Universally coupled massive gravity,III: dRGT–Maheshwari pure spin-2, Ogievetsky–Polubarinov and arbitrary mass terms

Einstein’s equations were derived for a free massless spin-2 field using universal coupling in the 1950–1970s by various authors; total stress–energy including gravity’s served as a source for linear free field equations. A massive variant was likewise derived in the late 1960s by Freund, Maheshwari and Schonberg, and thought to be unique. How broad is universal coupling? In the last decade four 1-parameter families of massive spin-2 theories (contravariant, covariant, tetrad, and cotetrad of almost any density weights) have been derived using universal coupling. The (co)tetrad derivations included 2 of the 3 pure spin-2 theories due to de Rham, Gabadadze, and Tolley; those two theories first appeared in the 2-parameter Ogievetsky–Polubarinov family (1965), which developed the symmetric square root of the metric as a nonlinear group realization. One of the two theories was identified as pure spin-2 by Maheshwari in 1971–1972, thus evading the Boulware–Deser–Tyutin–Fradkin ghost by the time it was announced. Unlike the previous 4 families, this paper permits nonlinear field redefinitions to build the effective metric. By not insisting in advance on knowing the observable significance of the graviton potential to all orders, one finds that an arbitrary graviton mass term can be derived using universal coupling. The arbitrariness of a universally coupled mass/self-interaction term contrasts sharply with the uniqueness of the Einstein kinetic term. One might have hoped to use universal coupling as a tie-breaking criterion for choosing among theories that are equally satisfactory on more crucial grounds (such as lacking ghosts and having a smooth massless limit). But the ubiquity of universal coupling implies that the criterion does not favor any particular theories among those with the Einstein kinetic term.     

String Theory and the Velo–Zwanziger problem

We examine the behavior of the leading Regge trajectory of the open bosonic string in a uniform electromagnetic background and present a consistent set of Fierz–Pauli conditions for these symmetric tensors that generalizes the Argyres–Nappi spin-2 result. These equations indicate that String Theory does bypass the Velo–Zwanziger problem, i.e. the loss of causality experienced by a massive high-spin field minimally coupled to electromagnetism. Moreover, we provide some evidence that only the first Regge trajectory can be described in isolation and show that the open-string spectrum is free of ghosts in weak constant backgrounds. Finally, we comment on the roles of the critical dimension and of the gyromagnetic ratio.     

Sp(2) renormalization

The renormalization of general gauge theories on flat and curved space–time backgrounds is considered within the Sp(2)-covariant quantization method. We assume the existence of a gauge-invariant and diffeomorphism invariant regularization. Using the Sp(2)-covariant formalism one can show that the theory possesses gauge-invariant and diffeomorphism invariant renormalizability to all orders in the loop expansion and the extended BRST-symmetry after renormalization is preserved. The advantage of the Sp(2) method compared to the standard Batalin–Vilkovisky approach is that, in reducible theories, the structure of ghosts and ghosts for ghosts and auxiliary fields is described in terms of irreducible representations of the Sp(2) group. This makes the presentation of solutions to the master equations in more simple and systematic way because they are Sp(2)-scalars.     

Creation of vector bosons by an electric field in curved spacetime

We investigate the creation rate of massive spin-1 bosons in the de Sitter universe by a time-dependent electric field via the Duffin–Kemmer–Petiau (DKP) equation. Complete solutions are given by the Whittaker functions and particle creation rate is computed by using the Bogoliubov transformation technique. We analyze the influence of the electric field on the particle creation rate for the strong and vanishing electric fields. We show that the electric field amplifies the creation rate of charged, massive spin-1 particles. This effect is analyzed by considering similar calculations performed for scalar and spin-1/2$1/2$ particles.     

Materializing superghosts

The off-shell Batalin-Vilkovysky (BV) realization has been constructed for N = 1, d = 10 super-Yang-Mills theory with seven auxiliary fields. This becomes possible due to the materialized ghost phenomenon. Namely, supersymmetry ghosts are coordinates on a manifold B of ten-dimensional spinors with the pure spinors cut out. Auxiliary fields are sections of a bundle over B, and supersymmetry transformations are nonlinear in ghosts. By integrating out the auxiliary fields, we obtain an on-shell supersymmetric BV action with quadratic terms in the antifields. Exactly this on-shell BV action was obtained in our previous paper after integration out of auxiliary fields in the framework of a pure spinor superfield formalism. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

All spin-2 cubic vertices with two derivatives

In this paper we provide a complete list of spin-2 cubic interaction vertices with two derivatives. We work in (anti) de Sitter space with dimension d?4$d?4$ and arbitrary value of cosmological constante and use simple metric formalism without any auxiliary or Stueckelberg fields. We separately consider cases with one, two and three different spin-2 fields entering the vertex where each field may be massive, massless or partially massless one. The connection of our results with massive (bi)gravity theories is also briefly discussed.     

