No Arabic abstract
We consider the effective field theory of multiple interacting massive spin-2 fields. We focus on the case where the interactions are chosen so that the cutoff is the highest possible, and highlight two distinct classes of theories. In the first class, the mass eigenstates only interact through potential operators that carry no derivatives in unitary gauge at leading order. In the second class, a specific kinetic mixing between the mass eigenstates is included non-linearly. Performing a decoupling and ADM analysis, we point out the existence of a ghost present at a low scale for the first class of interactions. For the second class of interactions where kinetic mixing is included, we derive the full $Lambda_3$ decoupling limit and confirm the absence of any ghosts. Nevertheless both formulations can be used to consistently describe an EFT of interacting massive spin-2 fields which, for a suitable technically natural tuning of the EFT, have the same strong coupling scale $Lambda_3$. We identify the generic form of EFT corrections in each case. By using Galileon Duality transformations for the specific case of two massive spin-2 fields with suitable couplings, the decoupling limit theory is shown to be a bi-Galileon.
The consistency of the EFT of two interacting spin-2 fields is checked by applying forward limit positivity bounds on the scattering amplitudes to exclude the region of parameter space devoid of a standard UV completion. We focus on two classes of theories that have the highest possible EFT cutoff, namely those theories modelled on ghost-free interacting theories of a single massive spin-2 field. We find that the very existence of interactions between the spin-2 fields implies more stringent bounds on all the parameters of the EFT, even on the spin-2 self-interactions. This arises for two reasons. First, with every new field included in the low-energy EFT, comes the `knowledge of an extra pole to be subtracted, hence strengthening the positivity bounds. Second, while adding new fields increases the number of free parameters from the new interactions, this is rapidly overcome by the increased number of positivity bounds for different possible scattering processes. We also discuss how positivity bounds appear to favour relations between operators that effectively raise the cutoff of the EFT.
We explore the effective field theory for single and multiple interacting pseudo-linear spin-2 fields. By applying forward limit positivity bounds, we show that among the parameters contributing to elastic tree level scattering amplitude, there is no region of compatibility of the leading interactions with a standard local UV completion. Our result generalizes to any number of interacting pseudo-linear spin-2 fields. These results have significant implications for the organization of the effective field theory expansion for pseudo-linear fields.
We consider a massless higher spin field theory within the BRST approach and construct a general off-shell cubic vertex corresponding to irreducible higher spin fields of helicities $s_1, s_2, s_3$. Unlike the previous works on cubic vertices, which do not take into account of the trace constraints, we use the complete BRST operator, including the trace constraints that describe an irreducible representation with definite integer helicity. As a result, we generalize the cubic vertex found in [arXiv:1205.3131 [hep-th]] and calculate the new contributions to the vertex, which contain additional terms with a smaller number space-time derivatives of the fields as well as the terms without derivatives.
We apply a recently presented BRST procedure to construct the Largangian cubic vertex of higher-spin gauge field triplets interacting with massive free scalars. In flat space, the spin-s triplet propagates the series of irreducible spin-s, s-2,..,0/1 modes which couple independently to corresponding conserved currents constructed from the scalars. The simple covariantization of the flat space result is not enough in AdS, as new interaction vertices appear. We present in detail the cases of spin-2 and spin-3 triplets coupled to scalars. Restricting to a single irreducible spin-s mode we uncover previously obtained results. We also present an alternative derivation of the lower spin results based on the idea that higher-spin gauge fields arise from the gauging of higher derivative symmetries of free matter Lagrangians. Our results can be readily applied to holographic studies of higher-spin gauge theories.
We study ghost-free multimetric theories for $(N+1)$ tensor fields with a coupling to matter and maximal global symmetry group $S_Ntimes(Z_2)^N$. Their mass spectra contain a massless mode, the graviton, and $N$ massive spin-2 modes. One of the massive modes is distinct by being the heaviest, the remaining $(N-1)$ massive modes are simply identical copies of each other. All relevant physics can therefore be understood from the case $N=2$. Focussing on this case, we compute the full perturbative action up to cubic order and derive several features that hold to all orders in perturbation theory. The lighter massive mode does not couple to matter and neither of the massive modes decay into massless gravitons. We propose the lighter massive particle as a candidate for dark matter and investigate its phenomenology in the parameter region where the matter coupling is dominated by the massless graviton. The relic density of massive spin-2 can originate from a freeze-in mechanism or from gravitational particle production, giving rise to two different dark matter scenarios. The allowed parameter regions are very different from those in scenarios with only one massive spin-2 field and more accessible to experiments.