Fierz-Pauli Theory Research Articles

Massive gravity from a first-quantized perspective

In this work, we investigate the BRST quantization of the massive N=4\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\\mathcal {N}}=4$$\\end{document} supersymmetric spinning particle, with a twofold purpose: exploring different approaches to give mass to spinning particle models and formulating a first-quantized theory for massive gravity on both flat and curved spacetime. The main contribution of this study is the development of a worldline formulation of the linear theory of massive gravity, namely of the Fierz–Pauli theory, on a curved spacetime; such a theory describes the propagation of massive spin 2 particle on a non-flat background. Our results suggest that achieving the nilpotency of the BRST charge requires an Einstein spacetime with vanishing cosmological constant as the only viable consistent background. In the course of the analysis, we take the N=2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\\mathcal {N}}=2$$\\end{document} supersymmetric worldline as an exemplificative model, correctly producing the Proca theory on curved spacetime. Our analysis shows that the associated BRST system uniquely selects the minimal coupling to the background curvature.

Gravitational radiation from binary systems in massive graviton theories

Theories with massive gravitons have peculiarity called the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity in that the massive theory propagator does not go to the massless graviton propagator in the zero graviton mass limit. This results in large deviation in Newtons law for massive graviton theories even when the graviton mass vanishes. We test the vDVZ in massive graviton theories for single graviton vertex process namely the gravitational radiation from a classical source.We calculate the gravitational radiation from compact binaries using the perturbative Feynman diagram method. We perform this calculation for Einstein's gravity with massless gravitons and verify that the Feynman diagram calculation reproduces the quadrupole formula. Using the same procedure we calculate the gravitational radiation for three massive graviton theories: (1) the Fierz-Pauli theory (2) the modified Fierz-Pauli theory without the vDVZ discontinuity and (3) the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati theory with a momentum dependent graviton mass. We put limits on the graviton mass in each of these theories from observations of binary pulsar timings.

Toward a Mechanism for the Emergence of Gravity

One of the main problems that emergent-gravity approaches face is explaining how a system that does not contain gauge symmetries ab initio might develop them effectively in some regime. We review a mechanism introduced by some of the authors for the emergence of gauge symmetries in [JHEP 10 (2016) 084] and discuss how it works for interacting Lorentz-invariant vector field theories as a warm-up exercise for the more convoluted problem of gravity. Then, we apply this mechanism to the emergence of linear diffeomorphisms for the most general Lorentz-invariant linear theory of a two-index symmetric tensor field, which constitutes a generalization of the Fierz–Pauli theory describing linearized gravity. Finally we discuss two results, the well-known Weinberg–Witten theorem and a more recent theorem by Marolf, that are often invoked as no-go theorems for emergent gravity. Our analysis illustrates that, although these results pinpoint some of the particularities of gravity with respect to other gauge theories, they do not constitute an impediment for the emergent gravity program if gauge symmetries (diffeomorphisms) are emergent in the sense discussed in this paper.

Canonical Noether and the energy–momentum non-uniqueness problem in linearized gravity

Recent research has highlighted the non-uniqueness problem of energy–momentum tensors in linearized gravity; many different tensors are published in the literature, yet for particular calculations a unique expression is required. It has been shown that (A) none of these spin-2 energy–momentum tensors are gauge invariant and (B) the Noether and Hilbert energy–momentum tensors are not, in general, equivalent; therefore uniqueness criteria is difficult to specify. Conventional wisdom states that the various published energy–momentum tensors for linearized gravity can be derived from the canonical Noether energy–momentum tensor of spin-2 Fierz-Pauli theory by adding ad-hoc ‘improvement’ terms (the divergence of a superpotential and terms proportional to the equations of motion), that these superpotentials are in some way unique or physically significant, and that this implies some meaningful connection to the Noether procedure. To explore this question of uniqueness, we consider the most general possible energy–momentum tensor for linearized gravity with free coefficients using the Fock method. We express this most general energy–momentum tensor as the canonical Noether tensor, supplemented by the divergence of a general superpotential plus all possible terms proportional to the equations of motion. We then derive systems of equations which we solve in order to prove several key results for spin-2 Fierz–Pauli theory, most notably that there are infinitely many conserved energy–momentum tensors derivable from the ‘improvement’ method, and there are infinitely many conserved symmetric energy–momentum tensors that follow from specifying the Belinfante superpotential alone. This disproves several recent claims that the Belinfante tensor is uniquely associated to the Hilbert tensor in spin-2 Fierz–Pauli theory. We give two new energy–momentum tensors of this form. Most importantly, since there are infinitely many energy–momentum tensors of this form, no meaningful or unique connection to Noether’s first theorem can be claimed by application of the canonical Noether ‘improvement’ method.

