The dynamical structure of four-dimensional Chamseddine's gauge theory of gravity

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a four-dimensional gauge theory of gravity, revealing it has dynamical degrees of freedom and structural similarities to higher-dimensional Chern-Simons gravity, contrasting with two-dimensional models.

Contribution

It provides a Hamiltonian analysis of a 4D gauge gravity theory with a topological action, highlighting its dynamical nature and structural parallels to higher-dimensional theories.

Findings

The theory has non-zero dynamical degrees of freedom.

Its structure resembles higher-dimensional Chern-Simons gravity.

Contrasts with the two-dimensional case where degrees of freedom vanish.

Abstract

We perform the Dirac hamiltonian analysis of a four-dimensional gauge theory of gravity with an action of topological type, which generalizes some well-known two-dimensional models. We show that, in contrast with the two-dimensional case, the theory has a non-vanishing number of dynamical degrees of freedom and that its structure is very similar to higher-dimensional Chern-Simons gravity.