arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Karapet Mkrtchyan.
We derive parity-even transverse-traceless metric-like cubic vertices for massless bosonic higher-spin fields in AdS$_3$. Starting from the known two- and three-derivative vertices in three-dimensional flat space, we construct their AdS$_3$ extensions by imposing gauge invariance and accounting for dimension-dependent identities. The result is shown to be consistent with minimal coupling to gravity.
We present the first formulation of linearised gravity in four dimensions which is manifestly Lorentz covariant and democratic, i.e. treats the two frames related by electric-magnetic duality on equal footing. It is well-known that four-dimensional linearised gravity belongs to a class of singleton representations of the four-dimensional conformal algebra $\mathfrak{so}(2,4)$. Our key insight is viewing this algebra as the isometry of $\text{AdS}_5$ and realising the massless spin-2 field as an edge mode of a five-dimensional topological field taking values in a specific finite-dimensional representation of $\mathfrak{so}(2,4)$. The desired four-dimensional action is then found by a covariant boundary reduction procedure.
We use a recently proposed covariant procedure to reduce the Chern-Simons action of three-dimensional higher-spin gravity to the boundary, resulting in a Lorentz covariant action for higher-order chiral scalars. After gauge-fixing, we obtain a higher-derivative action generalizing the $s=1$ Floreanini-Jackiw and $s=2$ Alekseev-Shatashvili actions to arbitrary spin $s$. For simplicity, we treat the case of general spin at the linearized level, while the full non-linear asymptotic boundary conditions are presented in component form for the $SL(3,\mathbb R)$ case. Finally, we extend the spin-3 linearized analysis to a background with non-trivial higher-spin charge and show that it has a richer structure of zero modes.
We revisit the problem of classification and explicit construction of the conformal three-point correlation functions of currents of arbitrary integer spin in arbitrary dimensions. For the conserved currents, we set up the equations for the conservation conditions and solve them completely for some values of spins, confirming the earlier counting of the number of independent structures matching them with the higher-spin cubic vertices in one higher dimension. The general solution for the correlators of conserved currents we delegate to a follow-up work.
All independent interaction vertices involving massless (Fang--Fronsdal) fermions in three dimensions are classified, completing the classification of interactions of massless fields of any spin. Similarly to the bosonic case, we get no independent vertices at quartic or higher order in the fields involving fields with spin $s\geq 3/2$, and cubic vertices only for spins satisfying triangle inequalities, apart from the cases involving (matter) fields with spin $s\leq 1$. Differently from the bosonic cases, we get only one vertex for each triple of spins with two Majorana fermions and one boson, which is parity even (odd) when the sum of the spins of all fields involved is odd (even). When the two Majorana fermions are identical, their coupling to an odd-spin boson is trivialized. We comment on the non-trivial holographic dictionary relating these vertices to $CFT$ correlators in two dimensions.
The spinor-helicity representations of massive and (partially-)massless particles in four dimensional (Anti-) de Sitter spacetime are studied within the framework of the dual pair correspondence. We show that the dual groups (aka "little groups") of the AdS and dS groups are respectively $O(2N)$ and $O^*(2N)$. For $N=1$, the generator of the dual algebra $\mathfrak{so}(2)\cong \mathfrak{so}^*(2) \cong \mathfrak{u}(1)$ corresponds to the helicity operator, and the spinor-helicity representation describes massless particles in (A)dS$_4$. For $N=2$, the dual algebra is composed of two ideals, $\mathfrak{s}$ and $\mathfrak{m}_Λ$. The former ideal $\mathfrak{s}\cong \mathfrak{so}(3)$ fixes the spin of the particle, while the mass is determined by the latter ideal $\mathfrak{m}_Λ$, which is isomorphic to $\mathfrak{so}(2,1)$, $\mathfrak{iso}(2)$ or $\mathfrak{so}(3)$ depending on the cosmological constant being positive, zero or negative. In the case of a positive cosmological constant, namely dS$_4$, the spinor-helicity representation contains all massive particles corresponding to the principal series representations and the partially-massless particles corresponding to the discrete series representations leaving out only the light massive particles corresponding to the complementary series representations. The zero and negative cosmological constant cases, which had been addressed in earlier references, are also discussed briefly. Finally, we consider the multilinear form of helicity spinors invariant under (A)dS group, which can be served for the (A)dS counterpart of the scattering amplitude, and discuss technical differences and difficulties of the (A)dS cases compared to the flat spacetime case.
