ON M-THEORY EMBEDDING OF TOPOLOGICALLY MASSIVE GRAVITY

Abstract

We show that topologically massive gravity can be obtained by the consistent Kaluza–Klein reduction from recently constructed seven-dimensional gravity with topological terms. The internal four-manifold should be Einstein with the Pontryagin four-form constantly proportional to the volume form. We also discuss the possible lift of the system to D = 11. This enables us to connect the mass parameter [Formula: see text] in D = 3 to the M5-brane charge. The dimensionless quantity [Formula: see text] is discrete and proportional to N, where N is the number of M5-branes.