Abstract

After presenting an intrinsic description of the geometry of null hypersurfaces, we show howEinstein's equations, that is, the Raychaudhuri and Damour eguations, can be recast as theconservation law of a Carrolian stress tensor. We then derive the symplectic structure and computethe kinematic Poisson bracket of elementary fields. These comprise the spin-0 area and surfacetension, the spin-1 null vector field and generalized angular momentum, and the spin-2 degeneratemetric and shear. Time permitting, we discuss selected topics in the quantization of this phasespace: the Raychaudhuri OPE, the spin-0 beta-gamma system, and the mesoscopic quantumgravity regime.