Related papers: Higher spin $m\not=0$ excitations on curved backgr…
Free massive higher spin fields in weak background gravitational fields are discussed. Contrary to the spin one case, higher spin fields should have nontrivial non-minimal couplings to the curvature. A precise analysis is given for the spin…
We reconsider the consistency constraints on a free massless symmetric, rank 2, tensor field in a background and confirm that they uniquely require it to be the linear deviation about (cosmological) Einstein gravity. Neither adding…
We perform a full Hamiltonian constraint analysis of pure Ricci-scalar-squared ($R^2$) gravity to clarify recent controversies regarding its particle spectrum. While it is well established that the full theory consistently propagates three…
We derive the general $\Sigma_2\times S$ solution of topologically massive gravity in vacuum and in presence of a cosmological constant. The field equations reduce to three-dimensional Einstein equations and the solution has constant Ricci…
We address the stability issue of Ricci-flat and maximally symmetric spacetimes in nonlocal gravity to all perturbative orders in the gravitational perturbation. Assuming a potential at least cubic in curvature tensors but quadratic in the…
Pauli-Fierz approach to description of a massless spin-2 particle is investigated in the framework of 30-component first order relativistic wave equation theory on a curved space-time background. It is shown that additional gauge symmetry…
We discuss the problem of consistent description of higher spin massive fields coupled to external gravity. As an example we consider massive field of spin 2 in arbitrary gravitational field. Consistency requires the theory to have the same…
We extend to its spin~3/2 supersymmetric partner the very recent demonstration that the massless limit of massive spin~2 exchange amplitudes can be made continuous in background AdS spaces, in contrast to the known flat space…
We constrain theories of a massive spin-2 particle coupled to a massless spin-2 particle by demanding the absence of a time advance in eikonal scattering. This is an $S$-matrix consideration that leads to model-independent constraints on…
The initial data of the gravitational field produced by a loop thick string is considered. We show that a thick loop is not a geodesic on the initial hypersurface, while a loop conical singularity is. This suggests that there is the ``{\it…
We give a solution of the wave equation for massless, or massive spin-2 particles propagating in a gravitational background. The solution is covariant, gauge-invariant and exact to first order in the background gravitational field. The…
Superstring/M-theory compactified on compact Ricci flat manifolds have recently been conjectured to exhibit instabilities whenever the metrics do not have special holonomy. We use worldsheet conformal field theory to investigate…
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…
A longstanding question in superstring/$M$ theory is does it predict supersymmetry below the string scale? We formulate and discuss a necessary condition for this to be true; this is the mathematical conjecture that all stable, compact…
Pure $R^2$ gravity has been shown to be equivalent to Einstein gravity with non-zero cosmological constant and a massless scalar field. We show that the Palatini formulation of pure $R^2$ gravity is equivalent to Einstein gravity with…
We consider the issues that arise out of interpreting the ghost-free bimetric theory as a theory of a spin-2 field coupled to gravity. This requires identifying a gravitational metric and parameterizing deviations of the resulting theory…
Massive spin-2 fields in addition to the standard massless graviton arise naturally in extensions of General Relativity, such as massive bigravity or models with extra dimensions. This work explores the observational signatures of these…
We show explicitly that all partially and strictly massless fields with spins s<=3 in (A)dS have null propagation. Assuming that this property holds also for s>3, we derive the mass-cosmological constant tunings required to yield all higher…
In the last few years we have seen an increase interest on gravitational waves due to recent and striking experimental results confirming Einstein's general relativity once more. From the field theory point of view, gravity describes the…
We derive the equation of matter density perturbations on sub-horizon scales around a flat Friedmann-Lema\^\i tre-Robertson-Walker background for the general Lagrangian density $f(R,\GB)$ that is a function of a Ricci scalar $R$ and a…