Aspects of $$(d+D)$$-dimensional anisotropic conformal gravity

Abstract

We discuss various aspects of anisotropic gravity in \((d+D)\)-dimensional spacetime, where D dimensions are treated as extra dimensions. It is based on the foliation preserving diffeomorphism invariance and anisotropic conformal invariance. The anisotropy is embodied by introducing a factor z which discriminates the scaling degree of the extra D dimensions against the d-dimensional base spacetime and Weyl scalar field which mediates the anisotropic scaling symmetry. There is no intrinsic scale but a physical scale \(M_*\) emerges as a consequence of spontaneous conformal symmetry breaking. We discuss interesting lower dimensional gravity theories obtained from our model. In a \((d,D)=(2,2)\) case, we suggest a UV-complete unitary quantum gravity which might become Einstein gravity in IR. In a certain (2,1) case, we obtain CGHS model. Some vacuum solutions are also obtained and we discuss an issue of ‘size separation’ between the base spacetime and the extra dimensions. The size separation means large distinction between the scales (e.g. cosmological constant) appearing in the base spacetime and the extra dimensions respectively.