Discrete canonical analysis of three-dimensional gravity with cosmological constant

Abstract

We discuss the interplay between standard canonical analysis and canonical discretization in three-dimensional gravity with cosmological constant. By using the Hamiltonian analysis, we find that the continuum local symmetries of the theory are given by the on-shell space–time diffeomorphisms, which at the action level, correspond to the Kalb–Ramond transformations. At the time of discretization, although this symmetry is explicitly broken, we prove that the theory still preserves certain gauge freedom generated by a constant curvature relation in terms of holonomies and the Gauss's law in the lattice approach.