Polyakov conjecture and 2+1 dimensional gravity

Abstract

After briefly reviewing the hamiltonian approach to 2+1 dimensional gravity in absence of matter on closed universes, we consider 2+1 dimensional gravity coupled to point particles in an open universe. We show that the hamiltonian structure of the theory is the result of a conjecture put forward by Polyakov in a different context. A proof is given of such a conjecture. Finally we give the exact quantization of the two particle problem in open space.

Comment: Talk by P. Menotti at the 25th Johns Hopkins Workshop, Florence September 3-5, 2001, 14 pages LaTex