Rodrigo Olea

Conserved Charges for Gravity with Locally Anti–de Sitter Asymptotics

A new formula for the conserved charges in 3+1 gravity for spacetimes with local anti-de Sitter asymptotic geometry is proposed. It is shown that requiring the action to have an extremum for this class of asymptotia sets the boundary term that must be added to the Lagrangian as the Euler density with a fixed weight factor. The resulting action gives rise to the mass and angular momentum as Noether charges associated to the asymptotic Killing vectors without requiring specification of a reference background in order to have a convergent expression. A consequence of this definition is that any negative constant curvature spacetime has vanishing Noether charges. These results remain valid in the Lambda = 0 limit.

Universal regularization prescription for Lovelock AdS gravity

A definite form for the boundary term that produces the finiteness of both the conserved quantities and Euclidean action for any Lovelock gravity with AdS asymptotics is presented. This prescription merely tells even from odd bulk dimensions, regardless the particular theory considered, what is valid even for Einstein-Hilbert and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet AdS gravity. The boundary term is a given polynomial of the boundary extrinsic and intrinsic curvatures (also referred to as Kounterterms series). Only the coupling constant of the boundary term changes accordingly, such that it always preserves a well-posed variational principle for boundary conditions suitable for asymptotically AdS spaces. The background-independent conserved charges associated to asymptotic symmetries are found. In odd bulk dimensions, this regularization produces a generalized formula for the vacuum energy in Lovelock AdS gravity. The standard entropy for asymptotically AdS black holes is recovered directly from the regularization of the Euclidean action, and not only from the first law of thermodynamics associated to the conserved quantities.

Mass, angular momentum and thermodynamics in four-dimensional Kerr-AdS black holes

In this paper, the connection between the Lorentz-covariant counterterms that regularize the four-dimensional AdS gravity action and topological invariants is explored. It is shown that demanding the spacetime to have a negative constant curvature in the asymptotic region permits the explicit construction of such series of boundary terms. The orthonormal frame is adapted to appropriately describe the boundary geometry and, as a result, the boundary term can be expressed as a functional of the boundary metric, extrinsic curvature and intrinsic curvature. This choice also allows to write down the background-independent Noether charges associated to asymptotic symmetries in standard tensorial formalism. The absence of the Gibbons-Hawking term is a consequence of an action principle based on a boundary condition different than Dirichlet on the metric. This argument makes plausible the idea of regarding this approach as an alternative regularization scheme for AdS gravity in all even dimensions, different than the standard counterterms prescription. As an illustration of the finiteness of the charges and the euclidean action in this framework, the conserved quantities and black hole entropy for four-dimensional Kerr-AdS are computed.

Conserved charges for even dimensional asymptotically AdS gravity theories

Mass and other conserved Noether charges are discussed for solutions of gravity theories with locally anti-de Sitter (AdS) asymptotics in 2n dimensions. The action is supplemented with a boundary term whose purpose is to guarantee that it reaches an extremum on the classical solutions, provided the space-time is locally AdS space-time at the boundary. It is also shown that if space-time is locally AdS at spatial infinity, the conserved charges are finite and properly normalized without requiring subtraction of a reference background. In this approach, Noether charges associated with Lorentz and diffeomorphism invariance vanish identically for constant curvature space-times. The case of a zero cosmological constant is obtained as a limit of AdS space-time, where Λ plays the role of a regulator. ©2000 The American Physical Society.

Finite action principle for Chern-Simons AdS gravity

A finite action principle for Chern-Simons AdS gravity is presented. The construction is carried out in detail first in five dimensions, where the bulk action is given by a particular combination of the Einstein-Hilbert action with negative cosmological constant and a Gauss-Bonnet term; and is then generalized for arbitrary odd dimensions. The boundary term needed to render the action finite is singled out demanding the action to attain an extremum for an appropriate set of boundary conditions. The boundary term is a local function of the fields at the boundary and is sufficient to render the action finite for asymptotically AdS solutions, without requiring background fields. It is shown that the Euclidean continuation of the action correctly describes black hole thermodynamics in the canonical ensemble. Additionally, background independent conserved charges associated with the asymptotic symmetries can be written as surface integrals by direct application of Noethers theorem.

Topological regularization and self-duality in four-dimensional anti-de Sitter gravity

It is shown that the addition of a topological invariant (Gauss-Bonnet term) to the anti-de Sitter gravity action in four dimensions recovers the standard regularization given by the holographic renormalization procedure. This crucial step makes possible the inclusion of an odd parity invariant (Pontryagin term) whose coupling is fixed by demanding an asymptotic (anti) self-dual condition on the Weyl tensor. This argument allows one to find the dual point of the theory where the holographic stress tensor is related to the boundary Cotton tensor as T{sub j}{sup i}={+-}(l{sup 2}/8{pi}G)C{sub j}{sup i}, which has been observed in recent literature in solitonic solutions and hydrodynamic models. A general procedure to generate the counterterm series for anti-de Sitter gravity in any even dimension from the corresponding Euler term is also briefly discussed.

Regularization of odd-dimensional AdS gravity: Kounterterms

As an alternative to the standard Dirichlet counterterms prescription, I introduce the concept of Kounterterms as the boundary terms with explicit dependence on the extrinsic curvature Kij that regularize the AdS gravity action. A suitable choice of the boundary conditions—compatible with any asymptotically AdS (AAdS) spacetime—ensures a finite action principle for all odd dimensions. Background-independent conserved quantities are obtained as Noether charges associated to asymptotic symmetries and their general expression appears naturally split in two parts. The first one gives the correct mass and angular momentum for AAdS black holes and vanishes identically for globally AdS spacetimes. Thus, the second part is a covariant formula for the vacuum energy in AAdS spacetimes and reproduces the results obtained by the Dirichlet counterterms method in a number of cases. It is also shown that this Kounterterms series regularizes the Euclidean action and recovers the correct black hole thermodynamics in odd dimensions.

Vacuum energy in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet anti-de Sitter gravity

A finite action principle for Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet anti-de Sitter gravity is achieved by supplementing the bulk Lagrangian by a suitable boundary term, whose form substantially differs in odd and even dimensions. For even dimensions, this term is given by the boundary contribution in the Euler theorem with a coupling constant fixed, demanding the spacetime to have constant (negative) curvature in the asymptotic region. For odd dimensions, the action is stationary under a boundary condition on the variation of the extrinsic curvature. A well-posed variational principle leads to an appropriate definition of energy and other conserved quantities using the Noether theorem, and to a correct description of black hole thermodynamics. In particular, this procedure assigns a nonzero energy to anti-de Sitter spacetime in all odd dimensions.

Transgression forms and extensions of Chern-Simons gauge theories

A gauge invariant action principle, based on the idea of transgression forms, is proposed. The action extends the Chern-Simons form by the addition of a boundary term that makes the action gauge invariant (and not just quasi-invariant). Interpreting the spacetime manifold as cobordant to another one, the duplication of gauge fields in spacetime is avoided. The advantages of this approach are particularly noticeable for the gravitation theory described by a Chern-Simons lagrangian for the AdS group, in which case the action is regularized and finite for black hole geometries in diverse situations. Black hole thermodynamics is correctly reproduced using either a background field approach or a background-independent setting, even in cases with asymptotically nontrivial topologies. It is shown that the energy found from the thermodynamic analysis agrees with the surface integral obtained by direct application of Noethers theorem.

Conserved charges for black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics in AdS space

Motivated by possible applications within the framework of anti-de Sitter gravity/conformal field theory correspondence, charged black holes with AdS asymptotics, which are solutions to Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in