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Disformal Closure Selects 3D Scalar-Tensor Gravity without Local Bulk Modes
Abstract
Three-dimensional Einstein gravity has no local degrees of freedom, yet retains rich global and black-hole physics. Adding a scalar normally spoils this. We show that closure of three-dimensional Horndeski gravity under disformal field redefinitions selects a square-root curvature interaction. A nonlinear analysis finds no local bulk modes on regular branches, while an independent Hamiltonian analysis confirms the result on the timelike-gradient branch. This extends the no-local-bulk-dynamics paradigm beyond pure Einstein gravity and motivates studying its boundary and global sectors.
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BibTeX
@misc{nejati2026disformal,
title = {{Disformal Closure Selects 3D Scalar-Tensor Gravity without Local Bulk Modes}},
author = {M. Shams Nejati and M. H. Vahidinia},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.13150},
eprint = {2610.13150},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.13150},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Disformal Closure Selects 3D Scalar-Tensor Gravity without Local Bulk Modes
AU - M. Shams Nejati
AU - M. H. Vahidinia
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/09
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.13150
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.13150
AB - Three-dimensional Einstein gravity has no local degrees of freedom, yet retains rich global and black-hole physics. Adding a scalar normally spoils this. We show that closure of three-dimensional Horndeski gravity under disformal field redefinitions selects a square-root curvature interaction. A nonlinear analysis finds no local bulk modes on regular branches, while an independent Hamiltonian analysis confirms the result on the timelike-gradient branch. This extends the no-local-bulk-dynamics paradigm beyond pure Einstein gravity and motivates studying its boundary and global sectors.
ER -