The Calabi complex and Killing sheaf cohomology

It has recently been noticed that the degeneracies of the Poisson bracket of linearized gravity on constant curvature Lorentzian manifold can be described in terms of the cohomologies of a certain complex of differential operators. This complex was first introduced by Calabi and its cohomology is known to be isomorphic to that of the (locally constant) sheaf of Killing vectors. We review the structure of the Calabi complex in a novel way, with explicit calculations based on representation theory of GL(n), and also some tools for studying its cohomology in terms of of locally constant sheaves. We also conjecture how these tools would adapt to linearized gravity on other backgrounds and to other gauge theories. The presentation includes explicit formulas for the differential operators in the Calabi complex, arguments for its local exactness, discussion of generalized Poincar\'e duality, methods of computing the cohomology of locally constant sheaves, and example calculations of Killing sheaf cohomologies of some black hole and cosmological Lorentzian manifolds.Comment: tikz-cd diagrams, 69 page

Topology, rigid cosymmetries and linearization instability in higher gauge theories

We consider a class of non-linear PDE systems, whose equations possess Noether identities (the equations are redundant), including non-variational systems (not coming from Lagrangian field theories), where Noether identities and infinitesimal gauge transformations need not be in bijection. We also include theories with higher stage Noether identities, known as higher gauge theories (if they are variational). Some of these systems are known to exhibit linearization instabilities: there exist exact background solutions about which a linearized solution is extendable to a family of exact solutions only if some non-linear obstruction functionals vanish. We give a general, geometric classification of a class of these linearization obstructions, which includes as special cases all known ones for relativistic field theories (vacuum Einstein, Yang-Mills, classical N=1 supergravity, etc.). Our classification shows that obstructions arise due to the simultaneous presence of rigid cosymmetries (generalized Killing condition) and non-trivial de Rham cohomology classes (spacetime topology). The classification relies on a careful analysis of the cohomologies of the on-shell Noether complex (consistent deformations), adjoint Noether complex (rigid cosymmetries) and variational bicomplex (conserved currents). An intermediate result also gives a criterion for identifying non-linearities that do not lead to linearization instabilities.Comment: v2: 33 pages, added an important reference to earlier work of Arms-Anderson, close to published versio

Quantum astrometric observables I: time delay in classical and quantum gravity

A class of diffeomorphism invariant, physical observables, so-called astrometric observables, is introduced. A particularly simple example, the time delay, which expresses the difference between two initially synchronized proper time clocks in relative inertial motion, is analyzed in detail. It is found to satisfy some interesting inequalities related to the causal structure of classical Lorentzian spacetimes. Thus it can serve as a probe of causal structure and in particular of violations of causality. A quantum model of this observable as well as the calculation of its variance due to vacuum fluctuations in quantum linearized gravity are sketched. The question of whether the causal inequalities are still satisfied by quantized gravity, which is pertinent to the nature of causality in quantum gravity, is raised, but it is shown that perturbative calculations cannot provide a definite answer. Some potential applications of astrometric observables in quantum gravity are discussed.Comment: revtex4-1, 21 pages, 7 figures (published version); added journal re

Quantum astrometric observables II: time delay in linearized quantum gravity

A clock synchronization thought experiment is modeled by a diffeomorphism invariant "time delay" observable. In a sense, this observable probes the causal structure of the ambient Lorentzian spacetime. Thus, upon quantization, it is sensitive to the long expected smearing of the light cone by vacuum fluctuations in quantum gravity. After perturbative linearization, its mean and variance are computed in the Minkowski Fock vacuum of linearized gravity. The na\"ive divergence of the variance is meaningfully regularized by a length scale $\mu$, the physical detector resolution. This is the first time vacuum fluctuations have been fully taken into account in a similar calculation. Despite some drawbacks this calculation provides a useful template for the study of a large class of similar observables in quantum gravity. Due to their large volume, intermediate calculations were performed using computer algebra software. The resulting variance scales like $(s \ell_p/\mu)^2$, where $\ell_p$ is the Planck length and $s$ is the distance scale separating the ("lab" and "probe") clocks. Additionally, the variance depends on the relative velocity of the lab and the probe, diverging for low velocities. This puzzling behavior may be due to an oversimplified detector resolution model or a neglected second order term in the time delay.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, revtex4-1; v3: minor updates and corrections, close to published versio