Gravitational Chern-Simons Term Research Articles

Systematics of boundary actions in gauge theory and gravity

We undertake a general study of the boundary (or edge) modes that arise in gauge and gravitational theories defined on a space with boundary, either asymptotic or at finite distance, focusing on efficient techniques for computing the corresponding boundary action. Such actions capture all the dynamics of the system that are implied by its asymptotic symmetry group, such as correlation functions of the corresponding conserved currents. Working in the covariant phase space formalism, we develop a collection of approaches for isolating the boundary modes and their dynamics, and illustrate with various examples, notably AdS3 gravity (with and without a gravitational Chern-Simons terms) subject to assorted boundary conditions.

Generating enhanced parity-violating gravitational waves during inflation with violation of the null energy condition

A violation of the null energy condition (NEC) during inflation in a single-field inflation model will naturally enhance the amplitude of the parity violation effect (defined by $\Delta\chi$) of inflationary primordial gravitational waves (GWs), provided the inflaton is non-minimally coupled to a gravitational Chern-Simons term. After going through the NEC-violating phase, the Universe enters subsequent slow-roll inflation with a higher energy scale (i.e., a greater Hubble parameter $H$), which results in an enhanced nearly scale-invariant power spectrum (i.e., $P_{\rm T}$) of inflationary primordial GWs in the high-frequency band, while $P_{\rm T}$ remains consistent with observations in the frequency band of the cosmic microwave background. Therefore, the violation of NEC during inflation will amplify the observability (i.e., $P_{\rm T}\cdot\Delta\chi$) of the parity violation effect on small scales. Intriguingly, our model has particular oscillatory features on $\Delta\chi$ that may not be mimicked by others.

Generation of gravitational waves in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity

We investigate gravitational waves (GWs) generated in a two-field inflationary model with a noncanonical kinetic term, in which the gravitational Chern-Simons term is coupled to a heavy dynamical field. In such a model, primordial GWs experience a period of resonant amplification for some modes. In addition, isocurvature perturbations suffer from a temporary tachyonic instability due to an effective negative mass, which source curvature perturbations, resulting in large induced GWs. These two stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds correspond to different frequency bands, which are expected to be detected by future GW detectors such as SKA, LISA, and Taiji.

Erratum: Entanglement negativity, reflected entropy, and anomalous gravitation [Phys. Rev. D 105 , 086013 (2022)

We investigate mixed state entanglement measures of entanglement negativity and reflected entropy for bipartite states in two dimensional conformal field theories with an anomaly through appropriate replica techniques. Furthermore we propose holographic constructions for these measures from the corresponding bulk dual geometries involving topologically massive gravity in AdS$_3$ and find exact agreement with the field theory results. In this connection we extend an earlier holographic proposal for the entanglement negativity to the bulk action with a gravitational Chern-Simons term and compute its contribution to the entanglement wedge cross section dual to the reflected entropy.

Axion gravitodynamics, Lense-Thirring effect, and gravitational waves

We investigate physical implications of a gravitational analog of axion electrodynamics with a parity-violating gravitoelectromagnetic theta term. This is related to the Nieh-Yan topological invariant in gravity with torsion, in contrast to the well-studied gravitational Chern-Simons term quadratic in curvature, coupled via a dynamical axionlike scalar field. Axion gravitodynamics is the corresponding linearized theory. We find that potentially observable effects are over 80 orders of magnitude stronger than for its Chern-Simons counterpart and could be in reach for detection by experiments in the near future. For a near-Earth scenario, we derive corrections to the Lense-Thirring effect and compare them to data from satellite-based experiments (Gravity Probe B). For gravitational waves, we find modified dispersion relations, derive the corresponding polarization-dependent modified group and phase velocities, and compare them to data from neutron star mergers (GW170817) to derive even stronger bounds.

Entanglement negativity, reflected entropy, and anomalous gravitation

We investigate mixed state entanglement measures of entanglement negativity and reflected entropy for bipartite states in two dimensional conformal field theories with an anomaly through appropriate replica techniques. Furthermore we propose holographic constructions for these measures from the corresponding bulk dual geometries involving topologically massive gravity in ${\mathrm{AdS}}_{3}$ and find exact agreement with the field theory results. In this connection we extend an earlier holographic proposal for the entanglement negativity to the bulk action with a gravitational Chern-Simons term and compute its contribution to the entanglement wedge cross section dual to the reflected entropy.

Chern-Simons caps for rotating black holes

We study the dynamical Chern-Simons gravity as an effective quantum field theory, and discuss a broad range of its parameter space where the theory is valid. Within that validity range, we show that slowly rotating black holes acquire novel geometric structures due to the gravitational dynamical Chern-Simons term. In particular, the rotating black-hole solutions get endowed with two caplike domains, emanating from the north and south poles in the standard Boyer-Lindquist coordinates. The domains extend out to a distance that is approximately a few percent of the black hole's size. The caplike domains have an unusual equation of state, pointing to nonstandard dynamics within the caps. In particular, the focusing condition for geodesics is violated in those domains. This in turn implies that the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorem cannot be straightforwardly applied to hypothetical probe matter placed within the Chern-Simons caps.