A note on harmonic gauge(s) in massive gravity

We consider the harmonic gauge condition in linearized gravity, seen as a gauge theory for a symmetric tensor field. Once the harmonic gauge condition is implemented, as customary, according to the Faddeev-Popov procedure, the gauge fixed action still depends on one gauge parameter. Consequently, the harmonic gauge appears to be a class of conditions, rather than a particular one. This allows to give a physical motivation for the covariant harmonic gauge(s), which emerges when the gravitational perturbation is given a mass term. In fact, for a particular choice of harmonic gauge, we find a theory of linearized massive gravity displaying five degrees of freedom, as it should, and which is not affected by the vDVZ discontinuity, differently from what happens in the standard Fierz-Pauli theory.

On Lorentz-invariant spin-2 theories

We construct Lorentz-invariant massless/massive spin-2 theories in flat spacetime. Starting from the most generic action of a rank-2 symmetric tensor field whose Lagrangian contains up to quadratic in first derivatives of a field, we investigate the possibility of new theories by using the Hamiltonian analysis. By imposing the degeneracy of the kinetic matrix and the existence of subsequent constraints, we classify theories based on the number of degrees of freedom and constraint structures and obtain a wider class of Fierz-Pauli theory as well as massless and partially massless theories, whose scalar and/or vector degrees of freedom are absent. We also discuss the relation between our theories and known massless and massive spin-2 theories.

Non-relativistic limits and 3D massive gravity

The non-relativistic version of General Relativity, called Newton-Cartan gravity, has received renewed attention as a tool to explore (non-perturbative) properties of non-relativistic quantum field theories. The first part of this talk is a non-specialist introduction to Newton-Cartan geometry; in particular, it is shown how Newton-Cartan gravity arises as a special limit of General Relativity. The second part reviews a novel non-relativistic limit of the 3D massive spin-2 Fierz-Pauli theory to a spin-2 planar Schrodinger equation that has been proposed to describe the so-called GMP gapped spin-2 mode of fractional Quantum Hall states. The talk concludes with speculations on an extension of this non-relativistic limit to interacting massive 3D gravity theories.

Deconstructing supergravity: massive supermultiplets

Given the success of the deconstruction program in obtaining ghost-free massive gravity from 5-D Einstein gravity, we propose a modification of the deconstruction procedure that incorporates supersymmetry at the linear level. We discuss the relevant limits of a conjectured interacting theory of a massive spin 2 supermultiplet, and determine the linear theory to be the mathcal{N}=1 Zinoviev theory, a supersymmetric extension of Fierz-Pauli theory. We develop a family of 1-site deconstruction procedures for fermionic fields (yielding Dirac and Majorana mass terms). The deconstruction procedure appropriate for giving fermions a Dirac mass is found to preserve half of the supersymmetry of the 5-D theory. We explicitly check this by deconstructing 5-D mathcal{N}=2 super-Maxwell theory down to 4-D mathcal{N}=1 super-Proca theory, and deconstructing linear 5-D mathcal{N}=2 supergravity down to 4-D mathcal{N}=1 Zinoviev theory, and derive the full 4-D supersymmetry algebras and Stückelberg symmetries from the 5-D superalgebras and gauge symmetries, respectively. We conjecture that this procedure should admit a generalization to fully non-linear theories.

Soldering spin-3/2 fermions in D = 2 + 1

The soldering procedure has been for the first time generalized to the case of spin-3/2 fermionic theories. We have demonstrated that the fermionic part of the so-called “New Topologically Massive Supergravity” theory, which is of third order in derivatives, can be soldered in order to obtain a fourth order doublet model analogue to the linearized version of the New Massive Gravity theory, while the soldering of two second order self-dual models give us a theory similar to the linearized version of the Einstein–Hilbert–Fierz–Pauli theory.