Chiral form fields in $d$ dimensions can be effectively described as edge modes of topological Chern-Simons theories in $d+1$ dimensions. At the same time, manifestly Lorentz-invariant Lagrangian description of such fields directly in terms of a $d$-dimensional field theory is challenging and requires introducing nontrivial auxiliary gauge fields eliminated on-shell with extra gauge symmetries. A recent work by Arvanitakis et al.\ demonstrates (emphasizing the case of 2d chiral bosons) that the two approaches are related, and a peculiar reduction on the $(d+1)$-dimensional topological Lagrangian automatically leads to $d$-dimensional Lagrangians with appropriate sets of auxiliary fields. We develop this setup in three distinct directions. First, we demonstrate how arbitrary Abelian self-interactions for chiral forms can be included using nonlinear boundary terms in the Chern-Simons theory. Second, by generalizing the Chern-Simons theory to the BF theory, we obtain an analogous democratic description of non-chiral form fields, where electric and magnetic potentials appear as explicit dynamical variables. Third, we discuss the effects of introducing topological interactions in the higher-dimensional bulk, which produce extra interaction terms in the boundary theory. When applied to a topological 4-form field in 12 dimensions, this construction results in a democratic description of the 3-form gauge field of the 11-dimensional supergravity.
We briefly review and critically compare three approaches to constructing Lagrangian theories of self-interacting Abelian chiral form fields with manifest Lorentz invariance. The first approach relies on the original ideas of Pasti, Sorokin, and Tonin (PST) and has been explored since the late 1990s. The second approach was introduced by Ashoke Sen in 2015. The third approach has been developed over the last few years in the works of the present authors and other collaborators and may be called the 'clone field' formalism since it features an auxiliary 'clone' of the gauge field sector. We argue that this last approach shares the attractive features of the other two while avoiding their respective shortcomings. Like in Sen's approach, within the clone field formalism, arbitrary interactions can be straightforwardly included in any number of dimensions (treating interactions becomes very difficult in the PST formalism in dimensions greater than 6). Like in the PST approach, all the auxiliary fields are gauged away on-shell (while in Sen's approach, they merely decouple from the physical fields but remain dynamical).
We present a universal democratic Lagrangian for the bosonic sector of ten-dimensional type II supergravities, treating "electric" and "magnetic" potentials of all RR fields on equal footing. For type IIB, this includes the five-form whose self-duality equation is derived from the Lagrangian. We also present an alternative form of the action for type IIB, with manifest $SL(2,\mb R)$ symmetry.
In our previous article Phys. Rev. Lett. 127 (2021) 271601, we announced a novel 'democratic' Lagrangian formulation of general nonlinear electrodynamics in four dimensions that features electric and magnetic potentials on equal footing. Here, we give an expanded and more detailed account of this new formalism, and then proceed to push it significantly further by building the corresponding Lagrangian theories of higher form field interactions in arbitrary dimensions. Special attention is given to interactions of chiral 2k-forms in 4k+2 dimensions, with further details for 2-forms in 6 dimensions and 4-forms in 10 dimensions. We comment more broadly on the structure of covariant equations of motion for chiral fields, and on the place of our Lagrangian theories in this context. The Lagrangian theories we develop are simple and explicit, and cover a much broader class of interactions than all past attempts in the literature.
We study solutions in non-linear electrodynamics (NED) and establish several general results. We show, that the $SO(2)$ electric-magnetic duality symmetry is restrictive enough to allow for reconstruction of the NED Lagrangian from the spherically-symmetric electrostatic (Coulomb-like) solution -- although there are infinitely many different NED theories admitting a given solution, there exists a unique $SO(2)$ invariant one among them. We introduce a general algorithm for constructing new $SO(2)$ invariant NED theories in the conventional approach, where only a few examples are available. We also show how to derive the Lagrangian of the $SO(2)$ invariant theory admitting a given electrostatic solution. We further show on a simple example that some NED theories may require sources (particles) of finite (non-zero) size. Such a non-zero size source not only regularizes the infinite energy of the point charge but also satisfies the condition of regularity, that the electric field is zero at the origin. The latter condition was identified earlier as necessary and sufficient for the NED solution to generate a regular black hole via so-called double copy construction and is also satisfied by solitons. We propose a large class of solitonic NED solutions that give rise to regular black holes via double copy construction and contain solutions of Maxwell and Born-Infeld as different limits. This class of NED solutions acquires two new properties in the limit where the corresponding regular black hole's asymptotics becomes Minkowski: it gives rise to regular higher-spin black holes via generalization of double copy -- ``higher-copy'' construction, and for very short distances changes the sign of the force becoming repulsive/attractive for opposite/similar signs of charges.
