Generalised connections and higher-spin equations

We consider high-derivative equations obtained setting to zero the divergence of the higher-spin curvatures in metric-like form, showing their equivalence to the second-order equations emerging from the tensionless limit of open string field theory, which propagate reducible spectra of particles with different spins. This result can be viewed as complementary to the possibility of setting to zero a single trace of the higher-spin field strengths, which yields an equation known to imply Fronsdal's equation in the compensator form. Higher traces and divergences of the curvatures produce a whole pattern of high-derivative equations whose systematics is also presented.Comment: 12 pages, minor change

Low-spin models for higher-spin Lagrangians

Higher-spin theories are most commonly modelled on the example of spin 2. While this is appropriate for the description of free irreducible spin-s particles, alternative options could be equally interesting. In particular Maxwell's equations provide the effective model for maximally reducible theories of higher spins inspired by the tensionless limit of the open string. For both options, as well as for their fermionic counterparts, one can extend the analogy beyond the equations for the gauge potentials, formulating the corresponding Lagrangians in terms of higher-spin curvatures. The associated non-localities are effectively due to the elimination of auxiliary fields and do not modify the spectrum. Massive deformations of these theories are also possible, and in particular in this contribution we propose a generalisation of the Proca Lagrangian for the Maxwell-inspired geometric theories.Comment: 12 pages, PTPTeX. Contribution to the proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on String Field Theory and Related Aspects (SFT 2010), Kyoto, Japan, 18-22 Oct 201

Mixed-symmetry multiplets and higher-spin curvatures

We study the higher-derivative equations for gauge potentials of arbitrary mixed-symmetry type obtained by setting to zero the divergences of the corresponding curvature tensors. We show that they propagate the same reducible multiplets as the Maxwell-like second-order equations for gauge fields subject to constrained gauge transformations. As an additional output of our analysis, we provide a streamlined presentation of the Ricci-like case, where the traces of the same curvature tensors are set to zero, and we present a simple algebraic evaluation of the particle content associated with the Labastida and with the Maxwell-like second-order equations.Comment: 24 page

On higher-spin supertranslations and superrotations

We study the large gauge transformations of massless higher-spin fields in four-dimensional Minkowski space. Upon imposing suitable fall-off conditions, providing higher-spin counterparts of the Bondi gauge, we observe the existence of an infinite-dimensional asymptotic symmetry algebra. The corresponding Ward identities can be held responsible for Weinberg's factorization theorem for amplitudes involving soft particles of spin greater than two.Comment: Motivations and clarifications added. Matches published versio

Geometric massive higher spins and current exchanges

Generalised Fierz-Pauli mass terms allow to describe massive higher-spin fields on flat background by means of simple quadratic deformations of the corresponding geometric, massless Lagrangians. In this framework there is no need for auxiliary fields. We briefly review the construction in the bosonic case and study the interaction of these massive fields with external sources, computing the corresponding propagators. In the same fashion as for the massive graviton, but differently from theories where auxiliary fields are present, the structure of the current exchange is completely determined by the form of the mass term itself.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX. Contribution to the proceedings of the 3rd RTN Workshop ``Constituents, Fundamental Forces and Symmetries of the Universe'' (Valencia 1-5 October 2007

Cubic interactions of Maxwell-like higher spins

We study the cubic vertices for Maxwell-like higher-spins in flat and (A)dS background spaces of any dimension. Reducibility of their free spectra implies that a single cubic vertex involving any three fields subsumes a number of couplings among different particles of various spins. The resulting vertices do not involve traces of the fields and in this sense are simpler than their Fronsdal counterparts. We propose an extension of both the free theory and of its cubic deformation to a more general class of partially reducible systems, that one can obtain from the original theory upon imposing trace constraints of various orders. The key to our results is a version of the Noether procedure allowing to systematically account for the deformations of the transversality conditions to be imposed on the gauge parameters at the free level.Comment: 57 pages; added Section 7 including (A)dS off-shell cubic vertices and corresponding generating function. Outlook extended with comments on Maxwell-like spectra and higher-spin algebra

On the Lagrangian formulation of the double copy to cubic order

We investigate the Lagrangian formulation of the double-copy correspondence between gauge theories and gravity, up to the cubic order. Building on the definition of the double-copy field as a convolution of two vectors, we obtain free gravitational Lagrangians as products of two Yang-Mills Lagrangians, in a form amenable to be easily extended to the massive case. We discuss the origin of these results from tensionless strings and show the existence of gauge fixings that mix the two spin-one sectors and lead to an alternative, especially simple, version of the free Lagrangian. We then construct cubic vertices for the full double-copy multiplet, comprising a graviton, a two-form and a scalar particle, by means of the Noether procedure. Both at the free and at the cubic level the result gets uniquely fixed only upon imposing, on top of gauge invariance, a left-right Lorentz symmetry ruling contraction of indices among double-copy fields. Whereas the outcome nicely matches the cubic interactions of $\mathcal{N}=0$ supergravity, including the gauge-invariant coupling between the scalar particle and the two-form, such a twofold Lorentz symmetry seems to conflict with the perturbative reconstruction of space-time geometry.Comment: 28 pages. minor editing, matches published versio

Exact renormalization group equation in presence of rescaling anomaly II - The local potential approximation

Exact renormalization group techniques are applied to mass deformed N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, viewed as a regularised N=2 model. The solution of the flow equation, in the local potential approximation, reproduces the one-loop (perturbatively exact) expression for the effective action of N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, when the regularising mass, M, reaches the value of the dynamical cutoff. One speculates about the way in which further non-perturbative contributions (instanton effects) may be accounted for.Comment: 13 pages, no figures, uses JHEP3.cl