Abstract
We derive the pure spin connection and constraint-free BF formulations of real four-dimensional Lorentzian vacuum general relativity. In contrast to the existing complex formulations, an important advantage is that they do not require the reality constraints that complicate quantization. We also consider the corresponding modified gravity theories and point out that, contrary to their self-dual analogues, they are not viable because they necessarily contain ghosts. In particular, this constrains the set of potentially viable unified theories one can build by extending the gauge group to the ones with the action structure of general relativity. We find, however, that the resulting theories do not admit classical solutions. This issue can be solved by introducing extra dynamical fields which, incidentally, could also provide a way to include a matter sector.
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