Abstract.We report a new internal gauge symmetry of the n-dimensional Palatini action with cosmological term (n > 3) that is the generalization of three-dimensional local translations. This symmetry is obtained through the direct application of the converse of Noether's second theorem on the theory under consideration. We show that diffeomorphisms can be expressed as linear combinations of it and local Lorentz transformations with field-dependent parameters up to terms involving the variational derivatives of the action. As a result, the new internal symmetry together with local Lorentz transformations can be adopted as the fundamental gauge symmetries of general relativity. Although their gauge algebra is open in general, it allows us to recover, without resorting to the equations of motion, the very well-known Lie algebra satisfied by translations and Lorentz transformations in three dimensions. We also report the analog of the new gauge symmetry for the Holst action with cosmological term, finding that it explicitly depends on the Immirzi parameter. The same result concerning its relation to diffeomorphisms and the open character of the gauge algebra also hold in this case. Finally, we consider the non-minimal coupling of a scalar field to gravity in n dimensions and establish that the new gauge symmetry is affected by this matter field. Our results indicate that general relativity in dimension greater than three can be thought of as a gauge theory.

In this paper we present a Lagrangian method that allows the physical degree of freedom count for any Lagrangian system without having to perform neither Dirac nor covariant canonical analyses. The essence of our method is to establish a map between the relevant Lagrangian parameters of the current approach and the Hamiltonian parameters that enter in the formula for the counting of the physical degrees of freedom as is given in Dirac's method. Once the map is obtained, the usual Hamiltonian formula for the counting can be expressed in terms of Lagrangian parameters only and therefore we can remain in the Lagrangian side without having to go to the Hamiltonian one. Using the map it is also possible to count the number of first and second-class constraints within the Lagrangian formalism only. For the sake of completeness, the geometric structure underlying the current approach--developed for systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom--is uncovered with the help of the covariant canonical formalism. Finally, the method is illustrated in several examples, including the relativistic free particle.Comment: LaTeX file, no figure

The goal of this paper is to propose and discuss a practical way to implement the Dirac algorithm for constrained field models defined on spatial regions with boundaries. Our method is inspired in the geometric viewpoint developed by Gotay, Nester, and Hinds (GNH) to deal with singular Hamiltonian systems. We pay special attention to the specific issues raised by the presence of boundaries and provide a number of significant examples-among them field theories related to general relativity-to illustrate the main features of our approach.

1To circumvent some technical difficulties faced by the geometric Lagrangian approach to the physical degree of freedom count presented in the work of Díaz, Higuita, and Montesinos [J. Math. Phys. 55, 122901 (2014)] that prevent its direct implementation to field theory, in this paper, we slightly modify the geometric Lagrangian approach in such a way that its resulting version works perfectly for field theory (and for particle systems, of course). As in previous work, the current approach also allows us to directly get the Lagrangian constraints, a new Lagrangian formula for the counting of the number of physical degrees of freedom, the gauge transformations, and the number of first-and second-class constraints for any action principle based on a Lagrangian depending on the fields and their first derivatives without performing any Dirac's canonical analysis. An advantage of this approach over the previous work is that it also allows us to handle the reducibility of the constraints and to get the off-shell gauge transformations. The theoretical framework is illustrated in 3-dimensional generalized general relativity (Palatini and Witten's exotic actions), Chern-Simons theory, 4-dimensional BF theory, and 4-dimensional general relativity given by Palatini's action with cosmological constant.

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We report a formula for the dry adiabatic lapse rate that depends on the compressibility factor and the adiabatic curves. Then, to take into account the nonideal behavior of the gases, we consider molecules that can move, rotate, and vibrate and the information of molecular interactions through the virial coefficients. We deduce the compressibility factor in its virial expansion form and the adiabatic curves within the virial expansion up to any order. With this information and to illustrate the mentioned formula, we write the lapse rate for the ideal gas, and the virial expansion up to the second and third coefficient cases. To figure out the role of the virial coefficients and vibrations, under different atmospheric conditions, we calculate the lapse rate for Earth, Mars, Venus, Titan, and the exoplanet Gl 581d. Furthermore, for each one we consider three models in the virial expansion: van der Waals, square-well, and hard-sphere. Also, when possible, we compare our results to the experimental data. Finally, we remark that for Venus and Titan, which are under extreme conditions of pressure or temperature, our calculations are in good agreement with the observed values, in some instances.

We discuss a simple symplectic formulation for tetrad gravity that leads to the real Ashtekar variables in a direct and transparent way. It also sheds light on the role of the Immirzi parameter and the time gauge.

In this paper we study a family of generalizations of the Pontryagin and Husain-Kuchař actions on manifolds with boundary. In some cases, they describe wellknown models-either at the boundary or in the bulk-such as 3-dimensional Euclidean general relativity with a cosmological constant or the Husain-Kuchař model. We will use Hamiltonian methods in order to disentangle the physical and dynamical content of the systems that we discuss here. This will be done by relying on a geometric implementation of the Dirac algorithm in the presence of boundaries recently proposed by the authors.