Gauging the Carroll algebra and ultra-relativistic gravity

Abstract: It is well known that the geometrical framework of Riemannian geometry that underlies general relativity and its torsionful extension to Riemann-Cartan geometry can be obtained from a procedure known as gauging the Poincaré algebra. Recently it has been shown that gauging the centrally extended Galilei algebra, known as the Bargmann algebra, leads to a geometrical framework that when made dynamical gives rise to Hořava-Lifshitz gravity. Here we consider the case where we contract the Poincaré algebra by sending the speed of light to zero leading to the Carroll algebra. We show how this algebra can be gauged and we construct the most general affine connection leading to the geometry of so-called Carrollian space-times. Carrollian space-times appear for example as the geometry on null hypersurfaces in a Lorentzian space-time of one dimension higher. We also construct theories of ultra-relativistic (Carrollian) gravity in 2+1 dimensions with dynamical exponent z < 1 including cases that have anisotropic Weyl invariance for z = 0.SCOPUS: ar.j