BMS Particles in Three Dimensions

This thesis presents the state of the art in the study of Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) symmetry and its applications in the simplified setting of three dimensions. It focuses on presenting all the background material in a pedagogical and self-contained manner to enable readers to fully appreciate the original results that have been obtained while learning a number of fundamental concepts in the field along the way. This makes it a highly rewarding read and a perfect starting point for anybody with a serious interest in the four-dimensional problem.

Nominated as an outstanding PhD thesis by the Brussels Universities, Belgium and University of Cambridge, UK Offers a self-contained and pedagogical presentation with numerous schematic drawings illustrating abstract concepts Shows that the approach is driven and motivated by physical intuition, despite treating a theoretical and highly mathematical subject Is the only book to describe the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) symmetry in a way that is accessible for non-experts Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt
Introduction.- Part I: Quantum Symmetries.- Quantum Mechanics and Central Extensions.- Induced Representations.- Semi-direct Products.- Coadjoint Orbits and Geometric Quantization.- Part II: Virasoro Symmetry and AdS3 Gravity.- The Virasoro Group.- Virasoro Coadjoint Orbits.- Symmetries of Gravity in AdS3.- Part III: BMS3 Symmetry and Gravity in Flat Space.- Classical BMS3 Symmetry.- Quantum BMS3 Symmetry.- Partition Functions and Characters.- Conclusions.