Chern-Simons Term for BF Theory and Gravity as a Generalized Topological Field Theory in Four Dimensions

Abstract

A direct relation between two types of topological field theories, Chern-Simons theory and BF theory, is presented by using ``Generalized Differential Calculus'', which extends an ordinary p-form to an ordered pair of p and (p+1)-form. We first establish the generalized Chern-Weil homomormism for generalized curvature invariant polynomials in general even dimensional manifolds, and then show that BF gauge theory can be obtained from the action which is the generalized second Chern class with gauge group G. Particularly when G is taken as SL(2,C) in four dimensions, general relativity with cosmological constant can be derived by constraining the topological BF theory.