Related papers: On the uniqueness of ghost-free special gravity

We construct a quadratic curvature theory of gravity whose graviton propagator around the Minkowski background respects wordline inversion symmetry, the particle approximation to modular invariance in string theory. This symmetry…

In this paper we will consider the most general quadratic curvature action with infinitely many covariant derivatives of massless gravity in three spacetime dimensions. The action is parity invariant and torsion-free and contains the same…

Since the main open problem of contemporary physics is to find a unified description of the four interactions, we present a possible scenario which, till now only at the classical level, is able to englobe experiments ranging from…

We review recent progress in massive gravity. We start by showing how different theories of massive gravity emerge from a higher-dimensional theory of general relativity, leading to the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati model, cascading gravity and…

A scale invariant Goldstino theory coupled to Supergravity is obtained as a standard supergravity dual of a rigidly scale invariant higher--curvature Supergravity with a nilpotent chiral scalar curvature. The bosonic part of this theory…

We construct a fully covariant theory of massive gravity which does not require the introduction of an external reference metric, and overcomes the usual problems of massive gravity theories (fatal ghosts instabilities, acausality and/or…

The principles of quantum field theory in flat spacetime suggest that gravity is mediated by a massless particle with helicity $\pm2$, the so-called graviton. It is regarded as textbook knowledge that, when the self-coupling of a particle…

We study a novel class of higher curvature gravity models in $n$ spacetime dimensions which we call Ricci polynomial gravity. The action is consisted purely of a polynomial in Ricci curvature of order $N$. In the absence of the second order…

We analyze 2+1-dimensional gravity in the framework of quantum gauge theory. We find that Einstein gravity has a trivial physical subspace which reflects the fact that the classical solution in empty space is flat. Therefore we study…

We propose new massive gravity theories with 5 dynamical degrees of freedom. We evade uniqueness theorems regarding the form of the kinetic and potential terms by adopting the "generalized massive gravity" framework, where a global…

In general relativity, gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light, and so gravitons are massless. The masslessness can be traced to symmetry under diffeomorphisms. However, another elegant possibility exists: masslessness can…

General relativity differs from other forces in nature in that it can be made to disappear locally. This is the essence of the equivalence principle. In general relativity the equivalence principle is implemented using differential…

In special-relativistic physics, spacetime is imbued with a fixed, non-dynamical metric tensor. A path to gravitational theory is to promote this tensor to a genuine dynamical field. An alternative description of special-relativistic…

We classify all the first-order vertices of gravity consistently coupled to a system of 2-form gauge fields by computing the local BRST cohomology H(s|d) in ghost number 0 and form degree n. The consistent deformations are at most linear in…

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…

Gravity is understood as a geometrization of spacetime. But spacetime is also the manifold of the boundary values of the spinless point particle in a variational approach. Since all known matter, baryons, leptons and gauge bosons are…

In gravitational Higgs mechanism graviton components acquire mass in the process of spontaneous breaking of diffeomorphisms (via scalar vacuum expectation values). Recently, gravitational Higgs mechanism was discussed in the context of…

The gravitational field with spin-2 is introduced naturally by the requirement that the Lagrangian is locally translation invariant in Minkowski spacetime. The interactions between the gravitational field and spin-1/2, 0, 1 matter fields…

We discuss the no-ghost theorem in the massive gravity in a covariant manner. Using the BRST formalism and St\"{u}ckelberg fields, we first clarify how the Boulware-Deser ghost decouples in the massive gravity theory with Fierz-Pauli mass…

According to Yang \& Mills (1954), a {\it conserved} current and a related rigid (`global') symmetry lie at the foundations of gauge theory. When the rigid symmetry is extended to a {\it local} one, a so-called gauge symmetry, a new…