Gauge symmetry of unimodular gravity in Hamiltonian formalism

Abstract

We work out the description of the gauge symmetry of unimodular gravity in the constrained Hamiltonian formalism. In particular, we demonstrate how the transversality conditions restricting the diffeomorphism parameters emerge from the algebra of the Hamiltonian constraints.The alternative form is long known of parameterizing the volume preserving diffeomorphisms by unrestricted two-forms instead of the transverse vector fields. This gauge symmetry is reducible.We work out the Hamiltonian description of this form of UG gauge symmetry. BFV-BRST Hamiltonian formalism is constructed for both forms of the UG gauge symmetry. These two BRST complexes have a subtle inequivalence: their BRST cohomology groups are not isomorphic. In particular, for the first complex, which is related to the restricted gauge parameters, the cosmological constant does not correspond to any non-trivial BRST co-cycle, while for the alternative complex it does. In the wording of physics, this means Λ is a fixed parameter defined by the field asymptotics rather than the physical observable from the standpoint of the first complex. The second formalism views Λ as the observable with unrestricted initial data.