Geometrical tools for embedding fields, submanifolds, and foliations

Embedding fields provide a way of coupling a background structure to a theory while preserving diffeomorphism-invariance. Examples of such background structures include embedded submanifolds, such as branes; boundaries of local subregions, such as the Ryu-Takayanagi surface in holography; and foliations, which appear in fluid dynamics and force-free electrodynamics. This work presents a systematic framework for computing geometric properties of these background structures in the embedding field description. An overview of the local geometric quantities associated with a foliation is given, including a review of the Gauss, Codazzi, and Ricci-Voss equations, which relate the geometry of the foliation to the ambient curvature. Generalizations of these equations for curvature in the nonintegrable normal directions are derived. Particular care is given to the question of which objects are well-defined for single submanifolds, and which depend on the structure of the foliation away from a submanifold. Variational formulas are provided for the geometric quantities, which involve contributions both from the variation of the embedding map as well as variations of the ambient metric. As an application of these variational formulas, a derivation is given of the Jacobi equation, describing perturbations of extremal area surfaces of arbitrary codimension. The embedding field formalism is also applied to the problem of classifying boundary conditions for general relativity in a finite subregion that lead to integrable Hamiltonians. The framework developed in this paper will provide a useful set of tools for future analyses of brane dynamics, fluid mechanics, and edge modes for finite subregions of diffeomorphism-invariant theories.