Explicit versus spontaneous diffeomorphism breaking in gravity

Abstract

Gravitational theories with fixed background fields break local Lorentz and diffeomorphism invariance either explicitly or spontaneously. In the case of explicit breaking it is known that conflicts can arise between the dynamics and geometrical constraints, while spontaneous breaking evades this problem. It is for this reason that in the gravity sector of the Standard-Model Extension (SME) it is assumed that the background fields (SME coefficients) originate from spontaneous symmetry breaking. However, in other examples, such as Chern-Simons gravity and massive gravity, diffeomorphism invariance is explicitly broken by the background fields, and the potential conflicts between the dynamics and geometry can be avoided in most cases. An analysis of how this occurs is given, and the conditions that are placed on the metric tensor and gravitational structure as a result of the presence of an explicit-breaking background are described. The gravity sector of the SME is then considered for the case of explicit breaking. However, it is found that a useful post-Newtonian limit is only obtained when the symmetry breaking is spontaneous.