Spinor Field Realizations of Non-critical W2,sW_{2,s} Strings

In this paper, we construct the nilpotent Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin($BRST$) charges of spinor non-critical $W_{2,s}$ strings. The cases of $s=3,4$ are discussed in detail, and spinor realization for $s=4$ is given explicitly. The $BRST$ charges are graded.Comment: 9 pages, no figure

On M-Theory Embedding of Topologically Massive Gravity

We show that topologically massive gravity can be obtained by the consistent Kaluza-Klein reduction from recently constructed seven-dimensional gravity with topological terms. The internal four-manifold should be Einstein with the Pontryagin four-form constantly proportional to the volume form. We also discuss the possible lift of the system to D=11. This enables us to connect the mass parameter \tilde\mu in D=3 to the M5-brane charge. The dimensionless quantity 3/(G\tilde \mu) is discrete and proportional to N, where N is the number of M5-branes.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, references added, version appeared in Int.J.Mod.Phys.

Instability by Chern-Simons and/or Transgressions

It was demonstrated recently that there is an upper bound of the Chern-Simons coupling of the five-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell theory, beyond which the electrically charged AdS_2 \times S^3 vacuum solution becomes unstable. We generalize the result to a general class of gravity theories involving Chern-Simons and/or transgression terms and find their upper bounds for stability. We show that supergravities with AdS \times Sphere vacua satisfy the bounds.Comment: 18 pages, no figures, revised version to appear in JHE