Reply to "Acausality of Massive Charged Spin 2 Fields"
We show that, contrary to the claim in hep-th/0304050, the propagation of a spin-2 field in an electromagnetic background is {\em causal}.
gr-qc↗
arXiv subjects
R. P. Neves
Publications and source records attributed to R. P. Neves.
Causality and charged spin-2 fields in an electromagnetic background
We show that, contrary to common belief, the propagation of a spin-2 field in an electromagnetic background is {\em causal}. The proof will be given in the Fierz formalism which, as we shall see, is free of the ambiguity present in the more usual Einstein representation. We shall also review the proof in this latter representation.
hep-th↗
The mass of the graviton and the cosmological constant
We show that the graviton acquires a mass in a de Sitter background given by $m_{g}^{2}=-{2/3}Λ.$ This is precisely the fine-tuning value required for the perturbed gravitational field to mantain its two degrees of freedom.
gr-qc↗
Spin-2 field theory in curved spacetime
We present a new formulation to deal with the consistency problem of a massive spin-2 field in a curved spacetime. Using Fierz variables to represent the spin-2 field, we show how to avoid the arbitrariness and inconsistency that exists in the standard formulation of spin-2 field coupled to gravity. The superiority of the Fierz frame appears explicitly in the combined set of equations for spin-2 field and gravity: it preserves the standard Einstein equations of motion.
gr-qc↗