English

Interacting Spin-2 Fields

High Energy Physics - Theory 2013-03-19 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We construct consistent theories of multiple interacting spin-2 fields in arbitrary spacetime dimensions using a vielbein formulation. We show that these theories have the additional primary constraints needed to eliminate potential ghosts, to all orders in the fields, and to all orders beyond any decoupling limit. We postulate that the number of spin-2 fields interacting at a single vertex is limited by the number of spacetime dimensions. We then show that, for the case of two spin-2 fields, the vielbein theory is equivalent to the recently proposed theories of ghost-free massive gravity and bi-metric gravity. The vielbein formulation greatly simplifies the proof that these theories have an extra primary constraint which eliminates the Boulware-Deser ghost.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1203.5783,
  title  = {Interacting Spin-2 Fields},
  author = {Kurt Hinterbichler and Rachel A. Rosen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1203.5783},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

42 pages, 3 figures. v3 alternative argument using constrained spatial vielbeins has been removed (see footnote 3)

R2 v1 2026-06-21T20:40:09.395Z