Gauge theories of weak and strong gravity

A review of some recent papers on gauge theories of weak and strong gravity is presented. For weak gravity, SL(2, C) gauge theory along with tetrad formulation is described which yields massless spin-2 gauge fields (quanta gravitons). Next a unified SL(2n,C) model is discussed along with Higgs fields. Its internal symmetry is SU(n). The free field solutions after symmetry breaking yield massless spin-1 (photons) and spin-2 (gravitons) gauge fields and also massive spin-1 and spin-2 bosons. The massive spin-2 gauge fields are responsible for short range superstrong gravity. Higgs-fermion interaction can lead to baryon and lepton number non-conservation. The relationship of strong gravity with other forces is also briefly considered.     

Local BRST cohomology in the antifield formalism: II. Application to Yang-Mills theory

Yang-Mills models with compact gauge group coupled to matter fields are considered. The general tools developed in a companion paper are applied to compute the local cohomology of the BRST differentials modulo the exterior space-time derivatived for all values of the ghost number, in the space of polynomials in the fields, the ghosts, the antifields (=sources for the BRST variations) and their derivatives. New solutions to the consistency conditionssa+db=0 depending non-trivially on the antifields are exhibited. For a semi-simple gauge group, however, these new solutions arise only at ghost number two or higher. Thus at ghost number zero or one, the inclusion of the antifields does not bring in new solutions to the consistency conditionsa+db=0 besides the already known ones. The analysis does not use power counting and is purely cohomological. It can be easily extended to more general actions containing higher derivatives of the curvature or Chern-Simons terms.Supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and by the research council (DOC) of the K.U. Leuven.     

Solutions of free higher spins in AdS

We consider free massive and massless higher integer spins in AdS backgrounds in general D dimensions. We obtain the solutions corresponding to the highest-weight state of the spin-? representations of the SO(2,D−1) isometry groups. The solution for the spin-? field is expressed recursively in terms of that for the spin-(?−1). Thus starting from the explicit spin-0, all the higher-spin solutions can be obtained. These solutions allow us to derive the generalized Breitenlohner-Freedman bound, and analyze the asymptotic falloffs. In particular, solutions with negative mass square in general have falloffs slower than those of the Schwarzschild AdS black holes in the AdS boundaries.     

Dimensional regularization of gauge theories in spherical spacetime: Free field trace anomalies

The O(n + 1) covariant formulation of massless quantum electrodynamics in spherical spacetime is further developed to allow a calculation of the energy-momentum tensor trace anomalies for the free Dirac, electromagnetic, and SU(2) gauge fields. The principal technical development is the construction of the Faddeev-Popov ghosts for electrodynamics and SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. This construction is unconventional first in that the gauge fixing term in the Lagrangian is not a perfect square, and second because it is necessary to remove radial as well as gauge degrees of freedom from the measure of the functional integral. The ghost fields are shown to satisfy a minimal scalar field equation. The free field effective action is found to be divergent in four dimensions, and is renormalized by the inclusion in the Lagrangian of a counterterm local in the gravitational fields. The energy-momentum tensor calculated from this renormalized effective action is shown to have a trace anomaly.     

SIM(2)-invariant modifications of electrodynamic theory

In the Cohen–Glashow Very Special Relativity we exhibit possible modifications to the Maxwell theory and to the quantum electrodynamics Lagrangian in some generality, and discuss characteristic features depending on the modifications. Modified gauge transformations in SIM(2)-invariant theories are introduced and the related gauge fields, with two polarization states, can have nonzero mass. Also considered are SIM(2)-covariant modifications to the Proca-type field equations for a massive spin-1 particle.     

Gauge invariant Lagrangian construction for massive bosonic higher spin fields in D dimensions

We develop the BRST approach to Lagrangian formulation for massive higher integer spin fields on a flat space–time of arbitrary dimension. General procedure of gauge invariant Lagrangian construction describing the dynamics of massive bosonic field with any spin is given. No off-shell constraints on the fields (like tracelessness) and the gauge parameters are imposed. The procedure is based on construction of new representation for the closed algebra generated by the constraints defining an irreducible massive bosonic representation of the Poincaré group. We also construct Lagrangian describing propagation of all massive bosonic fields simultaneously. As an example of the general procedure, we derive the Lagrangians for spin-1, spin-2 and spin-3 fields containing total set of auxiliary fields and gauge symmetries of free massive bosonic higher spin field theory.     

Hamiltonian reduction of SU(2) gluodynamics

The Hamiltonian reduction of the Yang-Mills theory with the structure group SU(2) to a nonlocal model of a self-interacting 3 × 3 positive semidefinite matrix field is presented. Analysis of the field transformation properties under the action of the Poincaré group is carried out. It is shown that, in the strong coupling limit, the classical dynamics of a reduced system can be described by the local theory of interacting nonrelativistic spin-0 and spin-2 fields. A perturbation theory in powers of the inverse coupling constant g ^−2/3 that allows calculating the corrections to a leading long-wave approximation is suggested.     

