Gravity from the extension of spatial diffeomorphisms

Understand

The possibility of the extension of spatial diffeomorphisms to a larger family of symmetries in a class of classical field theories is studied.

• The generator of the additional local symmetry contains a quadratic kinetic term and a potential term which can be a general (not necessarily local) functional of the metric.
• From the perspective of the foundation of Einstein's gravity our results are positive: The extended constraint algebra is either that of Einstein's gravity, or ultralocal gravity.
• If our goal is a simple modification of Einstein's gravity that for example makes it perturbatively renormalizable, as has recently been suggested, then our results show that there is no such theory within this class.