Speaker
Description
The covariant phase space construction first introduced by J. Lee and R. Wald represents a versatile computational tool. It allows us to compute Noetheresque conserved quantitites in a number of different settings, and also to straightforwardly compare various theories of gravity. In my talk, I show how to extend this formalism beyond the class of diffeomorphism invariant theories, in particular to theories invariant only under volume-preserving (transverse) diffeomorphisms. Such theories require the introduction of some background, non-dynamical structure, which has unexpected effects on the covariant phase space formalism. Nevertheless, all the results available for the diffeomorphism invariant theories, e.g. the expressions for mass and for black hole entropy, have a direct analogy in this setting.
