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Published September 4, 2009 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Ghost-Free, Finite, Fourth-Order D = 3 Gravity

Deser, S. ORCID icon

Abstract

Canonical analysis of a recently proposed linear+quadratic curvature gravity model in D=3 establishes its pure, irreducibly fourth derivative, quadratic curvature limit as both ghost-free and power-counting UV finite, thereby maximally violating standard folklore. This limit is representative of a generic class whose kinetic terms are conformally invariant in any dimension, but it is unique in simultaneously avoiding the transverse-traceless graviton ghosts plaguing D>3 quadratic actions as well as double pole propagators in its other variables. While the two-term model is also unitary, its additional mode's second-derivative nature forfeits finiteness.

Additional Information

© 2009 The American Physical Society. Received 28 April 2009; published 2 September 2009. I thank Paul Townsend for a conversation at the Imperial College Duffest where this work was begun, for later informing me that O. Hohm had also noted the motivational, G(h)↔O(0)X, argument in text and for subsequently insisting that since massive FP does not support ghosts, they must also disappear (as indeed they finally did) from the massive metric form. This work was supported by Grants No. 07-57190 (NSF) and No. DE-FG02-92-ER40701 (DOE).

Attached Files

Published - PhysRevLett.103.101302.pdf

Submitted - 0904.4473v3.pdf

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August 19, 2023
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