Abstract
A quantity which measures total intrinsic spin along the axis is constructed for planar gravity (fields dependent on and only), in both the Ashtekar complex connection formalism and in geometrodynamics. The total spin is conserved but (surprisingly) is not a surface term. This constant of the motion coincides with one of four observables previously discovered by Husain and Smolin. Two more of those observables can be interpreted physically as raising and lowering operators for total spin.
- Received 2 April 1997
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.56.3485
©1997 American Physical Society