New canonical analysis for higher order topologically massive gravity

Abstract

A detailed Gitman-Lyakhovich-Tyutin analysis for higher-order topologically massive gravity is performed. The full structure of the constraints, the counting of physical degrees of freedom, and the Dirac algebra among the constraints are reported. Moreover, our analysis presents a new structure of the constraints and we compare our results with those reported in the literature where a standard Ostrogradski framework was developed.