English

Looking for partially-massless gravity

High Energy Physics - Theory 2019-09-04 v2

Abstract

We study the possibility for a unitary theory of partially-massless (PM) spin-two field interacting with Gravity in arbitrary dimensions. We show that the gauge and parity invariant interaction of PM spin two particles requires the inclusion of specific massive spin-two fields and leads to a reconstruction of Conformal Gravity, or multiple copies of the latter in even dimensions. By relaxing the parity invariance, we find a possibility of a unitary theory in four dimensions, but this theory cannot be constructed in the standard formulation, due to the absence of the parity-odd cubic vertex therein. Finally, by relaxing the general covariance, we show that a `non-geometric' coupling between massless and PM spin-two fields may lead to an alternative possibility of a unitary theory. We also clarify some aspects of interactions between massless, partially-massless and massive fields, and resolve disagreements in the literature.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1904.05915,
  title  = {Looking for partially-massless gravity},
  author = {Euihun Joung and Karapet Mkrtchyan and Gabriel Poghosyan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.05915},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

47 pages, journal version with minor corrections

R2 v1 2026-06-23T08:37:13.100Z