Covariant Approach to the No-ghost Theorem in Massive Gravity


الملخص بالإنكليزية

We discuss the no-ghost theorem in the massive gravity in a covariant manner. Using the BRST formalism and St{u}ckelberg fields, we first clarify how the Boulware-Deser ghost decouples in the massive gravity theory with Fierz-Pauli mass term. Here we find that the crucial point in the proof is that there is no higher (time) derivative for the St{u}ckelberg `scalar field. We then analyze the nonlinear massive gravity proposed by de Rham, Gabadadze and Tolley, and show that there is no ghost for general admissible backgrounds. In this process, we find a very nontrivial decoupling limit for general backgrounds. We end the paper by demonstrating the general results explicitly in a nontrivial example where there apparently appear higher time derivatives for St{u}ckelberg scalar field, but show that this does not introduce the ghost into the theory.

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