Abstract :
In this paper I present an action principle for odd-dimensional AdS gravity which consists of introducing another manifold with the same boundary and a very specific boundary term. This new action allows and alternative approach to the regularization of the theory, yielding a finite Euclidean action and finite conserved charges. The choice of the boundary term is justified on the grounds that an enhanced ‘almost off-shell’ local AdS/Conformal symmetry arises for that very special choice. One may say that the boundary term is dictated by a guiding symmetry principle. Two sets of boundary conditions are considered, which yield regularization procedures analogous to (but different from) the standard ‘background subtraction’ and ‘counterterms’ regularization methods. The Noether charges are constructed in general. As an application it is shown that for Schwarzschild–AdS black holes the charge associated to the time-like Killing vector is finite and is indeed the mass. The Euclidean action for Schwarzschild–AdS black holes is computed, and it turns out to be finite, and to yield the right thermodynamics. The previous sentence may be interpreted in the sense that the boundary term dictated by the symmetry principle is the one that correctly regularizes the action.
