Reply to 'Comment on' gravity and the Poincare group''

In the first-order form, the model considered by Strobl presents, besides local Lorentz and diffeomorphism invariances, an additional local nonlinear symmetry. When the model is realized as a Poincaré gauge theory according to the procedure previously outlined by us, the generators of the nonlinear symmetry are responsible for the ‘‘nasty constraint algebra.’’ We show not only that the Poincaré gauge theoretic formulation of the model is not the cause of the emerging of the undesirable constraint algebra, but it actually allows us to overcome the problem. In fact, one can eliminate the first class constraints generating the additional symmetry without breaking the Poincaré gauge symmetry and the diffeomorphisms, so that, after a preliminary Dirac procedure, the remaining constraints satisfy only the Poincaré algebra and the equations of motion are unaltered. Some minor points put forward in his Comment are also discussed.