Scalar Field Corrections to AdS_4 Gravity from Higher Spin Gauge Theory

We compute the complete contribution to the stress-energy tensor in the minimal bosonic higher spin theory in D=4 that is quadratic in the scalar field. We find arbitrarily high derivative terms, and that the total sign of the stress-energy tensor depends on the parity of the scalar field.Comment: 15 pages + appendix (30 pages

Chern-Simons Matter Theories and Higher Spin Gravity

We compute the parity violating three point amplitudes with one scalar leg in higher spin gravity and compare results with those of Chern-Simons matter theories. The three-point correlators of the free boson, free fermion, critical vector model and Gross-Neveu model are reproduced including the dependence on the Chern-Simons coupling. We also perform a simple test of the modified higher spin equations proposed in arXiv:1605.02662 [hep-th] and find that the results are consistent with the AdS/CFT correspondence.Comment: 39 pages; minor corrections and refs adde

Representations of p-brane topological charge algebras

The known extended algebras associated with p-branes are shown to be generated as topological charge algebras of the standard p-brane actions. A representation of the charges in terms of superspace forms is constructed. The charges are shown to be the same in standard/extended superspace formulations of the action.Comment: 22 pages. Typos fixed, refs added. Minor additions to comments sectio

Supersymmetric Higher Spin Theories

We revisit the higher spin extensions of the anti de Sitter algebra in four dimensions that incorporate internal symmetries and admit representations that contain fermions, classified long ago by Konstein and Vasiliev. We construct the $dS_4$, Euclidean and Kleinian version of these algebras, as well as the corresponding fully nonlinear Vasiliev type higher spin theories, in which the reality conditions we impose on the master fields play a crucial role. The ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetric higher spin theory in $dS_4$, on which we elaborate further, is included in this class of models. A subset of Konstein-Vasiliev algebras are the higher spin extensions of the $AdS_4$ superalgebras $osp(4|{\cal N})$ for ${\cal N}=1,2,4$ mod 4 and can be realized using fermionic oscillators. We tensor the higher superalgebras of the latter kind with appropriate internal symmetry groups and show that the ${\cal N}=3$ mod 4 higher spin algebras are isomorphic to those with ${\cal N}=4$ mod 4. We describe the fully nonlinear higher spin theories based on these algebras as well, and we elaborate further on the ${\cal N}=6$ supersymmetric theory, providing two equivalent descriptions one of which exhibits manifestly its relation to the ${\cal N}=8$ supersymmetric higher spin theory.Comment: 30 pages. Contribution to J. Phys. A special volume on "Higher Spin Theories and AdS/CFT" edited by M. R. Gaberdiel and M. Vasilie

Hamiltonian analysis of Poincar\'e gauge theory scalar modes

The Hamiltonian constraint formalism is used to obtain the first explicit complete analysis of non-trivial viable dynamic modes for the Poincar\'e gauge theory of gravity. Two modes with propagating spin-zero torsion are analyzed. The explicit form of the Hamiltonian is presented. All constraints are obtained and classified. The Lagrange multipliers are derived. It is shown that a massive spin-$0^-$ mode has normal dynamical propagation but the associated massless $0^-$ is pure gauge. The spin-$0^+$ mode investigated here is also viable in general. Both modes exhibit a simple type of ``constraint bifurcation'' for certain special field/parameter values.Comment: 28 pages, LaTex, submitted to International Journal of Modern Physics

A note on positive energy of topologically massive gravity

I review how "classical SUGRA" embeddability establishes positive energy E for D=3 topologically massive gravity (TMG), with or without a cosmological term, a procedure familiar from D=4 Einstein gravity (GR). It also provides explicit expressions for E. In contrast to GR, E is not manifestly positive, due to the peculiar two-term nature of TMG.Comment: 7 page

Test particles behavior in the framework of a lagrangian geometric theory with propagating torsion

