English

Light-Front Higher-Spin Theories in Flat Space

High Energy Physics - Theory 2017-03-08 v3

Abstract

We revisit the problem of interactions of higher-spin fields in flat space. We argue that all no-go theorems can be avoided by the light-cone approach, which results in more interaction vertices as compared to the usual covariant approaches. It is stressed that there exist two-derivative gravitational couplings of higher-spin fields. We show that some reincarnation of the equivalence principle still holds for higher-spin fields - the strength of gravitational interaction does not depend on spin. Moreover, it follows from the results by Metsaev that there exists a complete chiral higher-spin theory in four dimensions. We give a simple derivation of this theory and show that the four-point scattering amplitude vanishes. Also, we reconstruct the quartic vertex of the scalar field in the unitary higher-spin theory, which turns out to be perturbatively local.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1609.04655,
  title  = {Light-Front Higher-Spin Theories in Flat Space},
  author = {Dmitry Ponomarev and E. D. Skvortsov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.04655},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

26+Appendices=37 pages; one ref added

R2 v1 2026-06-22T15:50:44.692Z