Problems of Massive Gravities
Abstract
The method of characteristics is a key tool for studying consistency of equations of motion; it allows issues such as predictability, maximal propagation speed, superluminality, unitarity and acausality to be addressed without requiring explicit solutions. We review this method and its application to massive gravity theories to show the limitations of these models' physical viability: Among their problems are loss of unique evolution, superluminal signals, matter coupling inconsistencies and micro-acausality (propagation of signals around local closed timelike/causal curves). We extend previous no-go results to the entire three-parameter range of massive gravity theories. It is also argued that bimetric models suffer a similar fate.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1410.2289,
title = {Problems of Massive Gravities},
author = {S. Deser and K. Izumi and Y. C. Ong and A. Waldron},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1410.2289},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
17 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX, invited contribution to appear in a special issue of Modern Physics Letters A