arXiv subjects

José Figueroa-O'Farrill

Publications and source records attributed to José Figueroa-O'Farrill.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Massive and massless particles in Mielke--Baekler geometries

The Mielke--Baekler geometries are three-dimensional reductive homogeneous spacetimes together with a choice of invariant connection which is compatible with a lorentzian metric. The spacetimes generalise Minkowski and (anti)de~Sitter spacetimes in that the invariant metric connection can have torsion, a peculiarity of three dimensions. Using coadjoint orbits and the techniques of nonlinear realisations, we construct worldline actions for massive and massless spinning particles moving in these spacetimes. We pay particular attention to the so-called teleparallel branch, in which the curvature of the invariant connection vanishes. Apart from the trivial Minkowski case, this singles out anti-de~Sitter spacetime, as the only of these lorentzian manifolds admitting an invariant Weitzenböck connection; that is, a flat connection with torsion. The introduction of a Wess--Zumino term describing spin has, as a main consequence, the appearance of dynamical sectors (denoted ``regular'' and ``critical''), with a different number of physical degrees of freedom. In particular, in the massive case, we discuss the formulation of the dynamics in terms of either the Weitzenböck or the Levi-Civita connection, and the emergence of a Papapetrou-type forcing term in the critical sector. For the massless particle we study the Noether symmetries of the action, which, for the spinless case, include the conformal transformations. For nonzero spin, only the Killing subset survives as genuine Noether transformations in the regular sector, while in the critical sector any conformal Killing contribution can be set to zero by a gauge transformation.

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arXiv2025

Quantum carrollian bosonic strings

We study a recently discovered carrollian bosonic string, described classically by a sigma model where both the worldsheet and the target spacetime are carrollian. After fixing the carrollian analogue of the conformal gauge, we determine the Lie algebra of residual gauge symmetries and show it is isomorphic to the three-dimensional extended BMS algebra. We quantise the sigma model à la BRST and determine the spectrum of the corresponding string theory by computing the BRST cohomology. In contrast with the usual bosonic string, the spectrum of the carrollian string is finite-dimensional. The cohomology displays Poincaré duality and can be interpreted, for a given momentum, as inducing representations for unitary irreducible representations of the 26-dimensional Carroll group. Furthermore we interpret (most of) the cohomology as deformations of the spacetime carrollian structure augmented by the Kalb--Ramond field to which the carrollian string couples.

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arXiv2025

A Celestial Kinematical Interpretation for an Extended BMS$_4$

Motivated by the work of Longhi and Materassi, who constructed a realisation of the (centreless) BMS$_4$ algebra for the massive Klein-Gordon field in $3+1$, we build a realisation of the (centreless) massless BMS$_4$ algebra including super-rotations. This realisation depends only on the momenta in the lightcone expressed in celestial coordinates without any reference to the Klein--Gordon field. The quadratic Casimir of the Lorentz algebra is written in terms of a second order differential operator and the volume form plays an essential role in this construction. The BMS$_4$ algebra in terms of vector fields shows its kinematical nature, like the Poincaré algebra. We also construct a dynamical realisation of BMS$_4$ from the symplectic structure on the solutions of the massless four-dimensional Klein--Gordon field in terms of quadratic expressions of the Fourier modes and plane waves invariant under translations. Using the Mellin transform, we rewrite the Klein--Gordon field in terms of the boost invariant basis, and write down the corresponding BMS$_4$ realization. We also provide the relation with spherical harmonics, linking our results with the solutions of Longhi-Materassi, which are in fact a subset of ours.

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arXiv2025

Planons and their Carroll-Galilei symmetries

We study the dynamics of planons, particles whose mobility is restricted to a plane, through the classification of coadjoint orbits and unitary irreducible representations of the centrally extended planon group. Planons are closely related to Galilei/Bargmann symmetries and, remarkably, the often-ignored massless coadjoint orbits of the Galilei group play a central rôle in their description. We thereby provide a nontrivial physical interpretation of these orbits. We further construct classical and quantum dipoles as bound states of monopoles, where the restricted planar motion arises from a novel mixed Carroll-Galilei symmetry. We also argue that the simplest and already experimentally realised systems with Carroll symmetry are in crystals.

