Kurt Hinterbichler (CWRU)

Date: Tue. January 31st, 2017, 11:00 am-12:00 pm
Location: Miller room

Partially Massless Higher-Spin Gauge Theory

The higher spin theories of Vasiliev are gauge theories that contain towers of massless particles of all spins, and are thought to be UV complete quantum theories that include gravity, describing physics at energies much higher than the Planck scale. We discuss Vasiliev-like theories that include towers of massless and partially massless fields. These massive towers can be thought of as partially Higgs-ed versions of Vasiliev theory. The theory is a fully non-linear theory which contains partially massless modes, is expected to be UV complete, includes gravity, and can live on dS as well as AdS.