Massive spin-2 scattering and asymptotic superluminality

作者：Hinterbichler Kurt^*; Joyce Austin; Rosen Rachel A

来源：The Journal of High Energy Physics, 2018, 2018(3): 051.

DOI：10.1007/JHEP03(2018)051

• Classical Theories of Gravity
• Effective Field Theories

We place model-independent constraints on theories of massive spin-2 particles by considering the positivity of the phase shift in eikonal scattering. The phase shift is an asymptotic S-matrix observable, related to the time delay/advance experienced by a particle during scattering. Demanding the absence of a time advance leads to constraints on the cubic vertices present in the theory. We find that, in theories with massive spin-2 particles, requiring no time advance means that either: (i) the cubic vertices must appear as a particular linear combination of the Einstein-Hilbert cubic vertex and an hp,3, potential term or (ii) new degrees of freedom or strong coupling must enter at parametrically the mass of the massive spin-2 field. These conclusions have implications for a variety of situations. Applied to theories of large-N QCD, this indicates that any spectrum with an isolated massive spin-2 at the bottom must have these particular cubic self-couplings. Applied to de Rham-Gabadadze-Tolley massive gravity, the constraint is in accord with results obtained from a shockwave calculation: of the two free dimensionless parameters in the theory there is a one parameter line consistent with a subluminal phase shift.

• 出版日期2018-3-9