Structural identities in the first order formulation of quantum gravity

Abstract

We study the self-consistency of the first order formulation of quantum gravity, which may be attained by introducing, apart from the graviton field, another auxiliary quantum field. By comparing the forms of the generating functional Z before and after integrating out the additional field, we derive a set of structural identities which must be satisfied by the Green's functions at all orders. These are distinct from the usual Ward identities, being necessary for the self-consistency of the first order formalism. They relate the Green's functions involving the additional quantum field to those containing a certain composite graviton field, which corresponds to its classical value. Thereby, the structural identities lead to a simple interpretation of the auxiliary field.