On Higher Derivatives in 3D Gravity and Higher Spin Gauge Theories
High Energy Physics - Theory
2010-04-22 v3
Abstract
The general second-order massive field equations for arbitrary positive integer spin in three spacetime dimensions, and their "self-dual" limit to first-order equations, are shown to be equivalent to gauge-invariant higher-derivative field equations. We recover most known equivalences for spins 1 and 2, and find some new ones. In particular, we find a non-unitary massive 3D gravity theory with a 5th order term obtained by contraction of the Ricci and Cotton tensors; this term is part of an N=2 super-invariant that includes the "extended Chern-Simons" term of 3D electrodynamics. We also find a new unitary 6th order gauge theory for "self-dual" spin 3.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0911.3061,
title = {On Higher Derivatives in 3D Gravity and Higher Spin Gauge Theories},
author = {Eric A. Bergshoeff and Olaf Hohm and Paul K. Townsend},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0911.3061},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
23 pp. New references, improved spin-3 discussion. Minor additional corrections in v3