On classification of (self-dual) higher-spin gravities in flat space

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the existence and classification of infinitely many higher-spin gravity theories in 4D flat space with local interactions, expanding the understanding of higher-spin theories beyond 3D.

Contribution

It classifies all one- and two-derivative higher-spin theories in 4D flat space, showing their relation to self-dual Yang-Mills/gravity and chiral higher-spin gravity.

Findings

Existence of infinitely many higher-spin theories in 4D flat space.

Classification of these theories via holomorphic constraints.

Connection to self-dual and chiral higher-spin theories.

Abstract

There is a great number of higher-spin gravities in $3d$ that can have both finite and infinite spectra of fields and can be formulated as Chern-Simons theories. It was believed that this is impossible in higher dimensions, where higher-spin fields do have propagating degrees of freedom. We show that there are infinitely many higher-spin theories in the $4d$ flat space featuring nontrivial local interactions that can have either a finite or infinite number of fields. We classify all one- and two-derivative (i.e. with gauge and gravitational interactions) higher-spin theories by solving the holomorphic constraint in the light-cone gauge obtained by Metsaev. Therefore, these theories are consistent subsectors of the higher-spin extensions of self-dual Yang-Mills/gravity, which in turn are truncations of the chiral higher-spin gravity.