Graviton Propagator in a Covariant Massive Gravity Theory

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a covariant massive gravity theory, deriving graviton and Goldstone boson propagators, and discusses the vDVZ discontinuity and the role of Weyl symmetry in the theory.

Contribution

It explicitly computes propagators in a covariant massive gravity model and explores the implications of gauge choices and symmetries on the vDVZ discontinuity.

Findings

Propagators are gauge-independent and differ from massless gravity predictions.

The vDVZ discontinuity persists even as graviton mass approaches zero.

A theory with a scalar field and Weyl symmetry can reproduce the Fierz-Pauli mass term.

Abstract

We study the massive gravity theory proposed by Arkani-Hamed, Georgi and Schwartz. In this theory, the graviton becomes massive when general covariance is spontaneously broken through the introduction of a field that links two metrics, one of the which will eventually decouple. The excitation of this "link" field acts like a Goldstone boson in giving mass to the graviton. We work out the graviton and Goldstone boson propagators explicitly by means of gauge fixing terms similar to the renormalizability gauges used in gauge theories. With these propagators, we calculate the lowest order tree-level interaction between two external energy momentum tensors. The result is independent of the gauge parameter, but different from the prediction of massless gravity theory, i.e., general relativity. This difference remains even if the mass of the graviton goes to zero, in which case it gives the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov (vDVZ) discontinuity between the propagators of a massive and massless linearized graviton. Moreover, we show that the Fierz-Pauli graviton mass term can be considered as the ``unitary gauge'' of a more general theory with an extra scalar field. We explicitly construct such a theory in which the vDVZ discontinuity arises with a graviton mass term that is different from the Fierz-Pauli mass term. This theory has a local Weyl symmetry under conformal transformations of the metric. In the case when the mass goes to zero, the Weyl summetry becomes a global symmetry. It is possible that the local Weyl symmetry will give a hint as to the form of the corresponding fully nonlinear theory having a nonzero graviton mass.