Carroll swiftons

TL;DR

This paper develops Carroll-invariant field theories with superluminal propagation, introducing Carroll swiftons, and explores their coupling to gravity, resulting in dynamical torsion in two-dimensional models.

Contribution

It constructs the first scalar and vector Carroll swifton theories and demonstrates their coupling to gravity, revealing new geometric effects like dynamical torsion.

Findings

Carroll swiftons propagate outside the lightcone

Coupling to gravity induces dynamical torsion

Scalar swifton models are achieved in two-dimensional gravity

Abstract

We construct Carroll-invariant theories with fields propagating outside the Carroll lightcone, i.e., at a speed strictly greater than zero (`Carroll swiftons'). We first consider models in flat Carroll spacetime in general dimensions, where we present scalar and vector Carroll swifton field theories. We then turn to the coupling to gravity and achieve in particular in two dimensions a Carroll invariant scalar swifton by coupling it suitably to Carroll dilaton gravity. Its backreaction on the geometry generates dynamical torsion.