Analytic continuation, the Chern–Gauss–Bonnet theorem, and the Euler–Lagrange equations in Lovelock theory for indefinite signature metrics

Abstract

We use analytic continuation to derive the Euler–Lagrange equations associated to the Pfaffian in indefinite signature ( p , q ) directly from the corresponding result in the Riemannian setting. We also use analytic continuation to derive the Chern–Gauss–Bonnet theorem for pseudo-Riemannian manifolds with boundary directly from the corresponding result in the Riemannian setting. Complex metrics on the tangent bundle play a crucial role in our analysis and we obtain a version of the Chern–Gauss–Bonnet theorem in this setting for certain complex metrics.