Gauge Theory Formulation of Hyperbolic Gravity

Abstract

We formulate the most general gravitational models with constant negative curvature ("hyperbolic gravity") on an arbitrary orientable two-dimensional surface of genus $g$ with $b$ circle boundaries in terms of a $\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)_\partial$ gauge theory of flat connections. This includes the usual JT gravity with Dirichlet boundary conditions for the dilaton field as a special case. A key ingredient is to realize that the correct gauge group is not the full $\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)$, but a subgroup $\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)_{\partial}$ of gauge transformations that go to $\text{U}(1)$ local rotations on the boundary. We find four possible classes of boundary conditions, with associated boundary terms, that can be applied to each boundary component independently. Class I has five inequivalent variants, corresponding to geodesic boundaries of fixed length, cusps, conical defects of fixed angle or large cylinder-shaped asymptotic regions with boundaries of fixed lengths and extrinsic curvatures one or greater than one. Class II precisely reproduces the usual JT gravity. In particular, the crucial extrinsic curvature boundary term of the usual second order formulation is automatically generated by the gauge theory boundary term. Class III is a more exotic possibility for which the integrated extrinsic curvature is fixed on the boundary. Class IV is the Legendre transform of class II; the constraint of fixed length is replaced by a boundary cosmological constant term.