Gravitational Leptogenesis in Bounce Cosmology

We investigate whether successful Gravitational Leptogenesis can take place during an Ekpyrotic contraction phase. Two possible paths by which this can occur are coupling the Ekpyrotic scalar to a gravitational Chern-Simons term, or to a U(1) gauge field Chern-Simons term. These couplings lead to the production of chiral gravitational waves, which generate a lepton number asymmetry through the gravitational-lepton number anomaly. This lepton asymmetry is subsequently reprocessed by equilibrium sphaleron processes to produce a baryon asymmetry. We find successful Gravitational Leptogenesis to be possible in Ekpyrotic bounce cosmologies through both of these mechanisms.

Chiral massive news: null boundary symmetries in topologically massive gravity

We study surface charges on a generic null boundary in three dimensional topological massive gravity (TMG). We construct the solution phase space which involves four independent functions over the two dimensional null boundary. One of these functions corresponds to the massive chiral propagating graviton mode of TMG. The other three correspond to three surface charges of the theory, two of which can always be made integrable, while the last one can become integrable only in the absence of the chiral massive graviton flux through the null boundary. As the null boundary symmetry algebra we obtain Heisenberg ⊕ Virasoro algebra with a central charge proportional to the gravitational Chern-Simons term of TMG. We also discuss that the flux of the chiral massive gravitons appears as the (Bondi) news through the null surface.

Renormalization in gravitational leptogenesis with pseudo-scalar-tensor coupling

We consider the renormalization in the pseudo-scalar inflation models with the gravitational Chern-Simons term. In this model, lepton asymmetry is generated from the chiral gravitational waves produced due to the Chern-Simons term through the gravitational chiral anomaly. However, it is known that the naive estimate of the expectation value of the gravitational Chern-Pontryagin density as well as the resultant lepton number density depend on the UV-cutoff scale, which raises a question on their validity. In this paper, we propose a way to renormalize the expectation value of the Chern-Pontryagin density to remove the UV-cutoff dependence. We also discuss the renormalized lepton number density when we adopt the minimal subtraction scheme and the viability of the gravitational leptogenesis scenario.

Gravitational Waves in Axion Dark Matter

Axion dark matter is interesting as it allows a natural coupling to the gravitational Chern–Simons term. In the presence of an axion background, the gravitational Chern–Simons term produces parity violating effects in the gravitational sector, in particular on the propagation of gravitational waves. Previously, it has been shown that the coherent oscillation of the axion field leads to a parametric amplification of gravitational waves with a specific frequency. In this paper, we focus on the parity violating effects of the Chern–Simons coupling and show the occurrence of gravitational birefringence. We also find deviation from the speed of light of the velocity of the gravitational waves. We give constraints on the axion-Chern–Simons coupling constant and the abundance of axion dark matter from the observation of GW170817 and GRB170817A.

Gravitational anomalies in nAdS2/nCFT1

We revisit the holographic description of the near horizon geometry of the BTZ black hole in AdS3 gravity, with a gravitational Chern–Simons term included. After a dimensional reduction of the three dimensional theory, we use the framework of nAdS2/nCFT1 to describe the near horizon physics. This setup allows us to contrast the role of the gravitational and conformal anomaly inherited from AdS3/CFT2 in the symmetry breaking mechanism of nAdS2/nCFT1. Our results display how boundary conditions in the 3D spacetime, combined with the gravitational anomaly, affect the holographic description of the near horizon of the black hole relative to the physics near the AdS3 boundary.

Effects of gravitational Chern-Simons during Axion-SU(2) inflation

In this paper we examine the viability of inflation models with a spectator axion field coupled to both gravitational and SU(2) gauge fields via Chern-Simons couplings. Requiring phenomenological success of the axion-SU(2) sector constrains the coupling strength of the gravitational Chern-Simons term. We find that the impact of this term on the production and propagation of gravitational waves can be as large as fifty percent enhancement for the helicity that is not sourced by the gauge field, if the cut-off scale is as low as Λ = 20H. The effect becomes smaller for a larger value of Λ, while the impact on the helicity sourced by the gauge field is negligible regardless of Λ.

From topological to topologically massive gravity through the gauge principle

It is well known that three-dimensional Einstein's gravity without matter is topological, i.e. it does not have local propagating degrees of freedom. The main result of this work is to show that dynamics in the gravitational sector can be induced by employing the gauge principle on the matter sector. This is described by a non-dynamical fermion model that supports a global gauge symmetry. By gauging this symmetry, a vector-spinor field is added to the original action to preserve the local gauge invariance. By integrating out this spin-3/2 field, we obtain a gravitational Chern-Simons term that gives rise to local propagating degrees of freedom in the gravitational sector. This is defined, after the gauging, by topologically massive gravity.