Massive spin-3/2 models in D = 2 + 1

We have demonstrated that the fermionic part of the so called “New Topologically Massive Supergravity”, which is of third order in derivatives, is classically equivalent to self-dual models of lower order in derivatives, forming then a sequence of self-dual descriptions SD(i), with i=1,2,3 meaning the order in derivatives of each description. We have connected all the models by symmetry arguments through a Noether Gauge Embedment approach. This is completely equivalent to what happens in the bosonic cases of spins 1, 2 and 3, so some discussion about the similarities is made along the work. An analogue version of the Fierz–Pauli theory is suggested. Then through the NGE approach a fourth order model is obtained, which in our point of view would be the analogue version of the linearized New Massive Gravity theory for spin-3/2 fermionic particles.

Nonsymmetric tensor description of massive spin-2 particles in a curved background

Massive spin-2 particles has been a subject of great interest in current research. If the graviton has a small mass, the gravitational force at large distances decreases more rapidly, which could contribute to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe. The massive spin-2 particles are commonly described by the known Fierz-Pauli action which is formulated in terms of a symmetric tensor $h_{\mu\nu}=h_{\nu\mu}$. However, the Fierz-Pauli theory is not the only possible description of massive spin-2 particles via a rank-2 tensor. There are other two families of models $\mathcal{L}(a_1)$ and $\mathcal{L}_{nFP}(c)$, where $a_1$ and $c$ are real arbitrary parameters, which describe massive particles of spin-2 in the flat space via a nonsymmetric tensor $e_{\mu\nu}\neq e_{\nu\mu}$. In the present work we derive Lagrangian constraints stemming from $\mathcal{L}(a_1)$ and $\mathcal{L}_{nFP}(c)$ in curved backgrounds with nonminimal couplings which are analytic functions of $m^2$. We show that the constraints lead to a correct counting of degrees of freedom if nonminimal terms are included with fine tuned coefficients and the background space is of the Einstein type, very much like the Fierz-Pauli case. We also examine the existence of local symmetries.

Hamiltonian positivity of massive spin-2 particles via a rank-2 tensor

There are three families of Lagrangians describing massive spin-2 particles via a general (nonsymmetric) rank-2 tensor. Each of those families depends on an arbitrary real parameter, one of them includes the paradigmatic Fierz–Pauli theory whose Hamiltonian positivity is known and reviewed here. Here we apply the plain Dirac–Bergmann procedure in the two remaining families. We identify all Hamiltonian constraints and prove both positivity of the reduced Hamiltonian and correct counting of degrees of freedom. The positivity of each spin mode contribution is demonstrated by using spin projection operators. The massless cases are also examined. In particular, we prove positivity of the reduced Hamiltonian and correct counting of degrees of freedom of a Weyl invariant description of massless spin-2 particles.

Massive deformations of rank-2 symmetric tensor theory (a.k.a. BRS characterization of Fierz–Pauli massive gravity)

In this paper we consider the issue of massive gravity from a pure field theoretical point of view, as the massive deformation of the gauge theory for a symmetric rank-2 tensor field. We look for the most general massive theory with well defined propagators, imposing the absence of unphysical poles. We find several possibilities, depending on the choice of the gauge fixing term. Amongst these, two solutions with good massless limit are found. The request of the absence of tachyons, alone, does not isolate the Fierz–Pauli case: several examples of massive theories, which may or may not include the Fierz–Pauli mass term, are given. On the other hand, the Fierz–Pauli theory can be uniquely identified by means of a symmetry: it turns out the the Fierz–Pauli massive gravity is the only element of the cohomology of a BRS operator.

Embeddings of the “New Massive Gravity”

Using different types of embeddings of equations of motion we investigate the existence of generalizations of the "New Massive Gravity" (NMG) model with the same particle content (massive gravitons). By using the Weyl symmetry as a guiding principle for the embeddings we show that the Noether gauge embedding approach leads us to a sixth order model in derivatives with either a massive or a massless ghost. If the Weyl symmetry is implemented by means of a Stueckelberg field we obtain a new scalar-tensor model for massive gravitons. It is ghost free and Weyl invariant at linearized level. The model can be nonlinearly completed into a scalar field coupled to the NMG theory. The elimination of the scalar field leads to a nonlocal modification of the NMG. We also prove to all orders in derivatives that there is no local, ghost free embedding of the linearized NMG equations of motion around Minkowski space when written in terms of one symmetric tensor. Regarding that point, NMG differs from the Fierz-Pauli theory, since in later case we can replace the Einstein-Hilbert action by specific $f(R,\Box\, R)$ generalizations and still keep the theory ghost free at linearized level.

