Gauge invariant and gauge fixed actions for various higher-spin fields from string field theory

TL;DR

This paper develops a systematic method to derive gauge invariant and gauge fixed actions for higher-spin fields from string field theory, covering massive, massless, and tensionless limits, with explicit examples.

Contribution

It introduces a novel procedure to extract gauge invariant and gauge fixed actions for higher-spin fields directly from covariant string field theory, including massive and tensionless cases.

Findings

Explicit actions for massive graviton and higher-spin fields up to level N<=3.

Systematic derivation of gauge invariant actions in tensionless limit.

Construction of covariantly gauge fixed actions with BRST and anti-BRST invariance.

Abstract

We propose a systematic procedure for extracting gauge invariant and gauge fixed actions for various higher-spin gauge field theories from covariant bosonic open string field theory. By identifying minimal gauge invariant part for the original free string field theory action, we explicitly construct a class of covariantly gauge fixed actions with BRST and anti-BRST invariance. By expanding the actions with respect to the level N of string states, the actions for various massive fields including higher-spin fields are systematically obtained. As illustrating examples, we explicitly investigate the level N<=3 part and obtain the consistent actions for massive graviton field, massive 3rd rank symmetric tensor field, or antisymmetric field. We also investigate the tensionless limit of the actions and explicitly derive the gauge invariant and gauge fixed actions for general rank n symmetric and anti-symmetric tensor fields.