Positive signs in massive gravity
- California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Walter Burke Inst. for Theoretical Physics
Here, we derive new constraints on massive gravity from unitarity and analyticity of scattering amplitudes. Our results apply to a general effective theory defined by Einstein gravity plus the leading soft diffeomorphism-breaking corrections. We calculate scattering amplitudes for all combinations of tensor, vector, and scalar polarizations. Furthermore, the high-energy behavior of these amplitudes prescribes a specific choice of couplings that ameliorates the ultraviolet cutoff, in agreement with existing literature. We then derive consistency conditions from analytic dispersion relations, which dictate positivity of certain combinations of parameters appearing in the forward scattering amplitudes. These constraints exclude all but a small island in the parameter space of ghost-free massive gravity. And while the theory of the "Galileon" scalar mode alone is known to be inconsistent with positivity constraints, this is remedied in the full massive gravity theory.
- Research Organization:
- California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0010255; DGE-1144469
- OSTI ID:
- 1327304
- Journal Information:
- Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Vol. 2016, Issue 4; ISSN 1029-8479
- Publisher:
- Springer BerlinCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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