action, thus implying the exact solubility of the semiclassical theory including back-reaction. Moreover, we also introduce three different classes of (non-conformal) transformations which are extra symmetries for generic 2D dilaton gravity models. Special linear combinations of these transformations turn out to be the (conformal) symmetries of the CGHS and $V \propto e^{\beta\phi}$ models. We show that one of the non-conformal extra symmetries can be converted into a conformal one by means of adequate field redefinitions involving the metric and the derivatives of the dilaton. Finally, by expressing the Polyakov-Liouville effective action in terms of an invariant metric, we are able to provide semiclassical models which are also invariant. This generalizes the solvable semiclassical model of Bose, Parker and Peleg (BPP) for a generic 2D dilaton gravity model.Comment: Latex, no figures. Revised version published i