Graded Geometry, Tensor Galileons and Duality

Abstract

We review some fundamental aspects of mixed symmetry tensor gauge theories using a formulation based on graded geometry. In particular, we are able to construct kinetic, mass and Galileon-type higher derivative interaction terms for such fields. The resulting elegant geometric formulas allow for shared features of these theories to be highlighted and for possible interaction terms to be classified. In addition, we argue that this formalism is very useful in studying dualities. In particular, we construct a universal first order Lagrangian that may serve as the starting point for the off shell dualizations of differential form gauge theories and generalized gravitons.