On strong coupling scales in (minimal) massive gravity

TL;DR

This paper investigates the strong coupling scale in minimal massive gravity models, confirming that the scale b3 effectively limits interactions near Minkowski space, and clarifies the construction of Lorentz-invariant massive gravity models.

Contribution

It demonstrates that scalar-tensor interactions occur near b3 in minimal massive gravity, confirming b3 as the maximal strong coupling scale and providing an improved model expansion.

Findings

Scalar-tensor interactions are present near b3 in minimal massive gravity.

b3 is confirmed as the maximal strong coupling scale for ghost-free massive gravity.

An improved non-redundant expansion for Lorentz-invariant massive gravity models is constructed.

Abstract

Ghost-free massive gravity models generically have a strong coupling scale of $\Lambda_3 =(M_{\rm Pl} m^2)^{1/3}$. However, for one of these models - `minimal massive gravity' - it is not clear what this scale is in the subset of solutions with vanishing vector modes, since there are then no interactions at the scale $\Lambda_3$. We show that there are always scalar-tensor interactions at a scale arbitrarily close to $\Lambda_3$ around the Minkowski vacuum solution. This explicitly confirms and completes previous research establishing that $\Lambda_3$ effectively is the maximal strong coupling scale for all ghost-free (dRGT) massive gravity models (on Minkowski). In the process, we also revisit and clarify the construction of generic Lorentz-invariant massive gravity models, explicitly constructing an improved non-redundant expansion for these models.