arXiv subjects

Dario Francia

Publications and source records attributed to Dario Francia.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Higher spin Lagrangians from higher derivative diffeomorphisms

The covariant description of massless particles of arbitrary spin typically employs symmetric tensors of rank $s$ and rests on a local symmetry carried by symmetric tensor parameters of rank $s-1$, suitably generalizing the $U(1)$ transformations of Maxwell's theory and the diffeomorphisms underlying general relativity. Here we show that Fronsdal's action is actually uniquely identified by the weaker requirement of invariance under higher-derivative gauge transformations driven by a vector parameter. This observation may hint to a tighter, if unexpected, connection between higher-spin symmetry and diffeomorphisms.

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arXiv2025

Finite actions and asymptotic charges at null infinity for any spin

We identify boundary terms renormalizing the free on-shell actions for massless fields of arbitrary spin, including electromagnetism and linearized gravity, with boundary conditions allowing for supertranslation-like asymptotic symmetries. Our focus is on null infinity, in any spacetime dimensions. We also comment on the renormalization of the corresponding asymptotic charges.

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arXiv2024

Asymptotic charges of $p-$forms and their dualities in any $D$

We compute the surface charges associated to $p-$form gauge fields in arbitrary spacetime dimension for large values of the radial coordinate. In the critical dimension where radiation and Coulomb falloff coincide we find asymptotic charges involving asymptotic parameters, i.e. parameters with a component of order zero in the radial coordinate. However, in different dimensions we still find nontrivial asymptotic charges now involving parameters that are not asymptotic times the radiation-order fields. For $p$=1 and $D>4$, our charges thus differ from those presented in the literature. We then show that under Hodge duality electric charges for $p-$forms are mapped to magnetic charges for the dual $q-$forms, with $q = D-p-2$. For charges involving fields with radiation falloffs the duality relates charges that are finite and nonvanishing. For the case of Coulomb falloffs, above or below the critical dimension, Hodge duality exchanges overleading charges in one theory with subleading ones in its dual counterpart.

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arXiv2024

Double-Copy Supertranslations

In the framework of the convolutional double copy, we investigate the asymptotic symmetries of the gravitational multiplet stemming from the residual symmetries of its single-copy constituents at null infinity. We show that the asymptotic symmetries of Maxwell fields in D=4 imply ``double-copy supertranslations", i.e. BMS supertranslations and two-form asymptotic symmetries, together with the existence of infinitely many conserved charges involving the double-copy scalar. With the vector fields in Lorenz gauge, the double-copy parameters display a radial expansion involving logarithmic subleading terms, essential for the corresponding charges to be nonvanishing.

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arXiv2024

Renormalization of spin-one asymptotic charges in AdS$_D$

We study the renormalized action and the renormalized presymplectic potential for Maxwell fields on Anti de Sitter backgrounds of any dimensions. We then use these results to explicitly derive finite boundary charges for angle-dependent asymptotic symmetries. We consider both Poincaré and Bondi coordinates, the former allowing us to control the systematics for arbitrary $D$, the latter being better suited for a smooth flat limit.

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arXiv2022

Snowmass White Paper: Higher Spin Gravity and Higher Spin Symmetry

Higher Spin Gravity refers to extensions of gravity including at least one field of spin greater than two. These extensions are expected to provide manageable models of quantum gravity thanks to the infinite-dimensional (higher spin) gauge symmetry constraining them. One of the key aspects of Higher Spin Gravity/Symmetry is the range and diversity of topics it embraces: (a) higher spin fields play a role in quantum gravity, AdS/CFT, string theory and are expected to have important consequences in cosmology and black hole physics; (b) higher spin symmetry finds applications in Conformal Field Theories, condensed matter systems and dualities therein; (c) these models often rely on tools developed in the study of the mathematical foundations of QFT or in pure mathematics: from deformation quantization and non-commutative geometry to conformal geometry, graded geometry (including BV-BRST quantization), and geometry of PDEs. Recent exciting applications also involve (d) modelling the coalescence of black hole binaries as scattering of massive higher spin particles.

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arXiv2021

On the Lagrangian formulation of the double copy to cubic order

We investigate the Lagrangian formulation of the double-copy correspondence between gauge theories and gravity, up to the cubic order. Building on the definition of the double-copy field as a convolution of two vectors, we obtain free gravitational Lagrangians as products of two Yang-Mills Lagrangians, in a form amenable to be easily extended to the massive case. We discuss the origin of these results from tensionless strings and show the existence of gauge fixings that mix the two spin-one sectors and lead to an alternative, especially simple, version of the free Lagrangian. We then construct cubic vertices for the full double-copy multiplet, comprising a graviton, a two-form and a scalar particle, by means of the Noether procedure. Both at the free and at the cubic level the result gets uniquely fixed only upon imposing, on top of gauge invariance, a left-right Lorentz symmetry ruling contraction of indices among double-copy fields. Whereas the outcome nicely matches the cubic interactions of $\mathcal{N}=0$ supergravity, including the gauge-invariant coupling between the scalar particle and the two-form, such a twofold Lorentz symmetry seems to conflict with the perturbative reconstruction of space-time geometry.

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arXiv2021

On asymptotic symmetries in higher dimensions for any spin

We investigate asymptotic symmetries in flat backgrounds of dimension higher than or equal to four. For spin two we provide the counterpart of the extended BMS transformations found by Campiglia and Laddha in four-dimensional Minkowski space. We then identify higher-spin supertranslations and generalised superrotations in any dimension. These symmetries are in one-to-one correspondence with spin-$s$ partially-massless representations on the celestial sphere, with supertranslations corresponding in particular to the representations with maximal depth. We discuss the definition of the corresponding asymptotic charges and we exploit the supertranslational ones in order to prove the link with Weinberg's soft theorem in even dimensions.

