Linear connections with propagating spin-3 field in gravity
Abstract
We show that Fronsdal's Lagrangian for a free massless spin-3 gauge field in Minkowski spacetime is contained in a general Yang--Mills-like Lagrangian of metric-affine gravity (MAG), the gauge theory of the general affine group in the presence of a metric. Due to the geometric character of MAG, this can best be seen by using Vasiliev's frame formalism for higher-spin gauge fields in which the spin-3 frame is identified with the tracefree nonmetricity one-form associated with the shear generators of GL(n,R). Furthermore, for specific gravitational gauge models in the framework of full nonlinear MAG, exact solutions are constructed, featuring propagating massless and massive spin-3 fields.
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-th/0608122,
title = {Linear connections with propagating spin-3 field in gravity},
author = {Peter Baekler and Nicolas Boulanger and Friedrich W. Hehl},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0608122},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
References added. Minor corrections and clarifications. To be published in Phys. Rev. D