The Configuration Space of Conformal Connection-Dynamics
  The configuration space of the reduced Hamiltonian formulation of quantum gravity has been shown, for non-Ricci flat metrics, to be a higher-dimensional analogue of the Teichm\"{u}ller space of conformal structures on a Riemann surface. In this article we show that the configuration space of conformal connection-dynamics is naturally a higher-dimensional Teichm\"{u}ller space, subject to the same condition. An immediate consequence of this result is that the Barbero-Immirzi parameter of loop quantum gravity naturally assumes a dilatonic character in all conformal canonical gravity theories. 
James A. Reid and Charles H.-T. Wang
gr-qc math.DG