English

Improved Positivity Bounds and Massive Gravity

High Energy Physics - Theory 2018-05-09 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Theories such as massive Galileons and massive gravity can satisfy the presently known improved positivity bounds provided they are weakly coupled. We discuss the form of the EFT Lagrangian for a weakly coupled UV completion of massive gravity which closely parallels the massive Galileon, and perform the power counting of corrections to the scattering amplitude and the positivity bounds. The Vainshtein mechanism which is central to the phenomenological viability of massive gravity is entirely consistent with weak coupling since it is classical in nature. We highlight that the only implication of the improved positivity constraints is that EFT cutoff is lower than previous assumed, and discuss the observable implications, emphasizing that these bounds are not capable of ruling out the model contrary to previous statements in the literature.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.09611,
  title  = {Improved Positivity Bounds and Massive Gravity},
  author = {Claudia de Rham and Scott Melville and Andrew J. Tolley},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.09611},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

30 pages,2 figures. Typos corrected, minor additions

R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:26:20.998Z