Spin-2 quantum gauge theories and perturbative gauge invariance (Q5943154)

The authors analyze the gauge structure of a massless self-interacting quantum tensor field without geometrical considerations specific to general relativity, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for such a theory to be gauge invariant. More exactly, the starting point is a symmetric tensor field of rank 2 plus ghost and anti-ghost fields as free asymptotic fields in the background of Minkowski spacetime. The asymptotic fields are used to construct the time ordered products \(T_n\) and the \(S\)-matrix. The first order gauge invariance means that \(d_Q T_1\) is a divergence, i.e. \(d_Q T_1(x)= i\partial_\mu T^{\mu} 1/1(x)\), where \(Q\) is the gauge charge operator. Gauge invariances of higher order are similarly defined. There are seven types of divergences identified and studied in the paper.