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arXiv · gr-qc/0607041

Covariant Counterterms and Conserved Charges in Asymptotically Flat Spacetimes

Robert B. Mann·Donald Marolf·Amitabh Virmani
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Abstract

Recent work has shown that the addition of an appropriate covariant boundary term to the gravitational action yields a well-defined variational principle for asymptotically flat spacetimes and thus leads to a natural definition of conserved quantities at spatial infinity. Here we connect such results to other formalisms by showing explicitly i) that for spacetime dimension $d \ge 4$ the canonical form of the above-mentioned covariant action is precisely the ADM action, with the familiar ADM boundary terms and ii) that for $d=4$ the conserved quantities defined by counter-term methods agree precisely with the Ashtekar-Hansen conserved charges at spatial infinity.

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Robert B. Mann, Donald Marolf, Amitabh Virmani. 2006-07-26. Covariant Counterterms and Conserved Charges in Asymptotically Flat Spacetimes. https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381%2F23%2F22%2F017

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