In Pursuit of BRST Symmetry and Observables in 4D Topological Gauge-Affine Gravity

Abstract

The realization of a BRST cohomology of the 4D topological gauge-affine gravity is established in terms of a superconnection formalism. The identification of fields in the quantized theory occurs directly as is usual in terms of superconnection and its supercurvature components with the double covering of the general affine group GA¯(4,R). Then, by means of an appropriate decomposition of the metalinear double-covering group SL¯(5,R) with respect to the general linear double-covering group GL¯(4,R), one can easily obtain the enlargements of the fields while remaining consistent with the BRST algebra. This leads to the descent equations, allowing us to build the observables of the theory by means of the BRST algebra constructed using a sa¯(5,R) algebra-valued superconnection. In particular, we discuss the construction of topological invariants with torsion.

Keywords

• topological models of gravity
• topological gauge-affine gravity
• off-shell nilpotent BRST and anti-BRST algebra
• descent equations
• topological observables