Chern-Simons-like Theories of Gravity

Understand

In this PhD thesis, we investigate a wide class of three-dimensional massive gravity models and show how most of them (if not all) can be brought in a first-order, Chern-Simons-like, formulation.

• This allows for a general analysis of the Hamiltonian for this wide class of models.
• From the Chern-Simons-like perspective, the known higher-derivative theories of 3D massive gravity, like Topologically Massive Gravity and New Massive Gravity, can be extended to a wider class of models.
• These models are shown to be free of (possibly ghost-like) scalar excitations and exhibit improved behavior with respect to Anti-de Sitter holography; the new models have regions in their parameter space where positive boundary central charge is compatible with positive mass and energy for the massive spin-2 mode.