Extended vector-tensor theories

Abstract

Recently, several extensions of massive vector theory in curved space-time have been proposed in many literatures. In this paper, we consider the most general vector-tensor theories that contain up to two derivatives with respect to metric and vector field. By imposing a degeneracy condition of the Lagrangian in the context of ADM decomposition of space-time to eliminate an unwanted mode, we construct a new class of massive vector theories where five degrees of freedom can propagate, corresponding to three for massive vector modes and two for massless tensor modes. We find that the generalized Proca and the beyond generalized Proca theories up to the quartic Lagrangian, which should be included in this formulation, are degenerate theories even in curved space-time. Finally, introducing new metric and vector field transformations, we investigate the properties of thus obtained theories under such transformations.