Metric projective geometry, BGG detour complexes and partially massless gauge theories (Q5963763)

A projective geometry is an equivalence class of torsion-free connections sharing the same unparametrised geodesics; this is a basic structure for understanding physical systems. Metric projective geometry is concerned with the interaction of projective and pseudo-Riemannian geometry. In the present paper it is shown that the BGG machinery of projective geometry combines with structures known as Yang-Mills detour complexes to produce a general tool for generating invariant pseudo-Riemannian gauge theories. This produces (detour) complexes of differential operators corresponding to gauge invariances and dynamics. As an application it is shown that curved versions of these sequences give geometric characterizations of the obstructions to propagation of higher spins in Einstein spaces. Further, it is shown that projective BGG detour complexes generate both gauge invariances and gauge invariant constraint systems for partially massless models: The input for this mechinery is a projectively invariant gauge operator corresponding to the first operator of a certain BGG sequence. This technology is also connected to the log-radial reduction method and the latter is extended to Einstein backgrounds.