An analysis of characteristics in nonlinear massive gravity

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/30/18/184008MaRDI QIDQ2861837zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Keisuke Izumi, Yen Chin Ong

Publication date 11 November 2013

Published in Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.0211

zbMATH Keywords

Cauchy problemnonlinear massive gravitysuperluminal propagating mode

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum field theory on curved space or space-time backgrounds (81T20) Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05) Relativistic gravitational theories other than Einstein's, including asymmetric field theories (83D05)

Abstract: We study the Cauchy problem in a special case of non-linear massive gravity: the two-tensor "f-g" theory. Despite being ghost-free, it has recently been argued that the theory is inherently problematic due to the existence of superluminal shock waves. Furthermore it is claimed that acausal characteristic can arise for any choice of background. In order to further understand the causal structure of the theory, we carefully perform a detailed analysis of the characteristic equations and show that the theory does admit a well-posed Cauchy problem, i.e., there exist hypersurfaces that are not characteristic hypersurface. Puzzles remain regarding the existence of a superluminal propagating mode in both the f-g theory, as well as in the full non-linear massive gravity. That is, our result should not be taken as any indication of the healthiness of the theory. We also give a detailed review of Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem and its application in the Appendix, which should be useful for investigating causal structures of other theories of gravity.

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Cited in

(16)

• On the local structure of spacetime in ghost-free bimetric theory and massive gravity
• Analysis of constraints and their algebra in bimetric theory
• Causal propagation of constraints in bimetric relativity in standard 3+1 form
• Massive gravity acausality redux
• Massive gravity
• Propagation peculiarities of mean field massive gravity
• Superluminal vector in ghost-free massive gravity
• Nonlinear dynamics of 3D massive gravity
• Linearization instabilities of the massive non-symmetric gravitational theory
• Stability of scalar perturbations in scalar-torsion f(T,ϕ) gravity theories in the presence of a matter fluid
• Аналитическое исследование динамики массивных частиц в метрике Крускала
• Problems of massive gravities
• The effective field theory approach to the strong coupling issue in f(T) gravity
• A coordinate-free approach to obtaining exact solutions in general relativity: The Newman-Unti-Tamburino solution revisited
• Generation of effective massive spin-2 fields through spontaneous symmetry breaking of scalar field
• Complete decoupling limit of ghost-free massive gravity

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