Acausality of Massive Gravity

Abstract

We show, by analyzing its characteristics, that the ghost-free, 5 degree of freedom, Wess--Zumino massive gravity model admits superluminal shock wave solutions and thus is acausal. Ironically, this pathology arises from the very constraint that removes the (sixth) Boulware-Deser ghost mode.

4 pages, LaTeX, references added, PRL version

References in corpus (5)

• Resummation of Massive Gravity
• Causal Propagation of a Charged Spin 3/2 Field in an External Electromagnetic Background
• Partially Massless Spin 2 Electrodynamics
• Gravitational- and Self- Coupling of Partially Massless Spin 2
• Null Energy Condition violations in bimetric gravity

Cited by in corpus (26)

• Beyond the Cosmological Standard Model
• Interacting Spin-2 Fields
• On couplings to matter in massive (bi-)gravity
• Cosmological perturbations in massive bigravity
• No-Go Theorems for Unitary and Interacting Partially Massless Spin-Two Fields
• A class of charged black hole solutions in massive (bi)gravity
• Problems of Massive Gravities
• Covariant constraints for generic massive gravity and analysis of its characteristics
• The nonlinear dynamical stability of infrared modifications of gravity
• Primordial black holes formation and secondary gravitational waves in nonminimal derivative coupling inflation
• A note on spin two fields in curved backgrounds
• The Komar mass function in the de-Rham-Gabadadze-Tolley non-linear theory of massive gravity
• Giant wormholes in ghost-free bigravity theory
• Equivalent Theories Redefine Hamiltonian Observables to Exhibit Change in General Relativity
• Nonderivative Modified Gravity: a Classification
• Energy in ghost-free massive gravity theory
• Symmetries from Locality. II. Gravitation and Lorentz Boosts
• Massive gravitons in arbitrary spacetimes
• Space-time Constructivism vs. Modal Provincialism: Or, How Special Relativistic Theories Needn't Show Minkowski Chronogeometry
• Cosmology of Massive Gravity and its Extensions
• Translation invariant time-dependent solutions to massive gravity II
• Massive graviton on arbitrary background: derivation, syzygies, applications
• Fundamental fields around compact objects: Massive spin-2 fields, Superradiant instabilities and Stars with dark matter cores
• First order formalism for bimetric theories with connection interaction
• Stable Bimetric Theories
• Massive Gravity: A Lorentz-Symmetric Aether