How higher-spin gravity surpasses the spin-two barrier

By X. Bekaert, Nicolas Boulanger, P. Sundell. 2010

318 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Aiming at nonexperts, the key mechanisms of higher-spin extensions of ordinary gravities in four dimensions and higher are explained. An overview of various no-go theorems for low-energy scattering of massless particles in flat spacetime is given. In doing so, a connection between the S-matrix and the Lagrangian approaches is made, exhibiting their relative advantages and weaknesses, after which potential loopholes for nontrivial massless dynamics are highlighted. Positive yes-go results for non-Abelian cubic higher-derivative vertices in constantly curved backgrounds are reviewed. Finally, how higher-spin symmetry can be reconciled with the equivalence principle in the presence of a cosmological constant leading to the Fradkin-Vasiliev vertices and Vasiliev's higher-spin gravity with its double perturbative expansion (in terms of numbers of fields and derivatives) is outlined.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6e8054c9b12bb181372c26b67eb8ed57b2407d4c

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Citations in the corpus

On the tensionless limit of string theory, off-shell higher spin interaction vertices and BCFW recursion relations (2010, background): “6 At least perturbatively non-local in the sense of [ 8 ].”
Higher spin interactions in four-dimensions: Vasiliev versus Fronsdal (2015, background): “This possibility was mentioned in [22] and further discussed in [23].”
Asymptotic symmetries of three-dimensional gravity coupled to higher-spin fields (2010, background): “in D � 4 can nevertheless be constructed, we refer the reader to [ 2 ].”
Light-front higher-spin theories in flat space (2016, background): “However, it is too restrictive for massless higher-spin fields to have long-range interactions, see also [39].”