# Ehlers symmetry in four dimensions

## TL;DR

This paper uncovers a hidden Ehlers $SL(2,R)$ symmetry in four-dimensional gravity by performing a non-local field redefinition in the light-cone Hamiltonian, revealing new duality structures.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel non-local field redefinition that makes the Ehlers symmetry manifest in the Hamiltonian formulation of gravity.

## Key findings

- Revealed Ehlers $SL(2,R)$ symmetry in 4D gravity
- Connected electromagnetic duality to a subgroup of the Ehlers symmetry
- Changed variables to linearize the duality transformation

## Abstract

Starting with the light-cone Hamiltonian for gravity, we perform a field redefinition that reveals a hidden symmetry in four dimensions, namely the Ehlers $SL(2,R)$ symmetry. The field redefinition, which is non-local in space but local in time, acts as a canonical transformation in the Hamiltonian formulation keeping the Poisson bracket relations unaltered. We discuss the electro-magnetic duality symmetry of gravity in the light-cone formalism, which forms the $SO(2)$ subgroup of the Ehlers symmetry. The helicity states in the original Hamiltonian are not in a representation of the enhanced symmetry group. In order to make the symmetry manifest, we make a change of variables in the path integral from the helicity states to new fields that transform linearly under the $SO(2)$ duality symmetry.