Boundary terms, branes and AdS/BCFT in first-order gravity

Abstract

We provide an account of the issue of Gibbons-Hawking-York-like boundary terms for a gravity theory defined on a Riemman-Cartan spacetime. We further discuss different criteria for introducing boundary terms in some familiar first-order gravity theories with both on-shell vanishing and non-vanishing torsion, along with considerations regarding the thermodynamics of black holes and profiles of the End-of-the-World branes. Our analysis confirms the expected geodesic profile of the End-of-the-World brane in the BF formulation of Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity. Finally, we present the first realisation of the AdS/BCFT duality for spacetime with torsion.