Working in the lagrangian framework, we develop a geometric theory in vacuum with propagating torsion; the antisymmetric and trace parts of the torsion tensor, considered as derived from local potential fields, are taken and, using the minimal action principle, their field equations are calculated. Actually these will show themselves to be just equations for propagating waves giving torsion a behavior similar to that of metric which, as known, propagates through gravitational waves. Then we establish a principle of minimal substitution to derive test particles equation of motion, obtaining, as result, that they move along autoparallels. We then calculate the analogous of the geodesic deviation for these trajectories and analyze their behavior in the nonrelativistic limit, showing that the torsion trace potential $\phi$ has a phenomenology which is indistinguishable from that of the gravitational newtonian field; in this way we also give a reason for why there have never been evidence for it.Comment: 12 pages, no figures, to appear on Int. Journ. Mod. Phys.

Kundt spacetimes as solutions of topologically massive gravity

We obtain new solutions of topologically massive gravity. We find the general Kundt solutions, which in three dimensions are spacetimes admitting an expansion-free null geodesic congruence. The solutions are generically of algebraic type II, but special cases are types III, N or D. Those of type D are the known spacelike-squashed AdS_3 solutions, and of type N are the known AdS pp-waves or new solutions. Those of types II and III are the first known solutions of these algebraic types. We present explicitly the Kundt solutions that are CSI spacetimes, for which all scalar polynomial curvature invariants are constant, whereas for the general case we reduce the field equations to a series of ordinary differential equations. The CSI solutions of types II and III are deformations of spacelike-squashed AdS_3 and the round AdS_3, respectively.Comment: 30 pages. This material has come from splitting v1 of arXiv:0906.3559 into 2 separate papers. v2: minor changes

An action principle for Vasiliev's four-dimensional higher-spin gravity

We provide Vasiliev's fully nonlinear equations of motion for bosonic gauge fields in four spacetime dimensions with an action principle. We first extend Vasiliev's original system with differential forms in degrees higher than one. We then derive the resulting duality-extended equations of motion from a variational principle based on a generalized Hamiltonian sigma-model action. The generalized Hamiltonian contains two types of interaction freedoms: One set of functions that appears in the Q-structure of the generalized curvatures of the odd forms in the duality-extended system; and another set depending on the Lagrange multipliers, encoding a generalized Poisson structure, i.e. a set of polyvector fields of ranks two or higher in target space. We find that at least one of the two sets of interaction-freedom functions must be linear in order to ensure gauge invariance. We discuss consistent truncations to the minimal Type A and B models (with only even spins), spectral flows on-shell and provide boundary conditions on fields and gauge parameters that are compatible with the variational principle and that make the duality-extended system equivalent, on shell, to Vasiliev's original system.Comment: 37 pages. References added, corrected typo

Noncompact gaugings, chiral reduction and dual sigma models in supergravity

We show that the half-maximal SU(2) gauged supergravity with topological mass term admits coupling of an arbitrary number of n vector multiplets. The chiral circle reduction of the ungauged theory in the dual 2-form formulation gives N=(1,0) supergravity in 6D coupled to 3p scalars that parametrize the coset SO(p,3)/SO(p)x SO(3), a dilaton and (p+3) axions with p < n+1. Demanding that R-symmetry gauging survives in 6D is shown to put severe restrictions on the 7D model, in particular requiring noncompact gaugings. We find that the SO(2,2) and SO(3,1) gauged 7D supergravities give a U(1)_R, and the SO(2,1) gauged 7D supergravity gives an Sp(1)_R gauged chiral 6D supergravities coupled to certain matter multiplets. In the 6D models obtained, with or without gauging, we show that the scalar fields of the matter sector parametrize the coset SO(p+1,4)/SO(p+1)x SO(4), with the (p+3) axions corresponding to its abelian isometries. In the ungauged 6D models, upon dualizing the axions to 4-form potentials, we obtain coupling of p linear multiplets and one special linear multiplet to chiral 6D supergravity.Comment: 41 pages, late