# Higher-Spin Gauge Theories and Bulk Locality

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a fundamental non-local obstruction to constructing consistent interacting higher-spin gauge theories in anti-de Sitter space, indicating the need for new principles beyond classical field theory.

## Contribution

It provides a no-go theorem showing that classical local interactions among higher-spin gauge fields are obstructed, challenging the existing Fronsdal framework.

## Key findings

- No consistent local Noether interactions exist for higher-spin fields in AdS.
- The obstruction appears at the classical level due to non-locality.
- The results imply the necessity of new principles beyond classical field theory.

## Abstract

We present a no-go result on consistent Noether interactions among higher-spin gauge fields on anti-de Sitter space-times. We show that there is a non-local obstruction at the classical level to consistent interacting field theory descriptions of massless higher-spin particles that are described in the free limit by the free Fronsdal action, under the assumption that such theories arise from the gauging of a global higher-spin symmetry. Our result suggests that the Fronsdal programme for introducing interactions among higher-spin gauge fields cannot be completed without introducing new guiding principles, which could lie beyond the framework of classical field theory.