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arXiv · 2402.12430

Scale and Conformal Invariance on (A)dS

Kara Farnsworth·Kurt Hinterbichler·Ondrej Hulik
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Abstract

We examine the question of scale versus conformal invariance on maximally symmetric curved backgrounds and study general 2-derivative conformally invariant free theories of vectors and tensors. For spacetime dimension $D>4$, these conformal theories can be diagonalized into standard massive fields in which unbroken conformal symmetry non-trivially mixes components of different spins. In $D=4$, the tensor case becomes a conformal theory mixing a partially massless spin-2 field with a massless spin-1 field. For massless linearized gravity in $D = 4$, we confirm through direct calculation that correlation functions of gauge-invariant operators take the conformally invariant form, despite the absence of standard conformal symmetry at the level of the action.

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Kara Farnsworth, Kurt Hinterbichler, Ondrej Hulik. 2024-02-19. Scale and Conformal Invariance on (A)dS. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.110.045011

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