We construct a Lagrangian for general nonlinear electrodynamics that features electric and magnetic potentials on equal footing. In the language of this Lagrangian, discrete and continuous electric-magnetic duality symmetries can be straightforwardly imposed, leading to a simple formulation for theories with the $SO(2)$ duality invariance. When specialized to the conformally invariant case, our construction provides a manifestly duality-symmetric formulation of the recently discovered ModMax theory. We briefly comment on a natural generalization of this approach to $p$-forms in $2p+2$ dimensions.
We construct a generalisation of the three-dimensional Poincaré algebra that also includes a colour symmetry factor. This algebra can be used to define coloured Poincaré gravity in three space-time dimensions as well as to study generalisations of massive and massless free particle models. We present various such generalised particle models that differ in which orbits of the coloured Poincaré symmetry are described. Our approach can be seen as a stepping stone towards the description of particles interacting with a non-abelian background field or as a starting point for a worldline formulation of an associated quantum field theory.
We explore the properties of polynomial Lagrangians for chiral $p$-forms previously proposed by the last named author, and in particular, provide a self-contained treatment of the symmetries and equations of motion that shows a great economy and simplicity of this formalism. We further use analogous techniques to construct polynomial democratic Lagrangians for general $p$-forms where electric and magnetic potentials appear on equal footing as explicit dynamical variables. Due to our reliance on the differential form notation, the construction is compact and universally valid for forms of all ranks, in any number of dimensions.
We study general aspects of the reductive dual pair correspondence, also known as Howe duality. We make an explicit and systematic treatment, where we first derive the oscillator realizations of all irreducible dual pairs: $(GL(M,\mathbb R), GL(N,\mathbb R))$, $(GL(M,\mathbb C), GL(N,\mathbb C))$, $(U^*(2M), U^*(2N))$, $(U(M_+,M_-), U(N_+,N_-))$, $(O(N_+,N_-),Sp(2M,\mathbb R))$, $(O(N,\mathbb C), Sp(2M,\mathbb C))$ and $(O^*(2N), Sp(M_+,M_-))$. Then, we decompose the Fock space into irreducible representations of each group in the dual pairs for the cases where one member of the pair is compact as well as the first non-trivial cases of where it is non-compact. We discuss the relevance of these representations in several physical applications throughout this analysis. In particular, we discuss peculiarities of their branching properties. Finally, closed-form expressions relating all Casimir operators of two groups in a pair are established.
We give a simple classification of the independent $n$-point interaction vertices for bosonic higher-spin gauge fields in $d$-dimensional Minkowski space-times. We first give a characterisation of such vertices for large dimensions, $d \geq 2n - 1$, where one does not have to consider Schouten identities due to over-antisymmetrisation of space-time indices. When the dimension is lowered, such identities have to be considered, but their appearance only leads to equivalences of large-$d$ vertices and does not lead to new types of vertices. We consider the case of low dimensions, $d<n$, in detail, where the large number of Schouten identities leads to strong restrictions on independent vertices. We also comment on the generalisation of our results to the intermediate case $n \leq d \leq 2n - 2$. In all cases, the independent vertices are expressed in terms of elementary manifestly gauge-invariant quantities, suggesting that no deformations of the gauge transformations are induced.
We study the problem of interacting theories with (partially)-massless and conformal higher spin fields without matter in three dimensions. A new class of theories that have partially-massless fields is found, which significantly extends the well-known class of purely massless theories. More generally, it is proved that the complete theory has to have a form of the flatness condition for a connection of a Lie algebra, which, provided there is a non-degenerate invariant bilinear form, can be derived from the Chern-Simons action. We also point out the existence of higher spin theories without the dynamical graviton in the spectrum. As an application of a more general statement that the frame-like formulation can be systematically constructed starting from the metric one by employing a combination of the local BRST cohomology technique and the parent formulation approach, we also obtain an explicit uplift of any given metric-like vertex to its frame-like counterpart. This procedure is valid for general gauge theories while in the case of higher spin fields in d-dimensional Minkowski space one can even use as a starting point metric-like vertices in the transverse-traceless gauge. In particular, this gives the fully off-shell lift for transverse-traceless vertices.
We construct a Lorentz and generally covariant, polynomial action for free chiral $p-$forms, classically equivalent to the Pasti-Sorokin-Tonin (PST) formulation. The minimal set up requires introducing an auxiliary $p-$form on top of the physical gauge $p-$form and the PST scalar. The action enjoys multiple duality symmetries, including those that exchange the roles of physical and auxiliary $p-$form fields. Actions of the same type are available for duality-symmetric formulations, which is demonstrated on the example of the electromagnetic field in four dimensions. There, the degrees of freedom of a single Maxwell field are described employing four distinct vector gauge fields and a scalar field.