Four-dimensional Conformal Gravity Research Articles

Energy functionals from Conformal Gravity

We provide a new derivation of the Hawking mass and Willmore energy functionals for asymptotically AdS spacetimes, by embedding Einstein-AdS gravity in Conformal Gravity. By construction, the evaluation of the four-dimensional Conformal Gravity action in a manifold with a conical defect produces a codimension-2 conformal invariant functional LΣ. The energy functionals are then particular cases of LΣ for Einstein-AdS and pure AdS ambient spaces, respectively. The bulk action is finite for AdS asymptotics and both Hawking mass and Willmore energy are finite as well. The result suggests a generic relation between conformal invariance and renormalization, where the codimension-2 properties are inherited from the bulk gravity action.

Black hole evaporation in conformal (Weyl) gravity

In this work, we explore all possible scenarios in the evaporation process of a spherical neutral AdS black hole in four-dimensional conformal gravity, where the equations of states are branched. In one branch, the final states correspond to the extremal black hole where the total decay time is divergent given any initial mass. In the other branch, the black holes always evaporate completely with in a finite time; the total decay time depends linearly on the AdS radius, when the mass is taken to be infinity.

AdS and Lifshitz black hole solutions in conformal gravity sourced with a scalar field

In this paper we obtain exact asymptotically anti-de Sitter black hole solutions and asymptotically Lifshitz black hole solutions with dynamical exponents z=0 and z=4 of four-dimensional conformal gravity coupled with a self-interacting conformally invariant scalar field. Then, we compute their thermodynamical quantities, such as the mass, the Wald entropy and the Hawking temperature. The mass expression is obtained by using the generalized off-shell Noether potential formulation. It is found that the anti-de Sitter black holes as well as the Lifshitz black holes with z=0 have zero mass and zero entropy, although they have non-zero temperature. A similar behavior has been observed in previous works, where the integration constant is not associated with a conserved charge, and it can be interpreted as a kind of gravitational hair. On the other hand, the Lifshitz black holes with dynamical exponent z=4 have non-zero conserved charges, and the first law of black hole thermodynamics holds. Also, we analyze the horizon thermodynamics for the Lifshitz black holes with z=4, and we show that the first law of black hole thermodynamics arises from the field equations evaluated on the horizon. Furthermore, we study the propagation of a conformally coupled scalar field on these backgrounds and we find the quasinormal modes analytically in several cases. We find that for anti-de Sitter black holes and Lifshitz black holes with z=4, there is a continuous spectrum of frequencies for Dirichlet boundary condition; however, we show that discrete sets of well defined quasinormal frequencies can be obtained by considering Neumann boundary conditions.

Black hole thermodynamics and heat engines in conformal gravity

The extended phase-space thermodynamics and heat engines for static spherically symmetric black hole solutions of four-dimensional conformal gravity are studied in detail. It is argued that the equation of states (EOS) for such black holes is always branched, any continuous thermodynamical process cannot drive the system from one branch of the EOS into another branch. Meanwhile, the thermodynamical volume is bounded from above, making the black holes always super-entropic in one branch and may also be super-entropic in another branch in certain range of the temperature. The Carnot and Stirling heat engines associated to such black holes are shown to be distinct from each other. For rectangular heat engines, the efficiency always approaches zero when the rectangle becomes extremely narrow, and given the highest and lowest working temperatures fixed, there is always a maximum for the efficiency of such engines.

Ultraviolet fixed points in conformal gravity and general quadratic theories

We study the beta functions for four-dimensional conformal gravity using two different parametrizations of metric fluctuation, linear split and exponential parametrization. We find that after imposing the traceless conditions, the beta functions are the same in four dimensions though the dependence on the dimensions are quite different. This indicates the universality of these results. We also examine the beta functions in general quadratic theory with the Einstein and cosmological terms for exponential parametrization, and find that it leads to results for beta functions of dimensionful couplings different from linear split, though the fact that there exists a nontrivial fixed point remains the same and the fixed points also remain the same.

SU(2)-colored (A)dS black holes in conformal gravity

We consider four-dimensional conformal gravity coupled to the U(1) Maxwell and SU(2) Yang-Mills fields. We study the structure of general black hole solutions carrying five independent parameters: the mass, the electric U(1) and magnetic SU(2) charges, the massive spin-2 charge and the thermodynamical pressure associated with the cosmological constant, which is an integration constant in conformal gravity. We derive the thermodynamical first law of the black holes. We obtain some exact solutions including an extremal black hole with vanishing mass and entropy, but with non-trivial SU(2) Yang-Mills charges. We derive the remainder of the first law for this special solution. We also reexamine the colored black holes and derive their first law in Einstein-Yang-Mills gravity with or without a cosmological constant.

Conformal Gravity Holography in Four Dimensions

We formulate four-dimensional conformal gravity with (anti-)de Sitter boundary conditions that are weaker than Starobinsky boundary conditions, allowing for an asymptotically subleading Rindler term concurrent with a recent model for gravity at large distances. We prove the consistency of the variational principle and derive the holographic response functions. One of them is the conformal gravity version of the Brown-York stress tensor, the other is a "partially massless response". The on shell action and response functions are finite and do not require holographic renormalization. Finally, we discuss phenomenologically interesting examples, including the most general spherically symmetric solutions and rotating black hole solutions with partially massless hair.

Not conformally Einstein metrics in conformal gravity

The equations of motion of four-dimensional conformal gravity, whose Lagrangian is the square of the Weyl tensor, require that the Bach tensor vanishes. Since Eμν is zero for any Einstein metric, and any conformal scaling of such a metric, it follows that large classes of solutions in four-dimensional conformal gravity are simply given by metrics that are conformal to Einstein metrics (including Ricci flat). In fact it becomes more intriguing to find solutions that are not conformally Einstein. We obtain five new such vacua, which are homogeneous and have asymptotic generalized Lifshitz anisotropic scaling symmetry. Four of these solutions can be further generalized to metrics that are conformal to classes of pp-waves, with a covariantly-constant null vector. We also obtain large classes of generalized Lifshitz vacua in Einstein–Weyl gravity.

One-loop divergences in 6D conformal gravity

Using Exact Renormalization Group Equation approach and background field method, we investigate the one-loop problem in a six-dimensional conformal gravity theory whose Lagrangian takes the same form as holographic Weyl anomaly of multiple coincident M5-branes. We choose the backgrounds to be the symmetric Einstein spaces including S6, CP3, S2 \times S4, S2 \times CP2, S3 \times S3 and S2 \times S2 \times S2. Evaluating the functional sums gives power-law and logarithmic divergences. We extract from the specific values of logarithmic divergence on above backgrounds, the coefficient in front of Euler density and two linear equations constraining the coefficients in front of three type-B conformal invariants. As a test of the effectiveness of Exact Renormalization Group Equation approach to quantum conformal gravity, we reexaminethe one-loop problem in four-dimensional conformal gravity and confirm the logarithmic divergence derived from generalized Schwinger-DeWitt method.

Matter Dependence of the String Susceptibility Exponent in Four-Dimensional Simplicial Quantum Gravity

The dependence of the number of vector and scalar fields on the string susceptibility exponent is evaluated numerically for four-dimensional simplicial quantum gravity using the grand canonical ensemble method. The numerical result indicates that the four-dimensional simplicial quantum gravity reproduces well predictions of the four-dimensional conformal gravity.