Pull Back Invariant Matter Couplings

Abstract

An algorithm is described for the construction of actions for scalar, spinor, and vector gauge fields that remains well-defined when the metric is degenerate and that involve no contravariant tensor fields. These actions produce the standard matter dynamics and coupling to gravity when tetrad is nondegenerate, but have the property that all fields that appear in them can be pulled back through an arbitrary map of degree one and that this pull back leave the action invariant when the map has degree one.