English

Ghost-free infinite derivative gravity

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2018-10-12 v4 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We present the construction of a gravitational action including an infinite series of higher derivative terms. The outcome is a classically consistent completion of a well-studied quadratic curvature theory. The closed form for the full action is ghost-free bimetric theory, describing the interactions of a massive and a massless spin-2 field. At energies much smaller than the spin-2 mass scale, the theory reduces to general relativity. For energies comparable to the spin-2 mass, the higher derivative terms completing the Einstein-Hilbert action capture the effects of the additional massive spin-2 field. The theory is only ghost-free when the full series of higher derivatives is kept.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1807.05011,
  title  = {Ghost-free infinite derivative gravity},
  author = {Brage Gording and Angnis Schmidt-May},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.05011},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

12 pages, coefficient u3 in eq (3.21) corrected

R2 v1 2026-06-23T03:00:12.688Z