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arXiv2025

The BRST quantisation of chiral BMS-like field theories

The BMS$_3$ Lie algebra belongs to a one-parameter family of Lie algebras obtained by centrally extending abelian extensions of the Witt algebra by a tensor density representation. In this paper we call such Lie algebras $\hat{\mathfrak{g}}_λ$, with BMS$_3$ corresponding to the universal central extension of $λ= -1$. We construct the BRST complex for $\hat{\mathfrak{g}}_λ$ in two different ways: one in the language of semi-infinite cohomology and the other using the formalism of vertex operator algebras. We pay particular attention to the case of BMS$_3$ and discuss some natural field-theoretical realisations. We prove two theorems about the BRST cohomology of $\hat{\mathfrak{g}}_λ$. The first is the construction of a quasi-isomorphic embedding of the chiral sector of any Virasoro string as a $\hat{\mathfrak{g}}_λ$ string. The second is the isomorphism (as Batalin-Vilkovisky algebras) of any $\hat{\mathfrak{g}}_λ$ BRST cohomology and the chiral ring of a topologically twisted $N{=}2$ superconformal field theory.

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arXiv2024

BMS-like algebras: canonical realisations and BRST quantisation

We generalise BMS algebras in three dimensions by the introduction of an arbitrary real parameter $λ$, recovering the standard algebras (BMS, extended BMS and Weyl-BMS) for $λ=-1$. We exhibit a realisation of the (centreless) Weyl $λ$-BMS algebra in terms of the symplectic structure on the space of solutions of the massless Klein-Gordon equation in $2+1$, using the eigenstates of the spacetime momentum operator. The quadratic Casimir of the Lorentz algebra plays an essential rôle in the construction. The Weyl $λ$-BMS algebra admits a three-parameter family of central extensions, resulting in the (centrally extended) Weyl-BMS algebra, which we reformulate in terms of operator product expansions. We construct the BRST complex of a putative Weyl-BMS string and show that the BRST cohomology is isomorphic to the chiral ring of a topologically twisted $N=2$ superconformal field theory. We also comment on the obstructions to obtaining a conformal BMS Lie algebra -- that is, one that includes in addition the special-conformal generators -- and the need to consider a W-algebra. We then construct the quantum version of this W-algebra in terms of operator product expansions. We show that this W-algebra does not admit a BRST complex.

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arXiv2024

Carrollian and celestial spaces at infinity

We show that the geometry of the asymptotic infinities of Minkowski spacetime (in $d+1$ dimensions) is captured by homogeneous spaces of the Poincaré group: the blow-ups of spatial (Spi) and timelike (Ti) infinities in the sense of Ashtekar--Hansen and a novel space Ni fibering over $\mathscr{I}$. We embed these spaces à la Penrose--Rindler into a pseudo-euclidean space of signature $(d+1,2)$ as orbits of the same Poincaré subgroup of O$(d+1,2)$. We describe the corresponding Klein pairs and determine their Poincaré-invariant structures: a carrollian structure on Ti, a pseudo-carrollian structure on Spi and a "doubly-carrollian" structure on Ni. We give additional geometric characterisations of these spaces as grassmannians of affine hyperplanes in Minkowski spacetime: Spi is the (double cover of the) grassmannian of affine lorentzian hyperplanes; Ti is the grassmannian of affine spacelike hyperplanes and Ni fibers over the grassmannian of affine null planes, which is $\mathscr{I}$. We exhibit Ni as the fibred product of $\mathscr{I}$ and the lightcone over the celestial sphere. We also show that Ni is the total space of the bundle of scales of the conformal carrollian structure on $\mathscr{I}$ and show that the symmetry algebra of its doubly-carrollian structure is isomorphic to the symmetry algebra of the conformal carrollian structure on $\mathscr{I}$; that is, the BMS algebra. We show how to reconstruct Minkowski spacetime from any of its asymptotic geometries, by establishing that points in Minkowski spacetime parametrise certain lightcone cuts in the asymptotic geometries. We include an appendix comparing with (A)dS and observe that the de Sitter groups have no homogeneous spaces which could play the rôle that the celestial sphere plays in flat space holography.

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arXiv2023

$p$-brane Galilean and Carrollian Geometries and Gravities

We study $D$-dimensional $p$-brane Galilean geometries via the intrinsic torsion of their adapted connections. These non-Lorentzian geometries are examples of $G$-structures whose characteristic tensors consist of two degenerate ``metrics'' of ranks $(p+1)$ and $(D-p-1)$. We carry out the analysis in two different ways. In one way, inspired by Cartan geometry, we analyse in detail the space of intrinsic torsions (technically, the cokernel of a Spencer differential) as a representation of $G$, exhibiting for generic $(p,D)$ five classes of such geometries, which we then proceed to interpret geometrically. We show how to re-interpret this classification in terms of ($D-p-2$)-brane Carrollian geometries. The same result is recovered by methods inspired by similar results in the physics literature: namely by studying how far an adapted connection can be determined by the characteristic tensors and by studying which components of the torsion tensor do not depend on the connection. As an application, we derive a gravity theory with underlying $p$-brane Galilean geometry as a non-relativistic limit of Einstein--Hilbert gravity and discuss how it gives a gravitational realisation of some of the intrinsic torsion constraints found in this paper. Our results also have implications for gravity theories with an underlying ($D-p-2$)-brane Carrollian geometry.