Gravitomagnetism in massive gravity

Massive gravity in the weak field limit is described by the Fierz-Pauli theory with 5 degrees of freedom in four dimensions. In this theory, we calculate the gravitomagnetic effects (potential energy) between two pointlike, spinning sources that also orbit around each other in the limit where the spins and the velocities are small. Spin-spin, spin-orbit and orbit-orbit interactions in massive gravity theory have rather remarkable, discrete differences from their counterparts in general relativity. Our computation is applicable for large distances, for example, for interaction between galaxies or galaxy clusters where massive gravity is expected to play a role. We also extend the computations to quadratic gravity theories in four dimensions and find the lowest order gravitomagnetic effects and show that at small separations quadratic gravity behaves differently than general relativity.

Vacuum persistence in Fierz-Pauli theory on a curved background

By explicitly constructing the Hilbert space, Higuchi showed that there is a lower bound on the mass of a minimally-coupled free spin-2 field on a curved background A. Higuchi, Nucl. Phys. B282, 397 (1987). Using the vacuum persistence amplitude, we show that this bound is modified by taking into account additional terms not prohibited by symmetry in the case of a maximally symmetric spacetime. This result can further be generalized to the maximally symmetric space case, such as the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe, and its corresponding bound of the deformation parameter is discussed.

Transverse diffeomorphism and Weyl invariant massive spin 2: Linear theory

We use Kaluza-Klein reduction to construct flat-space massive spin-2 Lagrangians based on a kinetic term that has local Weyl and transverse-diffeomorphism gauge symmetries in the massless limit. This yields Lagrangians describing a free massive spin 2 which differ from the usual Fierz-Pauli theory, but are physically equivalent to it. These Lagrangians require the use of auxiliary fields, which appear naturally from the higher-dimensional construction. We discuss how these Lagrangians are related to each other and to the Fierz-Pauli theory through St\"uckelberg transformations, gauge fixings, and field replacements, and we use this to generalize the construction to spin-2 fields on Einstein manifolds.

Massive “spin-2” theories in arbitrary [formula omitted] dimensions

Here we show that in arbitrary dimensions D≥3 there are two families of linearized second order Lagrangians describing massive “spin-2” particles via a nonsymmetric rank-2 tensor. They differ from the usual Fierz–Pauli theory in general. At zero mass one of the families is Weyl invariant. Such massless theory has no particle content in D=3 and gives rise, via master action, to a dual higher order (in derivatives) description of massive spin-2 particles in D=3 where both the second and the fourth order terms are Weyl invariant, contrary to the linearized New Massive Gravity. However, only the fourth order term is invariant under arbitrary antisymmetric shifts. Consequently, the antisymmetric part of the tensor e[μν] propagates at large momentum as 1/p2 instead of 1/p4. So, the same kind of obstacle for the renormalizability of the New Massive Gravity reappears in this nonsymmetric higher order description of massive spin-2 particles.

New massive spin two model on a curved spacetime

We have proposed a new ghost-free model with interactions of massive spin two particles in Phys.\ Rev.\ D {\bf 90} (2014) 043006 [arXiv:1402.5737 [hep-th]]. Although the model is ghost-free on the Minkowski space-time, it is not obvious whether or not this desirable property is preserved on curved space-time. In fact, Buchbinder et al. already pointed out that the Fierz-Pauli theory is not ghost-free on curved space-time without non-minimal coupling terms. In this paper, we construct a new theory of massive spin two particles with non-minimal coupling on curved space-time and show that the model can be ghost-free. Furthermore, we propose new non-minimal coupling terms.

Massive spin-2 particles via embedment of the Fierz–Pauli equations of motion

Here we obtain alternative descriptions of massive spin-2 particles by an embedding procedure of the Fierz–Pauli equations of motion. All models are free of ghosts at the quadratic level, although most of them are of a higher order in derivatives. The models that we obtain can be nonlinearly completed in terms of a dynamic and a fixed metric. They include some f(R) massive gravities recently considered in the literature. In some cases there is an infrared (no derivative) modification of the Fierz–Pauli mass term altogether, with higher order terms in derivatives. The analytic structure of the propagator of the corresponding free theories is not affected by the extra terms in the action, as compared to the usual second order Fierz–Pauli theory.