Partially Massless Spin 2 Electrodynamics

We propose that maximal depth, partially massless, higher spin excitations can mediate charged matter interactions in a de Sitter universe. The proposal is motivated by similarities between these theories and their traditional Maxwell counterpart: their propagation is lightlike and corresponds to the same Laplacian eigenmodes as the de Sitter photon; they are conformal in four dimensions; their gauge invariance has a single scalar parameter and actions can be expressed as squares of single derivative curvature tensors. We examine this proposal in detail for its simplest spin 2 example. We find that it is possible to construct a natural and consistent interaction scheme to conserved vector electromagnetic currents primarily coupled to the helicity 1 partially massless modes. The resulting current-current single ``partial-photon'' exchange amplitude is the (very unCoulombic) sum of contact and shorter-range terms, so the partial photon cannot replace the traditional one, but rather modifies short range electromagnetic interactions. We also write the gauge invariant fourth-derivative effective actions that might appear as effective corrections to the model, and their contributions to the tree amplitude are also obtained.Comment: 15 pages, LaTe

On generalized Abelian deformations

We study sun-products on $\R^n$, i.e. generalized Abelian deformations associated with star-products for general Poisson structures on $\R^n$. We show that their cochains are given by differential operators. As a consequence, the weak triviality of sun-products is established and we show that strong equivalence classes are quite small. When the Poisson structure is linear (i.e., on the dual of a Lie algebra), we show that the differentiability of sun-products implies that covariant star-products on the dual of any Lie algebra are equivalent each other.Comment: LaTeX 16 pages. To be published in Reviews in Mathematical Physic

Unitarity constraints on the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density in higher derivative gravity

We discuss corrections to the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density $\eta/s$ in higher-derivative gravity theories. Generically, these theories contain ghost modes with Planck-scale masses. Motivated by general considerations about unitarity, we propose new boundary conditions for the equations of motion of the graviton perturbations that force the amplitude of the ghosts modes to vanish. We analyze explicitly four-derivative perturbative corrections to Einstein gravity which generically lead to four-derivative equations of motion, compare our choice of boundary conditions to previous proposals and show that, with our new prescription, the ratio $\eta/s$ remains at the Einstein-gravity value of $1/4\pi$ to leading order in the corrections. It is argued that, when the new boundary conditions are imposed on six and higher-derivative equations of motion, $\eta/s$ can only increase from the Einstein-gravity value. We also recall some general arguments that support the validity of our results to all orders in the strength of the corrections to Einstein gravity. We then discuss the particular case of Gauss-Bonnet gravity, for which the equations of motion are only of two-derivative order and the value of $\eta/s$ can decrease below $1/4\pi$ when treated in a nonperturbative way. Our findings provide further evidence for the validity of the KSS bound for theories that can be viewed as perturbative corrections to Einstein Gravity.Comment: Sign error in the equations of motion corrected, leading to several numerical changes. Clarifications added, references added. Main results and cnclusions essentially unchanged. V3 published version. Clarifications added, discussion of Gauss-Bonnet moved to main tex

Covariant form of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic "connection theorem" in a relativistic plasma

The magnetic connection theorem of ideal Magnetohydrodynamics by Newcomb [Newcomb W.A., Ann. Phys., 3, 347 (1958)] and its covariant formulation are rederived and reinterpreted in terms of a "time resetting" projection that accounts for the loss of simultaneity in different reference frames between spatially separated events.Comment: 3 pages- 0 figures EPL, accepted in pres

Canonical connection on a class of Riemannian almost product manifolds

The canonical connection on a Riemannian almost product manifold is an analogue to the Hermitian connection on an almost Hermitian manifold. In this paper we consider the canonical connection on a class of Riemannian almost product manifolds with non-integrable almost product structure. We construct and characterize an example by a Lie group.Comment: 19 pages, some corrections in the example; J. Geom. (2012

Natural Connection with Totally Skew-Symmetric Torsion on Riemannian Almost Product Manifolds

On a Riemannian almost product manifold $(M,P,g)$ we consider a linear connection preserving the almost product structure $P$ and the Riemannian metric $g$ and having a totally skew-symmetric torsion. We determine the class of the manifolds $(M,P,g)$ admitting such a connection and prove that this connection is unique in terms of the covariant derivative of $P$ with respect to the Levi-Civita connection. We find a necessary and sufficient condition the curvature tensor of the considered connection to have similar properties like the ones of the K\"ahler tensor in Hermitian geometry. We pay attention to the case when the torsion of the connection is parallel. We consider this connection on a Riemannian almost product manifold $(G,P,g)$ constructed by a Lie group $G$.Comment: 14 pages, a revised edition, an example is adde

Two loop and all loop finite 4-metrics

In pure Einstein theory, Ricci flat Lorentzian 4-metrics of Petrov types III or N have vanishing counter terms up to and including two loops. Moreover for pp-waves and type-N spacetimes of Kundt's class which admit a non-twisting, non expanding, null congruence all possible invariants formed from the Weyl tensor and its covariant derivatives vanish. Thus these Lorentzian metrics suffer no quantum corrections to all loop orders. By contrast for complete non-singular Riemannian metrics the two loop counter term vanishes only if the metric is flat.Comment: 4 pages Latex file, no figure

BRST Detour Quantization

We present the BRST cohomologies of a class of constraint (super) Lie algebras as detour complexes. By giving physical interpretations to the components of detour complexes as gauge invariances, Bianchi identities and equations of motion we obtain a large class of new gauge theories. The pivotal new machinery is a treatment of the ghost Hilbert space designed to manifest the detour structure. Along with general results, we give details for three of these theories which correspond to gauge invariant spinning particle models of totally symmetric, antisymmetric and K\"ahler antisymmetric forms. In particular, we give details of our recent announcement of a (p,q)-form K\"ahler electromagnetism. We also discuss how our results generalize to other special geometries.Comment: 43 pages, LaTeX, added reference

A rigidity theorem for nonvacuum initial data

In this note we prove a theorem on non-vacuum initial data for general relativity. The result presents a ``rigidity phenomenon'' for the extrinsic curvature, caused by the non-positive scalar curvature. More precisely, we state that in the case of asymptotically flat non-vacuum initial data if the metric has everywhere non-positive scalar curvature then the extrinsic curvature cannot be compactly supported.Comment: This is an extended and published version: LaTex, 10 pages, no figure

Jacobi Structures in R3\mathbb{R}^3

The most general Jacobi brackets in $\mathbb{R}^3$ are constructed after solving the equations imposed by the Jacobi identity. Two classes of Jacobi brackets were identified, according to the rank of the Jacobi structures. The associated Hamiltonian vector fields are also constructed