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arXiv2023

Quantum Carroll/fracton particles

We classify and relate unitary irreducible representations (UIRs) of the Carroll and dipole groups, i.e., we define elementary quantum Carroll and fracton particles and establish a correspondence between them. Whenever possible, we express the UIRs in terms of fields on Carroll/aristotelian spacetime subject to their free field equations. We emphasise that free massive (or "electric") Carroll and fracton quantum field theories are ultralocal field theories and highlight their peculiar and puzzling thermodynamic features. We also comment on subtle differences between massless and "magnetic" Carroll field theories and discuss the importance of Carroll and fractons symmetries for flat space holography.

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arXiv2023

Carroll/fracton particles and their correspondence

We exploit the close relationship between the Carroll and fracton/dipole algebras, together with the method of coadjoint orbits, to define and classify classical Carroll and fracton particles. This approach establishes a Carroll/fracton correspondence and provides an answer to the question "What is a fracton?". Under this correspondence, carrollian energy and center-of-mass correspond to the fracton electric charge and dipole moment, respectively. Then immobile massive Carroll particles correspond to the fracton monopoles, whereas certain mobile Carroll particles ("centrons") correspond to fracton elementary dipoles. We uncover various new massless carrollian/neutral fractonic particles, provide an action in each case and relate them via a $GL(2,\mathbb{R})$ symmetry. We also comment on the limit from Poincaré particles, the relation to (electric and magnetic) Carroll field theories, contrast Carroll boosts with dipole transformations and highlight a generalisation to curved space ((A)dS Carroll).

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arXiv2023

From pp-Waves to Galilean Spacetimes

We exhibit all spatially isotropic homogeneous Galilean spacetimes of dimension $(n+1) \geq 4$, including the novel torsional ones, as null reductions of homogeneous pp-wave spacetimes. We also show that the pp-waves are sourced by pure radiation fields and analyse their global properties.

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arXiv2023

A non-lorentzian primer

We review both the kinematics and dynamics of non-lorentzian theories and their associated geometries. First, we introduce non-lorentzian kinematical spacetimes and their symmetry algebras. Next, we construct actions describing the particle dynamics in some of these kinematical spaces using the method of nonlinear realisations. We explain the relation with the coadjoint orbit method. We continue discussing three types of non-lorentzian gravity theories: Galilei gravity, Newton-Cartan gravity and Carroll gravity. Introducing matter, we discuss electric and magnetic non-lorentzian field theories for three different spins: spin-0, spin-1/2 and spin-1, as limits of relativistic theories.

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arXiv2022

Symplectic Actions and Central Extensions

We give a proof of the fact that a simply-connected symplectic homogeneous space $(M,ω)$ of a connected Lie group $G$ is the universal cover of a coadjoint orbit of a one-dimensional central extension of $G$. We emphasise the rôle of symplectic group cocycles and the relationship between such cocycles, left-invariant presymplectic structures on $G$ and central extensions of $G$; in particular, we show that integrability of a central extension of $\mathfrak{g}$ to a central extension of $G$ is equivalent to integrability of a representative Chevalley-Eilenberg 2-cocycle of $\mathfrak{g}$ to a symplectic cocycle of $G$.

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arXiv2022

Kaluza-Klein reductions of maximally supersymmetric five-dimensional lorentzian spacetimes

A recent study of filtered deformations of (graded subalgebras of) the minimal five-dimensional Poincaré superalgebra resulted in two classes of maximally supersymmetric spacetimes. One class are the well-known maximally supersymmetric backgrounds of minimal five-dimensional supergravity, whereas the other class does not seem to be related to supergravity. This paper is a study of the Kaluza--Klein reductions to four dimensions of this latter class of maximally supersymmetric spacetimes. We classify the lorentzian and riemannian Kaluza--Klein reductions of these backgrounds, determine the fraction of the supersymmetry preserved under the reduction and in most cases determine explicitly the geometry of the four-dimensional quotient. Among the many supersymmetric quotients found, we highlight a number of novel non-homogeneous four-dimensional lorentzian spacetimes admitting $N=1$ supersymmetry, whose supersymmetry algebra is not a filtered deformation of any graded subalgebra of the four-dimensional $N=1$ Poincaré superalgebra. Any of these four-dimensional lorentzian spacetimes may serve as the arena for the construction of new rigidly supersymmetric field theories.

