Gravitational $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ Algebra on the Light Cone

TL;DR

This paper characterizes boundary and radiative modes on a null surface in gravitational theories, revealing an $SL(2,b R)$ algebra structure and exploring implications for quantization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of edge modes and their $SL(2,b R)$ symmetry on null surfaces within the tetradic Palatini--Holst framework, including boundary conditions and phase space structure.

Findings

Identified $SL(2,b R)$ symmetry in boundary modes.

Derived Dirac brackets for observables on the light cone.

Discussed truncations for effective quantization.

Abstract

In a region with a boundary, the gravitational phase space consists of radiative modes in the interior and edge modes at the boundary. Such edge modes are necessary to explain how the region couples to its environment. In this paper, we characterise the edge modes and radiative modes on a null surface for the tetradic Palatini--Holst action. Our starting point is the definition of the action and its boundary terms. We choose the least restrictive boundary conditions possible. The fixed boundary data consists of the radiative modes alone (two degrees of freedom per point). All other boundary fields are dynamical. We introduce the covariant phase space and explain how the Holst term alters the boundary symmetries. To infer the Poisson brackets among Dirac observables, we define an auxiliary phase space, where the $SL(2\mathbb{R})$ symmetries of the boundary fields is manifest. We identify the gauge generators and second-class constraints that remove the auxiliary variables. All gauge generators are at most quadratic in the fundamental $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ variables on phase space. We compute the Dirac bracket and identify the Dirac observables on the light cone. Finally, we discuss various truncations to quantise the system in an effective way.