Anomalous gravitation and its positivity from entanglement

We explore the emergence of gravitation from entanglement in holographic CFTs with gravitational anomalies. More specifically, the holographic correspondence between topologically massive gravity (TMG) with gravitational Chern-Simons term in the 3D bulk and its dual CFT with unbalanced left and right moving central charges on the 2D boundary, is studied from the quantum entanglement perspective. Using the first law of entanglement, we derive the holographic dictionary of the energy-momentum tensor in TMG, including the chiral case with logarithmic mode. Furthermore, we show that the linearized equation of motion of TMG can also be obtained from entanglement using the Wald-Tachikawa covariant phase space formalism. Finally, we identify a quasi-local gravitational energy in the entanglement wedge as the holographic dual of relative entropy in gravitationally anomalous CFTs. The positivity and monotonicity of relative entropy imply that such a gravitational energy should be positive definite and become larger when increasing the size of the entanglement wedge. These constraints from quantum information may be potentially used to discuss the UV inconsistent issues of TMG.

There is no ambiguity in the radiatively induced gravitational Chern-Simons term

Quantum corrections to Lorentz- and CPT-violating QED in flat spacetime produce unusual radiative corrections, which can be finite but of undetermined magnitude. The corresponding radiative corrections in a gravitational theory are even stranger, since the term in the fermion action involving a preferred axial vector $b^{\mu}$ would give rise to a gravitational Chern-Simons term that is proportional $b^{\mu}$, yet which actually does not break Lorentz invariance. Initially, the coefficient of this gravitational Chern-Simons term appears to have the same ambiguity as the coefficient for the analogous term in QED. However, this puzzle is resolved by the fact that the gravitational theory has more stringent gauge invariance requirements. Lorentz symmetry in a metric theory of gravity can only be broken spontaneously, and when the vector $b^{\mu}$ arises from spontaneous symmetry breaking, these specific radiative corrections are no longer ambiguous but instead must vanish identically.

Gauss–Bonnet Chern–Simons gravitational wave leptogenesis

The gravitational Chern–Simons term coupled to an evolving axion is known to generate lepton number through the gravitational anomaly. We examine this leptogenesis scenario in the presence of the Gauss–Bonnet term over and above the gravitational Chern–Simons term. We find that the lepton production can be exponentially enhanced. The Gauss–Bonnet term creates CP-violating instability of gravitational waves that may appear transiently after inflation, and during the period of instability elliptically polarized gravitational waves are exponentially amplified at sub-horizon scales. This instability does not affect the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background as it occurs at much shorter length scales. In a typical scenario based on natural inflation, the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe corresponds to the UV cutoff scale at 1014–16 GeV.

Probing topological superconductors with emergent gravity

Topological superconductors are characterized by topological invariants that describe the number and nature of their robust boundary modes. These invariants must also have observable consequences in the bulk of the system, akin to the quantized bulk Hall conductivity in the quantum Hall effect, but such consequences are made elusive by the spontaneous breaking of $U(1)$ symmetry in the superconductor. Here we focus on 2+1 dimensional spin-less $p$-wave superconductors and show that emergent gravity serves as a natural bulk probe for their topological invariant. This emergent gravity is due to the same attractive interaction between fermions that leads to superconductivity, and is therefore built into topological superconductors. The bulk response of a topological superconductor to the emergent gravitational field is encoded in a gravitational Chern-Simons term, and is related to the existence of robust boundary modes via energy-momentum conservation, or gravitational anomaly inflow. The gravitational Chern-Simons term implies a universal relation between variations in the superconducting order parameter and the energy-momentum currents and densities that they induce. The spontaneous breaking of $U(1)$ symmetry in the superconductor leads to additional bulk responses, encoded in a gravitational pseudo Chern-Simons term. Although not of topological nature, these carry surprising similarities to the topological responses of the gravitational Chern- Simons term. We show how these two types of responses can be disentangled.

Induced Chern-Simons modified gravity at finite temperature

We calculate the linearized four-dimensional gravitational Chern-Simons term at the finite temperature, show its finiteness and explicitly demonstrate that its transversal part matches the known result for the chiral vortical conductivity.

Gravitational parity anomaly with and without boundaries

In this paper we consider gravitational parity anomaly in three and four dimensions. We start with a re-computation of this anomaly on a 3D manifold without boundaries and with a critical comparison of our results to the previous calculations. Then we compute the anomaly on 4D manifolds with boundaries with local bag boundary conditions. We find, that gravitational parity anomaly is localized on the boundary and contains a gravitational Chern-Simons terms together with a term depending of the extrinsic curvature. We also discuss the main properties of the anomaly, as the conformal invariance, relations between 3D and 4D anomalies, etc.