Consistent spin-two coupling and quadratic gravitation

Journal Article · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Physical Review, D

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.53.5583· OSTI ID:284007

Hindawi, A; Ovrut, B A; Waldram, D ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6396 (United States)

A discussion of the field content of quadratic higher-derivative gravitation is presented, together with a new example of a massless spin-two field consistently coupled to gravity. The full quadratic gravity theory is shown to be equivalent to a canonical second-order theory of a massive scalar field, a massive spin-two symmetric tensor field, and gravity. The conditions showing that the tensor field describes only spin-two degrees of freedom are derived. A limit of the second-order theory provides a new example of a massless spin-two field consistently coupled to gravity. A restricted set of vacua of the second-order theory is also discussed. It is shown that flat space is the only stable vacuum of this type, and that the spin-two field around flat space is unfortunately always ghostlike. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}

• Research Organization: University of Pennsylvania
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76ER03071
• OSTI ID: 284007
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 53; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
COUPLING
CURVATURE
DEGREES OF FREEDOM
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
GRAVITATION
MASSLESS PARTICLES
SCALAR FIELDS
SPACE
SPIN
TENSOR FIELDS