Tree-level unitarity constraints on the gravitational couplings of higher-spin massive fields

1994/08/15 by A. Cucchieri, A. Cuccieri, S. Deser +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #gr-qc #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.51.4543

published as Phys.Rev.D51:4543-4549,1995 · 12 pages (Latex file, needs FEYNMAN macros), IASSNS-HEP-94/63, NYU-TH-94/05/01, CERN-TH.7388/94

arxiv created 1994/08/15 · openalex publication_date 1995/04/15 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We analyze the high-energy behavior of tree-level graviton Compton amplitudes for particles of mass m and arbitrary spin, concentrating on a combination of forward amplitudes that will be unaffected by eventual cross couplings to other, higher spins. We first show that for any spin >2, tree-level unitarity is already violated at energies \ensuremath∼ \ensuremath\surdmM_Pl , rather than at the Planck scale M_Pl, even for m\ensuremath≪M_Pl. We then restore unitarity to this amplitude up to M_Pl by adding nonminimal couplings that depend on the curvature and its derivatives, and modify the minimal description, including particle gravitational quadrupole moments, at \ensuremath∼m^\mathrm\ensuremath-1 scales.

Citations

• Classical and Quantized Tensionless Strings
• On-Shell Asymptotics of Non-Abelian Gauge Theories
• Consistent supergravity

Cited by

• P-nflation: generating cosmic Inflation with p-forms