Instability in cosmological topologically massive gravity at the chiral point

• We consider cosmological topologically massive gravity at the chiral point with positive sign of the Einstein-Hilbert term. We demonstrate the presence of a negative energy bulk mode that grows linearly in time. Unless there are physical reasons to discard this mode, this theory is unstable. To address this issue we prove that the mode is not pure gauge and that its negative energy is time-independent and finite. The isometry generators L0 and 0 have non-unitary matrix representations like in logarithmic CFT. While the new mode obeys boundary conditions that are slightly weaker than the ones by Brown and Henneaux, its fall-off behavior is compatible with spacetime being asymptotically AdS3. We employ holographic renormalization to show that the variational principle is well-defined. The corresponding Brown-York stress tensor coincides with that of global AdS3. Finally we address possibilities to eliminate the instability and prospects for chiral gravity.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Annan fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Other Physics Topics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

AdS-CFT Correspondence

Classical Theories of Gravity

Models of Quantum Gravity

Theory of relativity, gravitation

Relativitetsteori, gravitation

Physics

fysik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)