Related papers: Causality Constraints on Corrections to the Gravit…
We study constraints from causality and unitarity on $2\to2$ graviton scattering in four-dimensional weakly-coupled effective field theories. Together, causality and unitarity imply dispersion relations that connect low-energy observables…
According to common lore, massive elementary higher spin particles lead to inconsistencies when coupled to gravity. However, this scenario was not completely ruled out by previous arguments. In this paper, we show that in a theory where the…
We examine the role of consistency with causality and quantum mechanics in determining the properties of gravitation. We begin by examining two different classes of interacting theories of massless spin 2 particles -- gravitons. One…
We explore the relation between positivity of the energy constraints in conformal field theories and causality in their dual gravity description. Our discussion involves CFTs with different central charges whose description, in the gravity…
We show that causality constrains the sign of quartic Riemann corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action. Our constraint constitutes a restriction on candidate theories of quantum gravity.
In any quantum theory of gravity we do expect corrections to Einstein gravity to occur. Yet, at fundamental level, it is not apparent what the most relevant corrections are. We argue that the generic curvature square corrections present in…
Confining gauge theories contain glueballs and mesons with arbitrary spin, and these particles become metastable at large $N$. However, metastable higher spin particles, when coupled to gravity, are in conflict with causality. This tension…
We study the constraints coming from local causality requirement in various $2+1$ dimensional dynamical theories of gravity. In topologically massive gravity, with a single parity non-invariant massive degree of freedom, and in new massive…
In this work, we analyze a gravity model with higher derivatives including a CPT-even Lorentz-violating term. In principle, the model could be a low-energy limit of a Lorentz-invariant theory presenting the violation of Lorentz symmetry as…
We explore the constraints imposed on higher curvature corrections of the Lovelock type due to causality restrictions in the boundary of asymptotically AdS space-time. In the framework of AdS/CFT, this is related to positivity of the energy…
Causality constrains the gravitational interactions of massive higher spin particles in both AdS and flat spacetime. We explore the extent to which these constraints apply to composite particles, explaining why they do not rule out…
We argue that the presence of conformal anomalies in gravitational theories can lead to observable modifications to Einstein's equations via the induced anomalous effective actions, whose non-localities can overwhelm the smallness of the…
Motivated by holography, we explore higher derivative corrections to four-dimensional Anti-de Sitter (AdS) gravity. We point out that in such a theory the variational problem is generically not well-posed given only a boundary condition for…
In a recent paper [1], it was introduced a new class of gravitational theories with two local degrees of freedom. The existence of these theories apparently challenges the distinctive role of general relativity as the unique non-linear…
If the graviton is the only high spin particle present during inflation, then the form of the observable tensor three-point function is fixed by de Sitter symmetry at leading order in slow-roll, regardless of the theory, to be a linear…
We study all translationally and rotationally invariant local theories involving massless spin 2 and spin 1 particles that mediate long range forces, allowing for general energy relations and violation of boost invariance. Although gauge…
Self-interacting massive particles with spin $\geq 1$ unavoidably violate unitarity; the question is at what scale. For spin-$1$ the strong coupling scale (at which perturbative unitarity is lost) cannot be raised by any finite tuning of…
The prospect of detecting/constraining deviations from general relativity by studying gravitational waves (GWs) from merging black holes has been one of the primary motivations of GW interferometers like LIGO/Virgo. Within pure gravity, the…
We consider theories of three dimensional quantum gravity in Anti-de Sitter space which possess massless higher-spin gauge symmetry. The perturbative spectrum of the theory includes higher spin excitations which can be organized into vacuum…
We show that it is impossible to improve the high-energy behavior of the tree-level four-point amplitude of a massive spin-2 particle by including the exchange of any number of scalars and vectors in four spacetime dimensions. This…