Trace-free Einstein gravity as two interacting constrained $BF$ theories

Abstract: A theory of gravity alternative to general relativity is trace-free Einstein gravity, which has the remarkable property that the cosmological constant emerges as an integration constant. In this paper, we report two fully diffeomorphism-invariant actions for trace-free Einstein gravity. They describe the theory as two $BF$ theories supplemented with some constraints. The first action comprises two copies of the constrained $BF$ theory for the Husain-Kucha\v{r} model plus an interaction term involving the fields that impose the constraints on the $B$ fields. The second action employs two copies of the chiral Plebanski action for general relativity plus an additional constraint. Both actions use complex variables, and naturally include one of the reality conditions imposed in the Plebanski formulation of general relativity. The new actions have the advantage of not involving any nondynamical fields or unimodular condition, and their only gravitational sector is trace-free Einstein gravity.