When a mass term does not represent a mass

DOI10.1088/0143-0807/19/5/002MaRDI QIDQ4433656zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors F. I. Cooperstock, Valerio Faraoni

Publication date 3 December 2003

Published in European Journal of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/9807056

zbMATH Keywords

cosmological constantRicci curvaturescalar fieldKlein-Gordon equationcurved spacegravitonspin-2 field

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Gravitational energy and conservation laws; groups of motions (83C40) Spinor and twistor methods in general relativity and gravitational theory; Newman-Penrose formalism (83C60)

Abstract: The definition of mass of a scalar field in a curved space has often been generalized by grouping coupling terms between the field and the Ricci curvature with non-curvature-related mass terms. In a broader point of view, one sees that a common misunderstanding resulting from such an identification leads one, in the case of the spin 2 field, to regard the cosmological constant as a non-vanishing mass of cosmological origin for the graviton. Similarly, there are inconsistencies for the spin 1 field. Instead, the intrinsic mass of a field should be regarded as being independent of the background curvature.

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Cited in

(8)

• De Sitter relativity: a new road to quantum gravity?
• Space-time philosophy reconstructed \textit{via} massive Nordström scalar gravities? Laws \textit{vs.} geometry, conventionality, and underdetermination
• Addendum to: ``A note on spin-2 fields in curved backgrounds
• Scalar field mass in generalized gravity
• Higgs mechanism in the Randall-Sundrum model
• On vacuum fluctuations and particle masses
• Scalar mass and the cosmological constant
• Massive Nordström scalar (density) gravities from universal coupling

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