Gravitational Instantons and Moduli Spaces of Topological 2-form Gravity

Abstract

A topological version of four-dimensional (Euclidean) Einstein gravity which we propose regards anti-self-dual 2-forms and an anti-self-dual part of the frame connections as fundamental fields. The theory describes the moduli spaces of conformally self-dual Einstein manifolds for the non-zero cosmological constant case and Einstein-Kahlerian manifold with the vanishing real first Chern class for the zero cosmological constant. In the non-zero cosmological constant case, we evaluate the index of the elliptic complex associated with the moduli space and calculate the partition function. We also clarify the moduli space and its dimension for the zero cosmological constant case which are related to the Plebansky's heavenly equations.