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Massive spin-2 scattering and asymptotic superluminality

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  • Published: 09 March 2018
  • Volume 2018, article number 51, (2018)
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Massive spin-2 scattering and asymptotic superluminality
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  • Kurt Hinterbichler1,
  • Austin Joyce2 &
  • Rachel A. Rosen2 

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A preprint version of the article is available at arXiv.

Abstract

We place model-independent constraints on theories of massive spin-2 particles by considering the positivity of the phase shift in eikonal scattering. The phase shift is an asymptotic S-matrix observable, related to the time delay/advance experienced by a particle during scattering. Demanding the absence of a time advance leads to constraints on the cubic vertices present in the theory. We find that, in theories with massive spin-2 particles, requiring no time advance means that either: (i) the cubic vertices must appear as a particular linear combination of the Einstein-Hilbert cubic vertex and an h 3 μν potential term or (ii) new degrees of freedom or strong coupling must enter at parametrically the mass of the massive spin-2 field. These conclusions have implications for a variety of situations. Applied to theories of large-N QCD, this indicates that any spectrum with an isolated massive spin-2 at the bottom must have these particular cubic self-couplings. Applied to de Rham-Gabadadze-Tolley massive gravity, the constraint is in accord with results obtained from a shockwave calculation: of the two free dimensionless parameters in the theory there is a one parameter line consistent with a subluminal phase shift.

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  1. CERCA, Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH, 44106, U.S.A.

    Kurt Hinterbichler

  2. Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, U.S.A.

    Austin Joyce & Rachel A. Rosen

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  1. Kurt Hinterbichler
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Correspondence to Austin Joyce.

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ArXiv ePrint: 1708.05716

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Hinterbichler, K., Joyce, A. & Rosen, R.A. Massive spin-2 scattering and asymptotic superluminality. J. High Energ. Phys. 2018, 51 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2018)051

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  • Received: 18 September 2017

  • Revised: 19 December 2017

  • Accepted: 26 February 2018

  • Published: 09 March 2018

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2018)051

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Keywords

  • Classical Theories of Gravity
  • Effective Field Theories
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