A note on spin two fields in curved backgrounds

Abstract

We reconsider the consistency constraints on a free massless symmetric, rank 2, tensor field in a background and confirm that they uniquely require it to be the linear deviation about (cosmological) Einstein gravity. Neither adding non-minimal higher derivative terms nor changing the gauge transformations by allowing terms non-analytic in the cosmological constant alters this fact.

5 pages - Minor misprints corrected - Version accepted by Class. Quant. Grav

References in corpus (6)

• Self-Interaction and Gauge Invariance
• Inconsistency of interacting, multi-graviton theories
• Acausality of Massive Gravity
• A note on spin two fields in curved backgrounds
• Higher spin $m\ne 0$ excitations on curved backgrounds and cosmological supergravity
• Higher curvature gravities, unlike GR, cannot be bootstrapped from their (usual) linearizations

Cited by in corpus (17)

• Theoretical Aspects of Massive Gravity
• Renormalisation of Newton's constant
• Kaluza-Klein Towers on General Manifolds
• Higher spin $m\ne 0$ excitations on curved backgrounds and cosmological supergravity
• Partially Massless Graviton on Beyond Einstein Spacetimes
• A note on spin two fields in curved backgrounds
• TDiff and Weyl Invariant Massive Spin-2: Linear Theory
• On the spacetime connecting two aeons in conformal cyclic cosmology
• Kaluza-Klein Reduction of Massive and Partially Massless Spin-2 Fields
• Consistent Gravitationally-Coupled Spin-2 Field Theory
• On the renormalization of the Gibbons-Hawking boundary term
• Unitarity constraints on the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density in higher derivative gravity
• Cosmology of Spin-2 Fields
• Note on massless and partially massless spin-2 particles in a curved background via a nonsymmetric tensor
• Conformal and gauge invariant spin-2 field equations
• Spin-2 fields and helicity
• On some links between quantum physics and gravitation