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arXiv2020

Asymptotic Charges at Null Infinity in Any Dimension

We analyse the conservation laws associated with large gauge transformations of massless fields in Minkowski space. Our aim is to highlight the interplay between boundary conditions and finiteness of the asymptotically conserved charges in any space-time dimension, both even and odd, greater than or equal to three. After discussing non-linear Yang-Mills theory and revisiting linearised gravity, our investigation extends to cover the infrared behaviour of bosonic massless quanta of any spin.

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arXiv2019

On electromagnetic and colour memory in even dimensions

We explore memory effects associated to both Abelian and non-Abelian radiation getting to null infinity, in arbitrary even spacetime dimensions. Together with classical memories, linear and non-linear, amounting to permanent kicks in the velocity of the probes, we also discuss the higher-dimensional counterparts of quantum memory effects, manifesting themselves in modifications of the relative phases describing a configuration of several probes. In addition, we analyse the structure of the asymptotic symmetries of Maxwell's theory in any dimension, both even and odd, in the Lorenz gauge.

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arXiv2018

Two-Form Asymptotic Symmetries and Scalar Soft Theorems

We investigate the large gauge transformations of a two-form gauge field in four-dimensional Minkowski space. Our goal is to establish a connection between these asymptotic symmetries and the scalar soft theorems described by Campiglia, Coito and Mizera whereas the soft scalar mode should be interpreted in terms of its two-form dual counterpart.

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arXiv2017

On higher-spin supertranslations and superrotations

We study the large gauge transformations of massless higher-spin fields in four-dimensional Minkowski space. Upon imposing suitable fall-off conditions, providing higher-spin counterparts of the Bondi gauge, we observe the existence of an infinite-dimensional asymptotic symmetry algebra. The corresponding Ward identities can be held responsible for Weinberg's factorization theorem for amplitudes involving soft particles of spin greater than two.

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arXiv2017

Cubic interactions of Maxwell-like higher spins

We study the cubic vertices for Maxwell-like higher-spins in flat and (A)dS background spaces of any dimension. Reducibility of their free spectra implies that a single cubic vertex involving any three fields subsumes a number of couplings among different particles of various spins. The resulting vertices do not involve traces of the fields and in this sense are simpler than their Fronsdal counterparts. We propose an extension of both the free theory and of its cubic deformation to a more general class of partially reducible systems, that one can obtain from the original theory upon imposing trace constraints of various orders. The key to our results is a version of the Noether procedure allowing to systematically account for the deformations of the transversality conditions to be imposed on the gauge parameters at the free level.

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arXiv2015

Mixed-symmetry multiplets and higher-spin curvatures

We study the higher-derivative equations for gauge potentials of arbitrary mixed-symmetry type obtained by setting to zero the divergences of the corresponding curvature tensors. We show that they propagate the same reducible multiplets as the Maxwell-like second-order equations for gauge fields subject to constrained gauge transformations. As an additional output of our analysis, we provide a streamlined presentation of the Ricci-like case, where the traces of the same curvature tensors are set to zero, and we present a simple algebraic evaluation of the particle content associated with the Labastida and with the Maxwell-like second-order equations.

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arXiv2013

Maxwell-like Lagrangians for higher spins

We show how implementing invariance under divergence-free gauge transformations leads to a remarkably simple Lagrangian description of massless bosons of any spin. Our construction covers both flat and (A)dS backgrounds and extends to tensors of arbitrary mixed-symmetry type. Irreducible and traceless fields produce single-particle actions, while whenever trace constraints can be dispensed with the resulting Lagrangians display the same reducible, multi-particle spectra as those emerging from the tensionless limit of free open-string field theory. For all explored options the corresponding kinetic operators take essentially the same form as in the spin-one, Maxwell case.

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arXiv2012

Generalised connections and higher-spin equations

We consider high-derivative equations obtained setting to zero the divergence of the higher-spin curvatures in metric-like form, showing their equivalence to the second-order equations emerging from the tensionless limit of open string field theory, which propagate reducible spectra of particles with different spins. This result can be viewed as complementary to the possibility of setting to zero a single trace of the higher-spin field strengths, which yields an equation known to imply Fronsdal's equation in the compensator form. Higher traces and divergences of the curvatures produce a whole pattern of high-derivative equations whose systematics is also presented.

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arXiv2011

Low-spin models for higher-spin Lagrangians

Higher-spin theories are most commonly modelled on the example of spin 2. While this is appropriate for the description of free irreducible spin-s particles, alternative options could be equally interesting. In particular Maxwell's equations provide the effective model for maximally reducible theories of higher spins inspired by the tensionless limit of the open string. For both options, as well as for their fermionic counterparts, one can extend the analogy beyond the equations for the gauge potentials, formulating the corresponding Lagrangians in terms of higher-spin curvatures. The associated non-localities are effectively due to the elimination of auxiliary fields and do not modify the spectrum. Massive deformations of these theories are also possible, and in particular in this contribution we propose a generalisation of the Proca Lagrangian for the Maxwell-inspired geometric theories.

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arXiv2010

String theory triplets and higher-spin curvatures

Unconstrained local Lagrangians for higher-spin gauge theories are bound to involve auxiliary fields, whose integration in the partition function generates geometric, effective actions expressed in terms of curvatures. When applied to the triplets, emerging from the tensionless limit of open string field theory, the same procedure yields interesting alternative forms of geometric Lagrangians, expressible for both bosons and fermions as squares of field-strengths. This shows that higher-spin curvatures might play a role in the dynamics, regardless of whether the Fronsdal-Labastida constraints are assumed or forgone.

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