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arXiv2022

Lie algebraic Carroll/Galilei duality

We characterise Lie groups with bi-invariant bargmannian, galilean or carrollian structures. Localising at the identity, we show that Lie algebras with ad-invariant bargmannian, carrollian or galilean structures are actually determined by the same data: a metric Lie algebra with a skew-symmetric derivation. This is the same data defining a one-dimensional double extension of the metric Lie algebra and, indeed, bargmannian Lie algebras coincide with such double extensions, containing carrollian Lie algebras as an ideal and projecting to galilean Lie algebras. This sets up a canonical correspondence between carrollian and galilean Lie algebras mediated by bargmannian Lie algebras. This reformulation allows us to use the structure theory of metric Lie algebras to give a list of bargmannian, carrollian and galilean Lie algebras in the positive-semidefinite case. We also characterise Lie groups admitting a bi-invariant (ambient) leibnizian structure. Leibnizian Lie algebras extend the class of bargmannian Lie algebras and also set up a non-canonical correspondence between carrollian and galilean Lie algebras.

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arXiv2022

Lifshitz symmetry: Lie algebras, spacetimes and particles

We study and classify Lie algebras, homogeneous spacetimes and coadjoint orbits ("particles") of Lie groups generated by spatial rotations, temporal and spatial translations and an additional scalar generator. As a first step we classify Lie algebras of this type in arbitrary dimension. Among them is the prototypical Lifshitz algebra, which motivates this work and the name "Lifshitz Lie algebras". We classify homogeneous spacetimes of Lifshitz Lie groups. Depending on the interpretation of the additional scalar generator, these spacetimes fall into three classes: (1) ($d+2$)-dimensional Lifshitz spacetimes which have one additional holographic direction; (2) ($d+1$)-dimensional Lifshitz--Weyl spacetimes which can be seen as the boundary geometry of the spacetimes in (1) and where the scalar generator is interpreted as an anisotropic dilation; and (3) ($d+1$)-dimensional aristotelian spacetimes with one scalar charge, including exotic fracton-like symmetries that generalise multipole algebras. We also classify the possible central extensions of Lifshitz Lie algebras and we discuss the homogeneous symplectic manifolds of Lifshitz Lie groups in terms of coadjoint orbits.

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arXiv2022

Particle dynamics on torsional galilean spacetimes

We study free particle motion on homogeneous kinematical spacetimes of galilean type. The three well-known cases of Galilei and (A)dS--Galilei spacetimes are included in our analysis, but our focus will be on the previously unexplored torsional galilean spacetimes. We show how in well-chosen coordinates free particle motion becomes equivalent to the dynamics of a damped harmonic oscillator, with the damping set by the torsion. The realization of the kinematical symmetry algebra in terms of conserved charges is subtle and comes with some interesting surprises, such as a homothetic version of hamiltonian vector fields and a corresponding generalization of the Poisson bracket. We show that the Bargmann extension is universal to all galilean kinematical symmetries, but also that it is no longer central for nonzero torsion. We also present a geometric interpretation of this fact through the Eisenhart lift of the dynamics.

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arXiv2022

The gauging procedure and carrollian gravity

We discuss a gauging procedure that allows us to construct lagrangians that dictate the dynamics of an underlying Cartan geometry. In a sense to be made precise in the paper, the starting datum in the gauging procedure is a Klein pair corresponding to a homogeneous space. What the gauging procedure amounts to is the construction of a Cartan geometry modelled on that Klein geometry, with the gauge field defining a Cartan connection. The lagrangian itself consists of all gauge-invariant top-forms constructed from the Cartan connection and its curvature. After demonstrating that this procedure produces four-dimensional General Relativity upon gauging Minkowski spacetime, we proceed to gauge all four-dimensional maximally symmetric carrollian spaces: Carroll, (anti-)de Sitter--Carroll and the lightcone. For the first three of these spaces, our lagrangians generalise earlier first-order lagrangians. The resulting theories of carrollian gravity all take the same form, which seems to be a manifestation of model mutation at the level of the lagrangians. The odd one out, the lightcone, is not reductive and this means that although the equations of motion take the same form as in the other cases, the geometric interpretation is different. For all carrollian theories of gravity we obtain analogues of the Gauss--Bonnet, Pontryagin and Nieh--Yan topological terms, as well as two additional terms that are intrinsically carrollian and seem to have no lorentzian counterpart. Since we gauge the theories from scratch this work also provides a no-go result for the electric carrollian theory in a first-order formulation.

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