2007/05/31 by Johan Engquist, Olaf Hohm
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2007.06.015
published as Nucl.Phys.B786:1-25,2007 · 29 pages, youngtab.sty; v2: references added, version to be published in Nuclear Physics B
openalex publication_date 2007/06/29 · arxiv created 2007/07/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We construct consistent bosonic higher-spin gauge theories in odd dimensions D>3 based on Chern-Simons forms. The gauge groups are infinite-dimensional higher-spin extensions of the Anti-de Sitter groups SO(D-1,2). We propose an invariant tensor on these algebras, which is required for the definition of the Chern-Simons action. The latter contains the purely gravitational Chern-Simons theories constructed by Chamseddine, and so the entire theory describes a consistent coupling of higher-spin fields to a particular form of Lovelock gravity. It contains topological as well as non-topological phases. Focusing on D=5 we consider as an example for the latter an AdS4 x S1 Kaluza-Klein background. By solving the higher-spin torsion constraints in the case of a spin-3 field, we verify explicitly that the equations of motion reduce in the linearization to the compensator form of the Fronsdal equations on AdS4.