Covariant spin-parity decomposition of the torsion and path integrals

Abstract

Abstract We propose a functional measure over the torsion tensor. We discuss two completely equivalent choices for the Wheeler–DeWitt supermetric for this field, the first one is based on its algebraic decomposition and the other is inspired by teleparallel theories of gravity. The measure is formally defined by requiring the normalization of the Gaußian integral. To achieve such a result we split the torsion tensor into its spin-parity eigenstates by constructing a new, York-like, decomposition. Of course, such a decomposition has a wider range of applicability to any kind of tensor sharing the symmetries of the torsion. As a result of this procedure a functional Jacobian naturally arises, whose formal expression is given exactly in the phenomenologically interesting limit of maximally symmetric spaces. We also discuss the explicit computation of this Jacobian in the case of a four-dimensional sphereS 4 with particular emphasis on its logarithmic divergences.