Nonlinear massive spin-2 field generated by higher derivative gravity

We present a systematic exposition of the Lagrangian field theory for the massive spin-2 field generated in higher-derivative gravity upon reduction to a second-order theory by means of the appropriate Legendre transformation. It has been noticed by various authors that this nonlinear field overcomes the well-known inconsistency of the theory for a linear massive spin-2 field interacting with Einstein’s gravity. Starting from a Lagrangian quadratically depending on the Ricci tensor of the metric, we explore the two possible second-order pictures usually called “(Helmholtz-)Jordan frame” and “Einstein frame.” In spite of their mathematical equivalence, the two frames have different structural properties: in Einstein frame, the spin-2 field is minimally coupled to gravity, while in the other frame it is necessarily coupled to the curvature, without a separate kinetic term. We prove that the theory admits a unique and linearly stable ground state solution, and that the equations of motion are consistent, showing that these results can be obtained independently in either frame (each frame therefore provides a self-contained theory). The full equations of motion and the (variational) energy-momentum tensor for the spin-2 field in Einstein frame are given, and a simple but non-trivial exact solution to these equations is found. The comparison of the energy-momentum tensors for the spin-2 field in the two frames suggests that the Einstein frame is physically more acceptable. We point out that the energy-momentum tensor generated by the Lagrangian of the linearized theory is unrelated to the corresponding tensor of the full theory. It is then argued that the ghost-like nature of the nonlinear spin-2 field, found long ago in the linear approximation, may not be so harmful to classical stability issues, as has been expected.     

Cartan's contortion as a system of spin-2 and spin-0 fields

In several previous papers the author proposed to consider Cartan's contortion as a gauge field of Lorentz-group mediated by a massless spin-2 fields twin. In this article it is shown that these fields may be accompanied by a further pair of massive or massless spin-0 fields. Unfortunately, the study of the interaction of contortion with a Proca field shows that there is no reasonable macroscopic source generating the contortion. This defect is essential; the contortion mediated by standard fields can hardly exist in nature.     

Existence of Néel order in some spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets

The methods of Dyson, Lieb, and Simon are extended to prove the existence of Néel order in the ground state of the 3D spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the cubic lattice. We also consider the spin-1/2 antiferromagnet on the cubic lattice with the coupling in one of the three lattice directions taken to ber times its value in the other two lattice directions. We prove the existence of Néel order for 0.16r1. For the 2D spin-1/2 model we give a series of inequalities which involve the two-point function only at short distances and each of which would by itself imply Néel order.     

Nonuniqueness of a massive spin-2 theory

The nonunique nature of massive spin-2 fields is explicitly shown in this paper through the construction of all possible field equations, using Dirac formalism for spin-1/2 fields. Out of these four possible theories, we point out two that do not show up scalar representations.     

A class of asymptotic-preserving schemes for kinetic equations and related problems with stiff sources

In this paper, we propose a general time-discrete framework to design asymptotic-preserving schemes for initial value problem of the Boltzmann kinetic and related equations. Numerically solving these equations are challenging due to the nonlinear stiff collision (source) terms induced by small mean free or relaxation time. We propose to penalize the nonlinear collision term by a BGK-type relaxation term, which can be solved explicitly even if discretized implicitly in time. Moreover, the BGK-type relaxation operator helps to drive the density distribution toward the local Maxwellian, thus naturally imposes an asymptotic-preserving scheme in the Euler limit. The scheme so designed does not need any nonlinear iterative solver or the use of Wild Sum. It is uniformly stable in terms of the (possibly small) Knudsen number, and can capture the macroscopic fluid dynamic (Euler) limit even if the small scale determined by the Knudsen number is not numerically resolved. It is also consistent to the compressible Navier–Stokes equations if the viscosity and heat conductivity are numerically resolved. The method is applicable to many other related problems, such as hyperbolic systems with stiff relaxation, and high order parabolic equations.     

Multilocal fields—Some examples

We introduce a notion of multilocality, which is a generalization of local communitivity. We then present bilocal fields transforming as mass-m, spin-0 fields as well as a trilocal field transforming as a mass-m, spin-1/2 field. Possible interaction vertices are also given.Work supported in part by an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship and by the National Research Council of Canada.     

On energy-momentum tensors as sourcesof spin-2 fields

The improvement terms in the generalised energy-momentum tensor of Callan, Coleman and Jackiw can be derived from a variational principle if the Lagrangian is generalised to describe coupling between ‘matter’ fields and a spin-2 boson field. The required Lorentz-invariant theory is a linearised version of Kibble-Sciama theory with an additional (generally-covariant) coupling term in the Lagrangian. The improved energy-momentum tensor appears as the source of the spin-2 field, if terms of second order in the coupling constant are neglected.